damp swamp of woman's kisses, then of a truth the instrument that she
put into his hand becomes a knife to sever the cords with which she
sought to bind him.

Such is the tragedy of her who flutters near while men make words on
paper, that in their youth they write for her; and their youth gone,
they still write on beyond the reaches of her soul.

And so, as Gud wrote upon the whiteness torn from a woman's bosom, he
forgot quite utterly the woman herself, who lay by the pool trembling
and suffering and trying to hide her heart from Gud.

And when she saw that he had forgotten her--even though he had told her
he wanted her near him and needed her for inspiration--she suffered so
that her heart died within her, and she shrank and withered and fell
into the pool of the fountain, and, as a brown leaf, floated on the
surface of the water.

Chapter LXX

When Gud had finished that which he was writing he arose and looked
about him. He seemed to be searching for something, but could not recall
what it was, and decided that it was of no importance.

He drew on his sandals and made ready to go upon his way. But the way
was long and Gud recalled that he had been weary and had been athirst.
So he knelt by the fountain and stooped over it to drink.

There was a brown leaf floating on the water, but he swished it away and
drank his fill from the flowing fountain. Then Gud arose and girded up
his loins and went on his way along the Impossible Curve.

Chapter LXXI

I met an old man walking through the sky,
A sort of startled twinkle in his eye.
"And who are you?" asked I.
"I am Gud," replied he, with a frown.
"Which one?" I asked, polite but terse,
But without answer he went shrieking down
The shadowy spaces of the universe.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of Gud, by Dan Spain and Harold Hersey

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