He gave him time only to press his lips to Datnia's hand and to bid Gorgo farewell.
"You were born into stirring times," he said to her, "but under a good sign.

Two worlds are in collision; which shall survive ?--For you, my darling, I have but one wish: May you be happy!" He left the room and the merchant paced up and down lost in gloomy thoughts.

Presently, as he caught his mother's eye fixed uneasily upon him, he murmured, less to her than to himself: "If he can think thus of what the end will be, who can still dare to hope ?" Damia drew herself up in her chair.
"I," she exclaimed passionately, "I--I dare, and I do hope and trust in the future.

Is everything to perish which our forefathers planned and founded?
Is this dismal superstition to overwhelm and bury the world and all that is bright and beautiful, as the lava stream rolled over the cities of Vesuvius?
No, a thousand times no! Our retrograde and cowardly generation, which has lost all heart to enjoy life in sheer dread of future annihilation, may perhaps be doomed by the gods, as was that of Deucalion's day.

Well--if so, what must be must! But such a world as they dream of never can, never will last.