Page:Margaret Sherwood--A Puritan in Bohemia.djvu/182

174 "I usually make my pessimistic remarks when you aren't around," Anne replied.

A fresh wind was blowing into the studio. Through the skylight two stars were visible in the pale spring sky. A fire had been kindled on the hearth, "for sentiment," Anne said.

"How in the world," asked Howard, "do you derive that notion from success in the one thing you always wanted?"

"Oh, success tarnishes your hope," answered Anne with a laugh, "and makes it suffer the fatal change from the thing you want to the thing you have."

"Just what I said!" cried Howard triumphantly. "The only possession lies in not having."

"I told you that long ago," murmured Anne.

"That was different altogether. This is a general question."

"That was a childish notion about heaven," Anne continued, " 'They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.' Think how insufferable eternity would be