You know he
may live--to be different--if you don't bring some misfortune on him."
"Who am I to bring misfortune or to withhold it?" asked the Hare,
softening visibly. "Well, I know what love means, for my mother loved me
and I loved her in my way. I tell you that when I saw her dead, turned
from a beautiful living thing into a stained lump of flesh and fur, I
felt dreadful. I understand now that you love Tom as my mother loved me,
and, Man, for the sake of your love--not for his sake, mind--I promise
you that I won't say anything against Tom if I can help it, or do
anything either."
"You're a real good fellow!" exclaimed the Red-faced Man, with evident
relief. "Give me your hand. Oh! I forgot, you can't. Hullo! what's up
now? Everything seems to be altering."
*****
As he spoke, to my eyes the Lights began to change in earnest. All the
sky (I call it sky for clearness) above the mighty Gates became as
it were alive with burning tongues of every colour that an artist can
conceive. By degrees these fiery tongues or swords shaped themselves
into a vast circle which drove back the walls of darkness, and through
this circle, guided, guarded by the spirits of dead suns, with odours
and with chantings, descended that crowned City of the Mansions before
whose glory imagination breaks and even Vision veils her eyes.
It descended, its banners wavering in the winds of prayer; it hung above
the Gates, the flowers of all splendours, Heaven's very rose, hung like
an opal on the boundless breast of night, and there it stayed.
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