“To what purpose!” inquired Heliobas mildly.  “That I should assert ... and you deny ... facts that God Himself will prove in His own way and at His own appointed time?  Nay, we should do no good by further arguments.”

“But,” stammered Alwyn hastily, flushing hotly as he spoke, “you give me no chance to thank you ... to express my gratitude.”

“Gratitude?” questioned Heliobas almost mournfully, with a tinge of reproach in his soft, mellow voice.  “Are you grateful for being, as you think, deluded by a trance? ... cheated, as it were, into a sort of semi-belief in the life to come by means of mesmerism?  Your first request to me, I know, was that you might be deceived by my influence into a state of imaginary happiness,—­and now you fancy your last night’s experience was merely the result of that pre-eminently foolish desire.  You are wrong! ... and, as matters stand, no thanks are needed.  If I had indeed mesmerized or hypnotized you, I might perhaps have deserved some reward for the exertion of my purely professional skill, but ... as I have told you already ...  I have done absolutely nothing.  Your fate is, as it has always been, in your own hands.  You sought me of your own accord ... you used me as an instrument, an unwilling instrument, remember! ... whereby to break open the prison doors of your chafed, and fretting spirit,—­and the end of it all is that you depart from hence tomorrow of your own free-will and choice, to fulfill the appointed tryst made with you, as you believe, by a phantom in a vision.  In brief”—­here he spoke more slowly and with marked emphasis—­“you go to the field of Ardath to solve a puzzling problem ... namely, as to whether what we call life is not a Dream—­and whether a Dream may not perchance be proved Reality!  In this enterprise of yours I have no share—­nor will I say more than this ...  God speed you on your errand!”

He held out his hand—­Alwyn grasped it, looking earnestly meanwhile at the fine intellectual face, the clear pathetic eyes, the firm yet sensitive mouth, on which there just then rested a serious yet kindly smile.

“What a strange man you are, Heliobas!” he said impulsively ...  “I wish I knew more about you!”

Heliobas gave him a friendly glance.

“Wish rather that you knew more about yourself”—­he answered simply—­“Fathom your own mystery of being—­you shall find none deeper, greater, or more difficult of comprehension!”

Alwyn still held his hand, reluctant to let it go.  Finally releasing it with a slight sigh, he said: 

“Well, at any rate, though we part now it will not be for long.  We must meet again!”

“Why, if we must, we shall!” rejoined Heliobas cheerily.  “Must cannot be prevented!  In the mean time ... farewell!”

“Farewell!” and as this word was spoken their eyes met.  Instinctively and on a sudden impulse, Alwyn bowed his head in the lowest and most reverential salutation he had perhaps ever made to any creature of mortal mold, and as he did so Heliobas paused in the act of turning away.