These very stars ran loose about him in a
cloud of fiery sand. Their pattern danced in flame. He picked out
Sirius, Aldebaran--the Pleiades! There was tumult in his blood, a wild
and exquisite confusion. What in the world had happened to him that he
should behave in this ridiculous fashion? Yet he was doing nothing. It
was only that, for a passing instant, the enormous thing his life had
been dimly conscious of so long, rose at last from its subterranean
hiding-place and overwhelmed him. This picture that came with it was
like some far-off dream he suddenly recovered. A glorious excitement
caught him. He felt utterly bewildered.
'Have we?' he heard close in front of him. 'I do not think I have had
the pleasure'--it was with a slightly foreign accent--'but it is so
dim here, and one cannot see very well, perhaps.'
And a ripple of laughter passed round some gigantic whispering gallery
in the sky. It set the trellis-work of golden threads all trembling.
He felt himself perched dizzily in this shaking web that swung through
space. And with him was some one whom he knew.... He heard the words
of a song:
'Light desire With their fire.'
_Something had lit his heart._...
He lost himself again, disgracefully. A mist obscured his sight,
though with the eyes of his mind he still saw crystal-clear.
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