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[Grasping his hand.] Julian,—for the sake of our true friendship,—open your heart fully to us.

I am the happiest man on earth, dear friends! And Maximus—ay, he is rightly named—Maximus is the greatest man that has ever lived.

[Preparing to depart.] We only wished to see you, my lord!

Can this estrange brother from brother? You shrink in affright from the inexplicable. Oh, I do not wonder. So I, too, shrank before my eyes were opened, and I divined that which is the kernel of life.

What do you call the kernel of life?

Maximus knows it. In him is the new revelation.

And it has been imparted to you?

Almost. I am on the eve of learning it. This very night Maximus has promised me

Maximus is a visionary, or else he is deceiving you!