'True!' cried Downing abruptly. 'But you must admit that not the least of his pleasures has always been that of benefiting his friends.' 'But that, after all, is only a refined form of self-indulgence,' objected Wantley, who had never been in a position so to indulge himself. An amused smile broke over the other's stern mouth and jaw. 'That theory embodies the ethical nihilism of the old Utilitarians. Of course you are not serious; if you were, your position would be akin to that of the Persian mystics who teach the utter renunciation of self, the sinking of the ego in the divine whole. But then,' added Downing, fixing his eyes on his companion, and speaking as if to himself--'but then comes the question, What is renunciation? The Persian philosopher would give an answer very different from that offered by the Christian.' 'Renunciation is surely the carrying out of the ascetic ideal--something more actively painful than the mere doing without.' Wantley spoke diffidently. 'Undoubtedly that is what the Christian means by the word, but is there not the higher degree of perfection involved in the French saint's dictum?' Downing stopped short; then, with very fair, albeit old-fashioned, accent, he uttered the phrase, '_Rien demander et rien refuser._ Of course, the greatest difference between the point of view held by the Persian sages and, say, the old monkish theologians is that concerning human love.' Wantley leaned forward; he threw his cigarette out of the window. 'Ah,' he said, 'that interests me! My own father became a Roman Catholic, an act on his part, by the way, of supreme renunciation. I myself can see no possible hope of finality anywhere else; but I think that, as regards human love, I should be Persian rather than monkish.' He added, smiling a little: 'I suppose the Persian theory of love is summed up by FitzGerald;' and diffidently he quoted the most famous of the quatrains, lingering over the beautiful words, for, as he uttered them, he applied them, quite consciously, to himself and Cecily Wake. What wilderness with her but would be Paradise? Her face rose up before him as he had seen it for a moment the day before, when, coming suddenly upon her in the little wood, her honest childish eyes had shone out welcome. Downing looked at him thoughtfully. 'Ah, no; the Persian mystic of to-day would by no means assent to such simplicity of outlook. Jami rather than Omar summed up the national philosophy. The translation is not comparable, but, still, 'twill serve to explain to you the Persian belief that renunciation of self may be acquired through the medium of a merely human love;' and he repeated the lines: 'Though in this world a hundred tasks thou tryest, 'Tis love alone which from thyself will save thee; Even from earthly love thy face avert not, Since to the real it may serve to raise thee.' 'That,' cried Wantley eagerly, 'absolutely satisfies me, and strikes me as being the highest truth!'