“I have taken nothing,” said I in a quavering voice.
“So. And are they worth taking, think you?”
I answered that it was an incalculable treasure.
“So. And what could it buy you?” said he, “Love, wisdom, freedom, power?”
I replied that it could buy none of these.
“What then? I’ll tell you: Shadows! Houses and lands—shadow! luxury—shadow! domination—shadow! Shadows! shadows! shadows! Vanity, trouble, and vexation of spirit! Set your heart on shadow, and become shadow.... I tell you, my lad,” added he, with passion in his voice and deep despair, “I tell you, that if....”
He ceased, and there was silence; a hollow and throbbing silence, like the pulse of the darkness.
Then the Doctor spoke again. “How came you here?” said he.
I told him how I had found the path across the morass.
“It remains,” said he, “for you to die.... And yet....”