sea, and the worlds and the moons and the suns; and what remained was
nothing, having neither colour nor sound.

Then said Fate to Chance: "Let us play our old game again." And they
played it again together, using the gods as pieces, as they had played
it oft before. So that those things which have been shall all be again,
and under the same bank in the same land a sudden glare of singlight on
the same spring day shall bring the same daffodil to bloom once more
and the same child shall pick it, and not regretted shall be the
billion years that fell between. And the same old faces shall be seen
again, yet not bereaved of their familiar haunts. And you and I shall
in a garden meet again upon an afternoon in summer when the sun stands
midway between his zenith and the sea, where we met oft before. For
Fate and Chance play but one game together with every move the same,
and they play it oft to while eternity away.





PART II.




THE JOURNEY OF THE KING


_I_