"
Then he thanked me a thousand times over, shouldered the knapsack,
embraced me as he had my father, and caressed the dog, embraced me again,
and made no attempt to hide the tears that ran down his cheeks.
"There," he said; "I shall wait here till you are out of sight."
I turned away, and did not look back till I reached the place at which I
knew that I should lose the statues. I then turned round, waved my
hand--as also did George, and went down the mountain side, full of sad
thoughts, but thankful that my task had been so happily accomplished, and
aware that my life henceforward had been enriched by something that I
could never lose.
For I had never seen, and felt as though I never could see, George's
equal. His absolute unconsciousness of self, the unhesitating way in
which he took me to his heart, his fearless frankness, the happy genial
expression that played on his face, and the extreme sweetness of his
smile--these were the things that made me say to myself that the "blazon
of beauty's best" could tell me nothing better than what I had found and
lost within the last three hours. How small, too, I felt by comparison!
If for no other cause, yet for this, that I, who had wept so bitterly
over my own disappointment the day before, could meet this dear fellow's
tears with no tear of my own.
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