"I used to be afraid," answered his Mother, "and used to long passionately for light and sunshine. But all those longings have fled. I never think of them now. And besides, do you not know that a very large number of our cleverest men have given out the fact that there is no Radiant City and no Great King of the Radiant City? They seem to say that it is only very simple souls that trouble about such things. Amer," she said earnestly, "don't let your Mother have the grow of having it said that her son is a simple, unlike other young men of his age. I have always thought of you with such pride. There is not another Mother that I know who has a son to be more proud of than I. You are the most popular young man in this part of Punon, but once decide to start on that long journey and your popularity will be gone. Men will talk of you with a laugh and a shrug of the shoulder. You will be treated as mad. Think of your Mother, my boy." "Dear Mother," said the boy sadly, "you will break my heart, but even you cannot make me forget the Voice. I am hearing it continually, and I must obey; besides, I have had such an account given me of the King, that I cannot rest till I am on my journey towards Him. He is the one I have been looking for for years, and Who alone can satisfy the longings of my heart. I am taking Him as my King to-day and I am starting out on my journey to-day. Mother, won't you listen to the Voice and come with me?" "You dare to break my heart?" said his Mother sternly, "you reward your father's labour for you in getting you this good post in this way?" "My King must come first," answered the boy, sorrowfully but firmly. "I think you will find that Gabrielle comes first," was his mother's answer. "I will go and seek Gabrielle," said Amer. He found her in the honey-suckle arbour of her father's garden. She did not receive him with the same sweet smile as usual: Amer felt instinctively that already the thought of the Radiant City lay between them and estranged them. "Gabrielle," he said. She moved slightly away from him. "I have heard strange things about you," she said coldly, "you refuse to take up the post which your father has found for you. Your love for me cannot be so great as you have led me to suppose. My father will not allow me to have anything to do with a man who cannot support his wife." "You have heard then that I am setting out for the Radiant City?" he questioned. "I have heard some such nonsense," she answered, turning away her face from his steady gaze, "but you will have to chose between the Radiant City and me, for I will not have a husband who is the laughing stock of everyone, you are mad to give up this post." "You will have a husband who is more worth having," he answered, "and you will come with me." The idea was so amusing to the girl that she turned round and laughed at him.