"Do you see our old neighbor there?" said Ayesha to her lover. "They say she was once as beautiful as you would make me think I now am. How lonely she must be! Let us come near and speak to her," and the lover went gladly. Though they spoke to each other rather than to her, yet something of the past, which never dies when love, the immortal, has pervaded it, rose up again as she heard their voices. She smiled, thinking of years of burning beauty.
A teacher, accompanied by his disciples, was passing by the wayside where a leper sat.
The teacher said: "Here is our brother, whom we may not touch, but he need not be shut out from truth. We may sit down where he can listen."
He sat on the wayside near the leper, and his disciples stood around him. He spoke words full of love, kindliness, and pity—the eternal truths which make the soul grow full of sweetness and youth. A small, old spot began to glow in the heart of the leper, and the tears ran down his blighted face.
All these were the deeds of Ananda the ascetic, and the Watcher who was over him from all eternity made a great stride towards that soul.
THE MIDNIGHT BLOSSOM
"Arhans are born at midnight hour, together with the holy
flower that opes and blossoms in darkness."
—From an Eastern Scripture.