Where should he put in another, where, if there were no other objection, would it stand in its place in the rank?
He reflected, with a want of sincerity of which he was quite conscious, that it would be difficult to determine that place.

More and more, besides, face to face with his little legion, over endless histories, handling the empty shells and playing with the silence--more and more he could see that he had never introduced an alien.

He had had his great companions, his indulgences--there were cases in which they had been immense; but what had his devotion after all been if it hadn't been at bottom a respect?
He was, however, himself surprised at his stiffness; by the end of the winter the responsibility of it was what was uppermost in his thoughts.
The refrain had grown old to them, that plea for just one more.

There came a day when, for simple exhaustion, if symmetry should demand just one he was ready so far to meet symmetry.

Symmetry was harmony, and the idea of harmony began to haunt him; he said to himself that harmony was of course everything.