Page:Mashi and Other Stories.djvu/24

16 under the veil of darkness. The immense night became filled with the loving gaze of Mani's dark eyes. Mani, the bride of this house, the little girl, became transformed into a world-image,— her throne on the altar of the stars at the confluence of life and death. Jotin said to himself with clasped hands: "At last the veil is raised, the covering is rent in this deep darkness. Ah, beautiful one! how often have you wrung my heart, but no longer shall you forsake me!"

"I'm suffering, Mashi, but nothing like you imagine. It seems to me as if my pain were gradually separating itself from my life. Like a laden boat, it was so long being towed behind, but the rope has snapped, and now it floats away with all my burdens. Still I can see it, but it is no longer mine. . . . But, Mashi, I've not seen Mani even once for the last two days!"

"Jotin, let me give you another pillow."

"It almost seems to me, Mashi, that Mani also has left me like that laden boat of sorrow which drifts away."