No, Almah, let us live and love--let us hope--let us fly." "Impossible!" said she, in a mournful voice.

"We cannot fly.

There is no hope.

We must face the future, and make up our minds to bear our fate." "Fate!" I repeated, looking at her in wonder and in deep concern.
"What do you mean by our fate?
Is there anything more which you know and which I have not heard ?" "You have heard nothing," said she, slowly; "and all that you have seen and heard is as nothing compared with what lies before us.

For you and for me there is a fate--inconceivable, abhorrent, tremendous!--a fate of which I dare not speak or even think, and from which there is no escape whatever." As Almah said this she looked at me with an expression in which terror and anguish were striving with love.