one will join you who loves you better than your mother, mayhap even
I may meet you there, friend,' and she looked up at me strangely. 'The
road that you are doomed to walk is dark indeed, but surely it must
be well-trodden, and there is light shining beyond it. So be a man, my
friend, and do not grieve; rejoice rather that at so early an age you
have done with woes and doubts, and come to the gates of joy, that you
have passed the thorny, unwatered wilderness and see the smiling lakes
and gardens, and among them the temples of your eternal city.

'And now farewell. We meet no more till the hour of sacrifice, for we
women who masquerade as wives must accompany you to the first platforms
of the temple. Farewell, dear friend, and think upon my words; whether
they are acceptable to you or no, I am sure of this, that both for
the sake of your own honour and because I ask it of you, you will die
bravely as though the eyes of your own people were watching all.' And
bending suddenly, Otomie kissed me on the forehead gently as a sister
might, and was gone.

The curtains swung behind her, but the echoes of her noble words still
dwelt in my heart. Nothing can make man look on death lovingly, and that
awaiting me was one from which the bravest would shrink, yet I felt that
Otomie had spoken truth, and that, terrible as it seemed, it might prove
less terrible than life had shewn itself to be. An unnatural calm fell
upon my soul like some dense mist upon the face of the ocean. Beneath
that mist the waters might foam, above it the sun might shine, yet
around was one grey peace. In this hour I seemed to stand outside of my
earthly self, and to look on all things with a new sense. The tide of
life was ebbing away from me, the shore of death loomed very near, and
I understood then, as in extreme old age I understand to-day, how much
more part we mortals have in death than in this short accident of life.