immense philosophical power, ever show
this temper of acquiescence? All his impeachments of Death have the
deep ring of personal feeling--dramatist though he was. But, what I
am going to ask you is, How shall the modern materialist, who you
think is to dominate the Twentieth Century and all the centuries to
follow--how shall he confront Death when a beloved mistress is struck
down? When Moschus lamented that the mallow, the anise, and the
parsley had a fresh birth every year, whilst we men sleep in the
hollow earth a long, unbounded, never-waking sleep, he told us what
your modern materialist tells us, and he re-echoed the lamentation
which, long before Greece had a literature at all, had been heard
beneath Chaldean stars and along the mud-banks of the Nile. Your
bitter experience made you ask materialism, What comfort is there in
being told that death is the very nursery of new life, and that our
heirs are our very selves, if when you take leave of her who was and
is your world it is 'Vale, vale, in aeternum vale'? The dogged
resolution with which at first you fought and strove for materialism
struck me greatly. It made you almost rude to me at our last meeting.

When I parted from you I should have been blind indeed had I failed
to notice how scornfully you repudiated my suggestion that you should
replace the amulet in the tomb from which it had been stolen. I did
not then know that the tomb was your father's. Had I known it my
suggestion would have been much more emphatic. I saw that you had
the greatest difficulty in refraining from laughing in my face when I
said to you that you would eventually replace it. Yes, you had great
difficulty in refraining from laughing. I did not take offence. I
felt sure that the cross was in some way connected with the young
lady you had lost in Wales, but I could not guess how. Had you told
me that the cross had been taken from your father's tomb I should no
doubt have connected it with the cry of 'Father' which had, I knew,
several times been uttered in Wilderspin's studio by the model in her
paroxysms, and I should have earlier done what I was destined to
do--I should earlier have brought you together. From sympathy that
sprang from a deep experience I knew you better than you knew
yourself. When I learnt from Sinfi Lovell that you had fulfilled
my prophecy I did not laugh. Tears rather than laughter would have
been more in my mood, for I realised the martyrdom you must have
suff