zon, you are freer, darling, than when you were living with
me, at the mercy of all the fancies which you did not know how to use.
Everything is relative; and instinct makes no mistakes. Yours, by
placing you here among the lives which I can imagine, gives you the
opportunity of excelling. You felt that you needed to live under
conditions in which the effort and the merit would lie in not changing,
in which action would be immobility. You know, Rose, there is always
some common ground in human beings; to reach it, if you do not stoop,
the others will raise themselves. With your beauty which is the wonder
of every one you meet, with that gentleness which wins all hearts and
with your soul which no longer knows either malice or prayer, you will
be a new example of life to all around you."

Rose was sitting on a higher chair than mine; and this allowed me to let
my head sink into her lap. I no longer dreamt of looking at the
splendour of the night, for was it not throbbing in my heart, where a
star woke every moment? And I thought out loud:

"You were always asking me the object of my efforts. Do you now
understand that I could not explain what I myself did not understand
perfectly until you revealed it to me?"

I reflected for a moment and continued:

"We can wish nothing for others nor force anything on them: we can only
help them to clear the field before and within themselves...."

She murmured:

"I understand."

And I cried:

"Ah, my dearest, how grateful I am to you! In looking for you, I have
found myself a little more; and it is always so; and that, you see, is
why we must love action. However tiny, however humble, it may be, it
brings us at the same time the knowledge of others and of ourselves. We
appear to fling ourselves stout-heartedly into the stream whose currents
we cannot foresee; we are hurt, we are wounded, we struggle; but, when
we return to the bank, we feel invigorated and refreshed."

Roseline stroked my forehead lightly with her hands and softly
whispered:

"There was nothing lacking to my peace of mind but your approval. Now I
am happy and I can begin my life without anxiety."

CHAPTER III

1

Rose was still asleep when I entered the drowsy bedroom to bid her
good-bye. A small, heart-shaped opening in the middle of the shutters
allowed the first ray of daylight to penetrate. Sleeping happily and
trustfully, with streaming hair and hands out-flung, she lay strewn like
the p