And thus--does our tale end unhappily? I think not. After all, the
homelanders at large are rather shadowy to us. Oc and Loga, Shib and
Veo, Afa and her like, and all those others, all those nameless others,
do not mean much to us. It is Thol and Thia that we care about. For
their sake we wish that the good they did could have been lasting. But
it is not in the nature of things that anything--except the nature
of things--should last. Saints and wise statesmen can do much. Their
reward is in the doing of it. They are lucky if they do not live long
enough to see the undoing. It should suffice us that Thol and Thia
together in their last days knew a happiness greater than they had ever
known--Thol a greater happiness than in the days of his glory, and Thia
than in the days of hers.
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LONDON AND TONBRIDGE.