d slowly
downwards compelled her to close her eyes. A brief darkness came
upon her, and she uttered a muffled protest. But when he lifted
his hand again, her eyes did not open. The physical had fallen
from her, material things had ceased to matter. She was free--free
as the ether through which she floated. She was mounting upwards,
upwards, upwards, through celestial morning to her castle at the
top of the world. And the magic--the magic that beat in her
veins--was the very elixir of life within her, inspiring her,
uplifting her. For a space she hovered thus, still mounting, but
imperceptibly, caught as it were between earth and heaven. Then
the golden glamour about her turned to a mystic haze. Strange
visions, but half comprehended, took shape and dissolved before
her. She believed that she was floating among the mountain-crests
with the Infinite all about her. The wonder of it and the rapture
were beyond all utterance, beyond the grasp of human knowledge; the
joy exceeded all that she had ever known. And so by exquisite
phases, she entered at last a great vastness--a slumber-space where
all things were forgotten, lost in the radiance of an unbroken
peace.

She folded the wings of her enchantment with absolute contentment
and slept. She had come to a new era in her existence. She had
reached the top of the world. . . .

It was long, long after that she awoke, returning to earth with the
feeling of one revisiting old haunts after half a lifetime. She
was very tired, and her head throbbed painfully, but at the back of
her brain was an urgent sense of something needed, something that
must be done. She raised herself with immense effort,--and met the
eyes of Burke seated by her side.

He was watching her with a grave, unstirring attention that did not
waver for an instant as she moved. It struck her that there was a
strange remoteness about him, almost as if he belonged to another
world. Or was it she--she who had for a space overstepped the
boundary and wandered awhile through the Unknown?

He spoke, and in his voice was a depth that awed her.

"Do you know me?" he said.

She gazed at him, bewildered, wondering. "But of course I know
you! Why do you ask? Are you--changed in any way?"

He made an odd movement, as if the question in her wide eyes
pierced him. He did not answer her in words; only after a moment
he took her hand and pushed up the sleeve as though looking for
something.

She