in him."

"Thou sayest sooth," said he; "but sorrowest thou not for thine own
death when thou lookest on him?"

I said, "And how can I sorrow for that which I cannot so much as think
of? Bethink thee that while I am alive I cannot think that I shall
die, or believe in death at all, although I know well that I shall
die--I can but think of myself as living in some new way."

Again he looked on me as if puzzled; then his face cleared as he said,
"Yea, forsooth, and that is what the Church meaneth by death, and even
that I look for; and that hereafter I shall see all the deeds that I
have done in the body, and what they really were, and what shall come
of them; and ever shall I be a member of the Church, and that is the
Fellowship; then, even as now."

I sighed as he spoke; then I said, "Yea, somewhat in this fashion have
most of men thought, since no man that is can conceive of not being;
and I mind me that in those stories of the old Danes, their common word
for a man dying is to say, 'He changed his life.'"

"And so deemest thou?"

I shook my head and said nothing.

"What hast thou to say hereon?" said he, "for there seemeth something
betwixt us twain as it were a wall that parteth us."

"This," said I, "that though I die and end, yet mankind yet liveth,
therefore I end not, since I am a man; and even so thou deemest, good
friend; or at the least even so thou doest, since now thou art ready to
die in grief and torment rather than be unfaithful to the Fellowship,
yea rather than fail to work thine utmost for it; whereas, as thou
thyself saidst at the cross, with a few words spoken and a little
huddling-up of the truth, with a few pennies paid, and a few masses
sung, thou mightest have had a good place on this earth and in that
heaven. And as thou doest, so now doth many a poor man unnamed and
unknown, and shall do while the world lasteth: and they that do less
than this, fail because of fear, and are ashamed of their cowardice,
and make many tales to themselves to deceive themselves, lest they
should grow too much ashamed to live. And trust me if this were not
so, the world would not live, but would die, smothered by its own
stink. Is the wall betwixt us gone, friend?"

He smiled as he looked at me, kindly, but sadly and shamefast, and
shook his head.

Then in a while he said, "Now ye have seen the images of those who were
our friends, come and see the images of those who were once our foes."

So he le