It is but a step or two; and what if a vivid dream should lead you up hither at midnight, and act itself out as a reality!" Donatello had hidden his face in his hands, and was leaning against the parapet.
"No fear of that!" said he.

"Whatever the dream may be, I am too genuine a coward to act out my own death in it." The paroxysm passed away, and the two friends continued their desultory talk, very much as if no such interruption had occurred.

Nevertheless, it affected the sculptor with infinite pity to see this young man, who had been born to gladness as an assured heritage, now involved in a misty bewilderment of grievous thoughts, amid which he seemed to go staggering blindfold.

Kenyon, not without an unshaped suspicion of the definite fact, knew that his condition must have resulted from the weight and gloom of life, now first, through the agency of a secret trouble, making themselves felt on a character that had heretofore breathed only an atmosphere of joy.

The effect of this hard lesson, upon Donatello's intellect and disposition, was very striking.