And after that ... I dared not look beyond. There is a way beset with
lions, and any man who bears the name of man in honor may draw his sword
and fix his eye upon the goal and hew his path to it, joying in the
conflict. But there is also another way, a desert trail owning no peril
more affrighting than its own dread waste and limitless monotony; and
when his eyes behold the dismal prospect, and his feet have pressed the
hitherward sands of this desert of despair, a man may well pause to gird
his loins, to cross himself and patter such a prayer for strength and
fortitude as his creed hath taught him.
To such a faring through all the days and nights of this grim desert of
a future these lonely hours in the wine vault were a fitting vigil, as I
conceived; and when I had hugged my misery close, and a sort of
monstrous self-pity had come to make a seeming virtue of the hard
necessity, I was best pleased to be alone. In such a frame of mind the
sound of footsteps in the out-cellar, warning me that more company was
coming, sent a wave of sullen anger to submerge me, and I do think 'twas
in me to turn my back upon a friend who should come to tell me I was
free to go at large.
Since I had led forth the good horses the great oaken door had stood
ajar. So I wondered why my visitor made so much ado rattling the key in
the lock. Then it came to me suddenly that the noise and delay were
meant to give me timely warning; and at the scent of threatening
peril--a peril I might cope with and grapple soldierwise--I became a man
again.
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