The curtains at the windows, cracked and seamed, made to him but a map of the many devious happinesses which life should thenceforth show.

The noises of the street were but music, the voices from the rooms below were speech of another happy world.

Before him, radiant, was that which he had vaguely sought.

Not for him to marry merely the neighbour's daughter! This other half of himself, with feet running far to find the missing friend, had sought him out through all the years, through all the miles, through all the spheres! This was fate, and at this thought his heart glowed, his eyes shone, his very stature seemed to increase.

He wist not of Nature and her ways of attraction.