And all his life, to the remembering sea.

He looked around him, furtively. None was near.

Down, on his knees,

Among the weather-worn shards of his lost youth,

Dropt Jean Guettard.

The mist closed over him.

The world dissolved away. The vision died,

Leaving me only a voice within the heart,

Far off, yet near, the whisper of Shadow-of-a-Leaf.

The rain had beaten. The wind had blown.