love of God than they place upon their
own. But we are all such wretched little pigmies--even the biggest of
us. We are apt to forget that, don't you think? Horribly apt to try and
measure the Infinite with a foot-rule. And see what comes of it! Only a
deeper darkness and a narrowing of our own miserable limitations. We
never get any further that way, Olga _mia_. Speculating and dogmatizing
don't help us. We are up against the Unknown like a wall. But the love
of God shines on both sides of it; and till the Door opens to us also,
that's as much as we shall know."

He paused. Olga was listening with rapt attention. Her tears were gone,
but the clasp of her hand was feverishly tense. Her breath came quickly.

"Go on, Nick!" she whispered. "Tell me more of the things you believe!"

He smiled whimsically. "My dear, I'm afraid I'm not over-orthodox. You
see, I've knocked about a bit and seen something of other men's beliefs.
The love of God is the backbone of my religion, and all that doesn't go
with that, I discarded long ago. If Christianity doesn't mean that, it
doesn't mean anything. I've no use for the people who think that none
but their own select little circle will go to heaven. Such Gargantuan
smugness takes one's breath away. It is almost too colossal to be funny.
One wonders where on earth they get it from. I suppose it's a survival
of the Dark Ages, but even then surely people had brains of some
description."

"But death, Nick!" she said. "Death is such a baffling kind of thing."

"Yes, I know. You can't grasp it or fathom it. You can only project your
love into it and be quite sure that it finds a hold on the other side.
Why, my dear girl, that's what love is for. It's the connecting link
that God Himself is bound to recognize because it is of His own forging.
Don't you see--don't you know it is Divine? That is why our love can
hold so strongly--even through Death. Just because it is part of His
plan--a link in the everlasting Chain that draws the whole world up to
Paradise at last. It's so divinely simple. One wonders how anyone can
miss the meaning of it."

Olga's rapt face relaxed. She smiled at him--a very loving,
comprehending smile. "Yes, I see it when you put it like that, Nick, of
course. It is only just at first Death seems so staggering--such a
plunge into the dark."

"But there is nothing in the dark to frighten us," Nick said. "If some
of us died and some didn't, it would be terrible, I grant.