d sweeping all the darkness away
off the world, with his golden wings.

GWYMPLANE [_turning ecstatically to URSUS_]

I believe she sees.

[_He suddenly cringes away from her, and speaks in a whisper to
URSUS._]

Maybe she will see me at last.

URSUS

She sees the sky of heaven.

[_DEA drops back upon GWYMPLANE'S arm._]

GWYMPLANE [_with anguished apprehension_]

Oh, darling, do you still see? Do not stop speaking. Tell me more.

DEA

I cannot wait, I think, any longer.

GWYMPLANE

My love, then, if you are going before me, [_a strange look passes
over his face--he straightens himself_] just a little before me, will
you let fall some bright flowers from your breast that will make a
track of light for me to follow in, so that we may perhaps waken
together? O, love, how remote your beautiful face is becoming. Do you
even hear me, I wonder.

DEA [_very low_]

I do hear. Gwymplane, come nearer. That night I tried to understand,
but I thought with so much pain that I could not seem to understand.
Now the pain is gone out of any thought and I understand now how
little cause there was for pain.

GWYMPLANE

Beloved.

DEA

I know I am your beloved. Hold me close.

[_He wraps her frantically in his arms._]

I want the blessing of your arms to be the last thing in my life.

[_Suddenly a look of recognition and joy floods her face, and
her eyes seem to follow some divine approach. She murmurs_]:

How beautiful! How right!

[_And fluttering in GWYMPLANE'S arms she is dead. He lays her
gently back, lifts one of her hands, kisses it, looks at her as
if the last agony had been drawn out of his soul, then passes his
hand across his brow, tries to speak, and after a long pause:_]

GWYMPLANE

It appears we have made good our escape.

URSUS [_raising his head from his arms_]

The tide is with us.

GWYMPLANE

We are bound--where?

URSUS

Westward.

GWYMPLANE [_with tenderness_]

Dear Ursus, you were leaving your country and going to face old age
among customs, languages, peoples, strange to you, and to save us from
the talons of a pack of cards.

URSUS

You and I are going now, Gwymplane.

GWYMPLANE

I think I have no more knack for wearing costumes and masks, and I
could not ask human beings to accept me as I am, either inside or out.
Any reality is like a row of knives and each minute drags me backward
and forward across them.