"

"What do you mean? Oh, you are thinking of immortality, and all that,"
said Paula. "It's a chilly, ghostly subject. It makes me shiver. I get
little comfort out of it."

"Ghostly it is, if you mean a thing of spirits," said Barry, "but
chilly! Why chilly?" Then he added to himself in an undertone: "I
wonder! I wonder! I wish sometimes I knew more."

"Sometimes?" cried Paula. "Always!" she added passionately. "It's a
dreadful business to me. To be suddenly snatched out of the light and
the warmth, away from the touch of warm fingers and the sight of dear
faces! Ah, I dread it! I loathe the thought of it. I hate it!"

"And yet," mused Barry, "somehow I cannot forget that out there
somewhere there is One, kindly, genial, true,--like my dad. How good
he has been to me--my dad, I mean, and that Other, too, has been good.
Somehow I think of them together. Yes, I am grateful to Him."

"Oh, God, you mean," said Paula, a little impatiently.

"Yes, to God. He saved me to-day. 'Saved,' I say. It is a queer way to
speak, after all. What I really ought to say is that God thought it
best that I should camp 'round here for a bit longer before moving in
nearer."

"Nearer?"

"Yes, into the nearer circle. Life moves 'round a centre, in outer
and inner circles. This is the outer circle. Nearer in there, it is
kindlier, with better light and clearer vision. 'We shall know even as
we are known.'" Barry mused on, as if communing with himself.

"But when you move in," said Paula, and there was no mistaking the
earnestness of her tone, "you break touch with those you love here."

"I don't know about that," answered Barry quickly.

"Oh, yes you do. You are out of all this,--all this," she swept her
hand at the world around her, "this good old world, all your joy and
happiness, all you love. Oh, that's the worst of it; you give up your
love. I hate it!" she concluded with vehemence sudden and fierce, as she
shook her fist towards the stars.

"Give up your love?" said Barry. "Not I! Not one good, honest affection
do I mean to give up, nor shall I."

"Oh, nonsense! Don't be religious. Just be honest," said Paula, in a
low, intense voice. "Let me speak to you. Suppose I--I love a man with
all my soul and body--and body, mind you, and he goes out, or goes in,
as you say. No matter, he goes out of my life. I lose him, he is not
here. I cannot feel and respond to his love. I cannot feel his strong
arms about me. My God!" Her voice c