"I know that another day has come, another opportunity, a new turn in the adventure." "Is it always an adventure?" "Always. Unending desire." "For me," she said, "it is peace and knowledge. It would be stifling if I had not you to kindle them." René kissed her and laughed: "The whole duty of man," he said, "to keep the flame alight in woman." She became serious on that. "It's true, René. You nearly let me wither away, and my life dwindle to ashes. I am often sick with fear when I think of it, how near I came to being one of your failures." On such evenings they would talk until darkness crept into the woods, and they woke to their mysterious night life when their sweetest songs are sung, and they are filled with magic snares and lurking dangers and conflicts. Sweet comfort was it to be together then amid so much menace and alien power, and they would go warily hand in hand until they came within sight of the lights of the great house. Then they would almost run until they reached the open lawn where the free air would beat upon their faces. "I always feel," René said once, "as though we had had a narrow escape." "In the woods, do you mean, or in life?" "Both." "Escape from what, my dear?" "I know," he said. "This is the truth of us. Escape from sleep and death." Transcriber's Note This transcription is based on images posted by the Internet Archive scanned from a copy made available by the University of California: archive.org/details/youngearnestroma00canniala The 1915 edition published by T. Fisher Unwin was used a secondary source, especially to check the hyphenation of compound words printed at the end of a line in the primary source. Images of this edition are available at: catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100199704 The following changes were noted: -- The name "René" is almost always printed in the source text with the acute over the second "e". The few cases where the name was printed as "Réne" have been changed for consistency. -- p. 189: so that he could meet Casey."--Deleted the closing quotation mark at the end of the paragraph. -- p. 209: Thrigby's changing, and things are queer all round.--Changed "Thrigby's" to "Thrigsby's". End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Young Earnest, by Gilbert Cannan