“God said: I will be niggardly toward my servant; the earth will I give him, and the sea and the sky shall be his; but in his heart shall he find no separate image.
“Look, then, within thy heart: what shalt thou find? a perishable hate, a faltering resolve, and, for thy richest treasure, the swift feet of love.
“Terror shalt thou find, and care; the terror of the seen and the unseen; of the steps that pursue thee, and the voices that cry out thy name.
“These shall be thy companions; that shall clog thy spirit throughout all thy days.”
“Well? hey? shorn of its magic?”
“Oh, Silas, to laugh at the Bible and write such bitter things!”
Silas roared with laughter; he clapped his hand upon his knee.
“You little fool. Shall I redeem myself? Give me a pencil and paper.”
She gave it to him in a dream. “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed....”
Silas was writing; he wrote and chuckled, and handed the sheet to Nan.