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37 

struck through every one of them. Then the answer, 'De la Reine.' The sentry was satisfied. They floated on down the river and landed there." He pointed to the broad spit of sand below them in the moonlight.

"Yes," she said reflectively. "And these rocks, that shore, looked out on the scene then as now--saw it all. Time is such a strange, immeasurable thing. There's no substance to it; only the endless alternations of light and darkness, change in things material. It isn't like a book, whose pages you can turn back, or a road you can return over. It's a paradoxical sort of thing. I don't know."

The breeze was stronger now. The rustle of leaves grew louder. Where British sloops and frigates once had drifted at anchor, ferries and merchant marine broke the surface of the river. But undisturbed, it flowed on past the ships and the lights of the city, farther to the northeast to be joined by the deep and gloomy Saguenay draining the unchanged northern wilderness.

They walked on across the meadow, Mimi increasingly quiet and thoughtful. At last they stood looking over at the Plains of Abraham, where Wolfe had died victorious and Montcalm, mortally wounded, had retired through the St. Louis Gate into the city.

"Bob." He started. Was this Mimi's voice, this calm, restrained voice, almost unbelievable? Again that chill passed over him. She spoke with a tone of finality, absolute conviction. 

[[underline]]"Someone long dead lives again tonight--here."[[/ underline]]."

"Someone long dead?" he said, controlling his voice with an effort. He began to feel lonely, desolately lonely.

"Yes," she answered calmly. "I know now they can live again."

"Only in one way, dearest," he replied, that aching loneliness engulfing him as though he were losing something infinitely precious. "Only in the hearts of those who love them."

Her expression changed. In the dark eyes, clear in the moonlight, he thought he saw the faint dawn of some obscure understanding. She turned hurriedly, took his arm, and began walking back.

The rose in the northern sky had faded. A vast bank of clouds obscured the moon. The air was chill and they proceeded in silence. His step had lost its boyancy. On through the crowds again and into the great Chateau.

As they were passing through the great foyer, he was aware of a strange expectancy in her as if she were looking for someone who must be there. Approaching the compelling bronze figure, she stopped abruptly, stood gazing intently at the aesthetic, pointed face. Again that unfathomable smile, and in her eyes a clear light of recognition. Her lips moved and he caught the faint murmur of her voice, now utterly strange to him, "--in the hearts of those who love them." In that moment, she slipped into the crowd and disappeared. 

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