ove outwards instead of inwards; just as I," she added
laughing, "had to turn my own love inwards instead of outwards."

Then I told Cynthia what I could tell of my own experiences, and she
heard them with astonishment. Then I said:

"What surprises me about it, is that I seem somehow to have been given
more than I can hold. I have a very shallow and trivial nature, like a
stream that sparkles pleasantly enough over a pebbly bottom, but in
which no boat or man can swim. I have always been absorbed in the
observation of details and in the outside of things. I spent so much
energy in watching the faces and gestures and utterances and tricks of
those about me that I never had the leisure to look into their hearts.
And now these great depths have opened before me, and I feel more
childish and feeble than ever, like a frail glass which holds a most
precious liquor, and gains brightness and glory from the hues of the
wine it holds, but is not like the gem, compact of colour and radiance."

Cynthia laughed at me.

"At all events, you have not forgotten how to make metaphors," she said.

"No," said I, "that is part of the mischief, that I see the likenesses
of things and not their essences." At which she laughed again more
softly, and rested her cheek on my shoulder.

Then I told her of the departure of Amroth.

"That is wonderful," she said.

And then I told her of my own approaching departure, at which she grew
sad for a moment. Then she said, "But come, let us not waste time in
forebodings. Will you come with me into the house to see the likenesses
of things, or shall we have an hour alone together, and try to look into
essences?"

I caught her by the hand.

"No," I said, "I care no more about the machinery of these
institutions. I am the pilgrim of love, and not the student of
organisations. If you may quit your task, and leave your ladies to
regretful memories of their lap-dogs, let us go out together for a
little, and say what we can--for I am sure that my time is approaching."

Cynthia smiled and left me, and returned running; and then we rambled
off together, up the steep paths of the woodland, to the mountain-top,
from which we had a wide prospect of the heavenly country, a great blue
well-watered plain lying out for leagues before us, with the shapes of
mysterious mountains in the distance. But I can give no account of all
we said or did, for heart mingled with heart, and there was little need
of speech.