Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/187

Rh and almost prophetic significance. Nature seems to suffer from remorse. The clouds stop and accumulate in a funeral procession over a pool predestined to be the scene of a death by drowning, a crime, or a suicide.

"Dear boy, how many good resolutions have suffered shipwreck in such weather! It is better then to conjure away one's own danger by thinking of the misfortunes of others. I have come at last to compassionate the awful lot of even accursed Cain. It is he whom I pity and not his victims. I find him superb and attractive although sinister. But I am talking nonsense and telling thee frightful stories like unto those old wives tell at evening tide."

"No, no; do continue; you tell a story so well, and you put so much meaning into ordinary words; your language often draws tears from me."

"Be it so. The hour is propitious. And since we are so well together here, I long to tell thee to what a degree I share the distress of the burning shepherd. For a long time he has haunted to the point of obsession the violet, nocturnal heather of my soul. I find myself, to my surprise, wandering in spirit by his side, among his sulphurous sheep,