Page:The Ball and the Cross.djvu/387

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The Last Parley
377

many old friends,” said MacIan; “one is a dream, the other is the end of the world.”

“And you say——”

“I say this is not a dream,” said Evan in a ringing voice.

“You really mean to suggest—” began Turnbull.

“Be silent! or I shall say it all wrong,” said MacIan, breathing hard. “It’s hard to explain, anyhow. An apocalypse is the opposite of a dream. A dream is falser than the outer life. But the end of the world is more actual than the world it ends. I don’t say this is really the end of the world, but it’s something like that—it’s the end of something. All the people are crowding into one corner. Everything is coming to a point.”

“What is the point?” asked Turnbull.

“I can’t see it,” said Evan; “it is too large and plain.”

Then after a silence he said: “I can’t see it—and yet I will try to describe it. Turnbull, three days ago I saw quite suddenly that our duel was not right, after all.”

“Three days ago!” repeated Turnbull. “When and why did this illumination occur?”

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