I was greatly surprised, I was frightened, but I walked as if to happiness, as if towards a moment of love. But why did the light go out, at the moment when I came near you?
HE
Because your curiosity had become desire. No longer could anything stop you. The iron was on its way towards the magnet. Are you happy?
I
It seems to me that my life is being fulfilled; it seems to me that my past days were only a preparation for the present hour.
HE
Then you are happy? You are going to be much more so. There are things of which mankind have always appeared to be ignorant. When you have heard them from my lips you will, in that moment, have received the courage to repeat them, and that will win you an eternal glory, a glory that will last as long as the earth itself, perhaps as long as the civilisation of which you are a part.
I
Is there not another eternity, a true eternity?
My master—for I now felt that this old friend was my master still more than my friend—my master was kind enough to smile, looking at me with tender irony, but he did not answer my question.