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 doubts as to my blue vase's realness.'

To which, again, God might reply with his head tilted to one side, tranquil and impersonal: 'As to that, Madame, there may be less death in doubt than in certainty about your vase. You might in discovering it discover in yourself no right whatever to the sunshine—no right to live in it, no right to die in it.'

And I might answer, with some insolent feeling: 'I should wish to discover the fact about it though it proved to me I don't exist and never existed—that I'm a dust on a moth's wing, and at that alien—not belonging there.'

Upon which God, for what I know, might only shrug-the-shoulders.

In that identity he might shrug-the-shoulders or break-the-world with equal omnipotent plausibleness.

But I might try again. I might say: 'One thing feels realer than my blue vase—this blue-and-green Necklace which my Soul wears. It is rare and recherché but my beautiful Soul is very tired from wearing it. Will you please unclasp it for me?'

And God might say, deprecatory: 'Pray, Madame, do you consider what portion of the beauty you mention may be in the Necklace? Should I unclasp it—it is doubtful whether you would recognize your