He went thither swiftly, then his hand lowered first above the bell, then settled on the bottle.

Slowly he filled a glass, slowly drank it out; and, as a tide of animal warmth recomforted the recesses of his nature, stood there smiling at himself.
He remembered he was young; the funeral curtains rose, and he saw his life shine and broaden and flow out majestically, like a river sunward.
The smile still on his lips, he lit a second candle and a third; a fire stood ready built in a chimney, he lit that also; and the fir-cones and the gnarled olive billets were swift to break in flame and to crackle on the hearth, and the room brightened and enlarged about him like his hopes.

To and fro, to and fro, he went, his hands lightly clasped, his breath deeply and pleasurably taken.

Victory walked with him; he marched to crowns and empires among shouting followers; glory was his dress.

And presently again the shadows closed upon the solitary.