keep them close, and without emotion I stood calmly by and saw the girl whom but yesterday I thought I loved, thrust headlong down into those unknown depths.
Positively I began to be alarmed at myself my sensibilities had become so dulled; but just as I was giving way to these feelings, it seemed to me that a hand was pressed against my forehead with feathery lightness, while a voice whispered:
“George, my boy, be brave—be calm. I am with you. Do not fear.”
Was it imagination, or was it real?
Was it all an emanation from my own mind and memory, or was it actually the hand of some bright spirit hovering near?
I do not know any better now than I knew then; but this much I do know, the voice was the voice of my mother, and the sense of her dear presence so strong that her face seemed somehow to mix itself up with the face of Walla as they took her away. I can no more explain this than I can explain Maurice's voice and Maurice’s individuality speaking through the girl’s lips. All I can say is that if Walla was a mystery in those trying hours, I was rapidly becoming a greater mystery to myself.
Now all this came to me and was gone in a minute; the next and the lamas were at the altar working over Maurice’s body.
I did not attempt to interfere; nor, though I felt deeply moved to do it, could I make any demonstration over the body. Somehow it no longer seemed as if this was Maurice. As the lamas bore it to the trap I found myself muttering: “Maurice is not here! Maurice is not here! Maurice is in Mars!” And I kept saying it over and over again, unable to check myself, until suddenly the lamas at the trap rose up and I knew that Maurice’s bodily form had followed the ones which had gone before.
I sprang to the trap furious with myself for not having been there to see it go; amazed that I could have stood aside mumbling like a parrot while they took my friend away. Padma’s hand was on my arm before I reached it, however, and his gentle voice calmed my excitement.
“No, my son do not look,” he said; “it will only alarm you and can do no good. By this time Ni-fan-lu is surely ready to receive you. Let me advise you to make the descent next. It will be better so.”
