"
He continued: "When she did what it pleased her to do, it was said by
fools that I had inspired her. Fool among fools, I thought so myself at
the time, and moved Earth and Heaven, and Hell and Ingram, to save her
from an act of magnanimity the like of which I have never heard of. Bless
you! if I had never lived, she would have acted as she did, because she
was incapable of seeing evil, incapable of acting against her heart. Well!
and the thing was done--and I had to face it. I had it all out with
myself, and decided that no harm could come to her. From that hour I have
never seen her with my waking eyes. Yet she is here. She is always
here....
"My answer to you is simple. I have all of her of which I am capable. I
have never left her because she has never left me....
"I wrote out my heart in my first years of knowing her; but since then I
have gone under the harrow of this world, where there can be no singing.
Now that I am at peace my voice has come back. I listen to what she tells
me, and note it. Like Dante, _vo significando:_ I am a drain-pipe for her
spirit. She was Hymnia to me once, and I sang of Open Country; now she is
Despoina, Mistress of the Night. Words come thronging to me, phrases,
rhythms; but not Form.
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