Paul read. It was the last stage before the actual and now famous play. He had written without introduction as if he were about a short story, and, in main, it was this that was dramatised.

(4)

Paul finished. Ursula, who had hardly moved, put out a hand and laid it gently on his arm.

Paul drew a breath of relieved content, being satisfied now that he knew her so well.

"Now," he said, "I shall begin that play."

"God is silent," said Ursula quizzically.

"But I see," cried Paul eagerly.

"What do you see?"

"I see the wonder and beauty of things as they are. I see that they satisfy. I see that that's enough, that—that they're a kind of avenue down which a man can go forward. And at the end, perhaps, he will find, not all the secret, but a still living lovely lake of water into which he will plunge, content."

"Water?"