“I do not know how to tell you my dream.  I think I must put it in shape of a story of two people; but you will know, darling, that in my dream it was you and I. And I honestly did dream it, love, every word just as I shall write it for you; only there are no words which so glow and light and blaze as did the chambers through which we walked.  I had been reading about the wonderful gold mines of which every one is talking now, and this led to my dream.

“You can laugh if you like, sweet master mine, but I think it is all true, and I call it

“The Mine of Gold.

“There is but one true mine of gold; and of it no man knows, and no woman, save those who go into it.  Neither can they who go tell whether they sink into the earth’s heart or are caught up into the chambers of the air, or led to the outer pavilions of the sea.  Suddenly they perceive that all around, above, below them is gold:  rocks of gold higher than they can see; caves whose depths are bright with gold; lakes of gold which is molten and leaps like fire, but in which flowers can be dipped and not wither; sands of gold, soft and pleasant to touch; innumerable shapes of all things beautiful, which wave and change, but only from gold to gold; air which shines and shimmers like refiner’s gold; warmth which is like the glow of the red gold of Ophir; and everywhere golden silence!

“Hand in hand walk the two to whom it is given to enter here:  of the gold, they may carry away only so much as can be hid in their bosoms; grains which are spilled, or are left on their garments, turn to ashes; only to each other may they speak of these mysteries; but all men perceive that they have riches, and that their faces shine as the faces of angels.

“Suddenly it comes to pass that one day a golden path leads them farther than they have ever gone before, and into a vast chamber, too vast to be measured.  Its walls, although they are of gold, are also like crystal.  This is a mystery.  Only three sides are walled.  The fourth side is the opening of a gallery which stretches away and away, golden like a broad sunbeam:  from out the distance comes the sound of rushing waters; however far they walk in that gallery, still the golden sunbeam stretches before them; still the sound of the waters is no nearer:  and so would the sunbeam and the sound of the waters be forever, for they are Eternity.

“But there is a fourth mystery.  On the walls of crystal gold, on all sides, shine faces; not dead faces, not pictured faces; living faces—­warm, smiling, reflected faces.

“Then it is revealed to the two who walk hand in hand that these are the faces of all who have ever entered in, as they, between the walls of crystal gold; flashing faces of the sons of God looking into eyes of earthly women;—­these were the first:  and after them, all in their generations until to-day, the sons of men with the women they have loved.  The men’s faces smile; but the faces of the women have in them a joy greater than a smile.