was already
in existence? He felt almost afraid of the cypresses. Nevertheless, as
he stood looking up at them, his sense almost of fear tempted him
to make an experiment. He remained absolutely still, and strove to
concentrate all his faculties. After a long pause he shut his eyes.

"If the far future is even now in being," he said mentally, "let me look
upon it now."

He saw nothing; but immediately he heard the sound of wind among pine
trees, as he had heard it with Rosamund in the green valley of Elis. It
rose in the silent night, that long murmur of eternity, and presently
faded away.

He shuddered and turned sharply towards the pavilion.

Osman had gone, and Mrs. Clarke was pouring the coffee into the tiny
cups.

"There's no wind, is there--is there?" he asked her.

She looked up at him.

"But not a breath!" she said.

After a pause she added:

"Why do you ask such a thing?"

"I heard wind in--in the tops of trees," he almost stammered.

"That's impossible."

"But I say I did!" he exclaimed, with violence. "In pine trees."

"There are no pine trees here," she said, in her husky voice. "Sit down
and have your coffee."

He obeyed her and sat down quickly, and quickly he took the coffee-cup
from her.

"Have a little _mastika_ with it," she said.

And she pushed a tall liqueur-glass full of the colorless liquid towards
him.

"Yes," he said.

As he drank he looked out sideways through the wide opening in the
pavilion. There was not a breath of wind.

"I can't understand why I heard the noise of wind in pine trees," he
forced himself to say.

"Seemed to hear it," she corrected him. "Perhaps you were thinking of
it."

"But I wasn't!"

A jeweled gleam from the lamp fell upon one side of her face. She moved,
and the light dropped away from her.

"What were you thinking of?" she asked.

"Of the future."

"Ah!"

"That's why it is inexplicable."

"I don't understand."

"Don't let us talk about it any more," he said, in an almost terrible
voice. "I must have had an hallucination."

"Have you ever before thought you were the victim of an hallucination?"
she asked.

"Yes. Several times I have seen the eyes of my little boy. I saw them
a few nights ago in the stream that flows through the Valley of Roses,
just after Sir Carey had left me."

"Don't look into water again except in daylight. It is the night that
brings fancies with it. If you gaze very long at anything in a dim light
yo