And you actually would grasp ashes and drink wormwood, little friend?
Music, the heaven-born spirit of pure sound, does not teach you so!" I was silent.

The gleam of the strange jewel Zara always wore flashed in my eyes like lightning, and anon changed to the similitude of a crimson star.

I watched it, dreamily fascinated by its unearthly glitter.
"Still," I said, "you yourself admit that such fame as that of Shakespeare or Wagner becomes a universal monument to their memories.
That is something, surely ?" "Not to them," replied Zara; "they have partly forgotten that they ever were imprisoned in such a narrow gaol as this world.

Perhaps they do not care to remember it, though memory is part of immortality." "Ah!" I sighed restlessly; "your thoughts go beyond me, Zara.

I cannot follow your theories." Zara smiled.
"We will not talk about them any more," she said; "you must tell Casimir--he will teach you far better than I can." "What shall I tell him ?" I asked; "and what will he teach me ?" "You will tell him what a high opinion you have of the world and its judgments," said Zara, "and he will teach you that the world is no more than a grain of dust, measured by the standard of your own soul.