I knew they were wrong; I do not mean that they persuaded me--I persuaded myself that, after all, perhaps my right to hope remained to me.

I persuaded myself that I might be, after all, the substance, not the shadow." He looked up at her: "And so I dared to love you." She gazed at him, scarcely breathing.
"Then," he said, "came the awakening.

My dream had ended." She waited, the lace on her breast scarce stirring, so still she stood, so pitifully still.
"Such responsibility cannot die while those live who undertook it.

I believed it until I desired to believe it no longer.

But a man's self-persuasion cannot alter such laws--nor can human laws confirm or nullify them, nor can a great religion do more than admit their truth, basing its creed upon such laws.