“Old man, you knew I was always at hand if you needed me!” His unseeing eyes softened; and his voice fell to a whisper:
“‘I cannot come to you—I am afraid.
I will not come to you. There, it is said.
Though all night long I lie awake and know
That you are lying waking even so:
And all the day you tread a lonely road
And come at sunset to a dark abode.
Yet, if so be you are indeed my friend,
Then, at the end,
There is one road, a road I’ve never gone,