step his foot sank in, and a fine cloud of impalpable ashes flew
up into his face; and it was dark. So he sat down upon a stone and
buried his face in his hands, to wait in the Land of Negation and Denial
till the light came.

And it was night in his heart also.

Then from the marshes to his right and left cold mists arose and closed
about him. A fine, imperceptible rain fell in the dark, and great drops
gathered on his hair and clothes. His heart beat slowly, and a numbness
crept through all his limbs. Then, looking up, two merry wisp lights
came dancing. He lifted his head to look at them. Nearer, nearer they
came. So warm, so bright, they danced like stars of fire. They stood
before him at last. From the centre of the radiating flame in one looked
out a woman's face, laughing, dimpled, with streaming yellow hair. In
the centre of the other were merry laughing ripples, like the bubbles on
a glass of wine. They danced before him.

"Who are you," asked the hunter, "who alone come to me in my solitude
and darkness?"

"We are the twins Sensuality," they cried. "Our father's name is
Human-Nature, and our mother's name is Excess. We are as old as the
hills and rivers, as old as the first man; but we never die," they
laughed.

"Oh, let me wrap my arms about you!" cried the first; "they are soft
and warm. Your heart is frozen now, but I will make it beat. Oh, come to
me!"

"I will pour my hot life into you," said the second; "your brain is
numb, and your limbs are dead now; but they shall live with a fierce
free life. Oh, let me pour it in!"

"Oh, follow us," they cried, "and live with us. Nobler hearts than yours
have sat here in this darkness to wait, and they have come to us and we
to them; and they have never left us, never. All else is a delusion, but
we are real, we are real, we are real. Truth is a shadow; the valleys of
superstition are a farce: the earth is of ashes, the trees all rotten;
but we--feel us--we live! You cannot doubt us. Feel us how warm we are!
Oh, come to us! Come with us!"

Nearer and nearer round his head they hovered, and the cold drops melted
on his forehead. The bright light shot into his eyes, dazzling him, and
the frozen blood began to run. And he said:

"Yes, why should I die here in this awful darkness? They are warm, they
melt my frozen blood!" and he stretched out his hands to take them.

Then in a moment there arose before him the image of the thing he had
loved, and his hand