e skylight with the sound of spray,
and sparrows scurried across the glass, their clawed feet moving
swiftly about Mother Nature's business. The East ventilator shook, as
if grimly holding on.

"A day like this always touches my nerves," she said. "The wind seems
to bring a great loneliness out of the sea."

"It's pure land weather," he answered, "damp, warm, aimless winds. Now,
if there was a strong, steady and chill East wind----"

But she wouldn't discuss what that might do. "Loneliness," she
repeated. "What a common lot! One scarcely dares stop to think how
lonely one is.... How many people do you know, who are happily
companioned? I've known only six in my life, and two of those were
brother and sister. It's the dull, constant, ache at the human heart.
What's the reason, do you suppose?"

"The urge to completion----"

"I suppose it is, and almost never satisfied. I think I should train
children first and last for the stern trials of loneliness. It's almost
necessary to have resources within one's self----"

"But how wonderful when real companions catch a glimpse of each other
across some room of the world!" he said quietly.

"A tragedy more often than not," she finished. "One of them so often
has built his house, and must abide. Real companions never build their
house upon the ruins of another."

"That has a sound ring."

"What is the reason for this everywhere, this forever loneliness?" she
demanded, without lifting her eyes from the work.

"Something must drive," he replied. "You call it loneliness this
morning. It's as good as any. Great things come from yearning. People
of the crowd choose each other at random, under the pressure of
passionate loneliness. Greater human hearts vision their One. Once in a
while the One appears and answers the need--and then there is
happiness. There is nothing quite so important as the happiness in each
other of two great human hearts. Don't you see, it can exist hardly a
moment, until it is adjusted to _all time_--until its relation to
eternity is firmly established? When that comes, the world has another
beautiful centre of pure energy to look at and admire and aspire to.
And the spirit of such a union never dies, but goes on augmenting until
it becomes a great river in the world.

"It is very clear to me," he went on, trying to fight the shadows,
"that something like this must happen before great world-forces come
into being. First, the two happy ones learn that