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and hereby vow that henceforth I will be, so far as Iam able to be, all that you ever expected of me. I do all things with you in my mind, and I bitterly regret any slight which I have shown you. “You, Dora, have been me and I have been you. We both have wandered afar but we have returned to each other, never again to part. The horizon is yours, and it is also mine. The past is you to me, and it is I to you. I now rest for all time, knowing you cannot go so far that you cannot hear my voice. For all voices shall to your ears be but milestones leading you back to me. It must be so, for it tat » is so with me.” As they sat alone at the table, Launie listened to Adam and her tears flowed steadily. She bit her lips, for indeed, Launie had taken on the appearance of Dora. “You see, Adam?” she sobbed. “My people chose me to be your host and guide here, because I resembled Dora more than any of the others on Andromeda. A slight change in me, and you see 14 only her. “Yes, you were a good man and a good physician. But you slighted love, and though you were highly desirable on earth, you remained unreachable to the one who loved you.. She has not been married to any other man. You were attracted to her, but you let your profession come first. She waited day after day and month after month, until she no longer knew why. A face and a voice kept haunting her, and the face and the voice kept saying, ‘Wait for me. I am far from you, but I will come to you.’ So, she still waits. “Yes, Adam, it is Dora, whom you know from away back. You are now ill and doomed, but she has been ill very long, and she now knows that she is doomed also. Will she know only lonely days and bitter suffering? Will she pass on in that bleak aloneness that is unbearable? She could stand all that, as many women must, but she owes a few debts, and she cannot bear to think she may pass on with those debts over her head. When you go back to earth, Adam, rush to her, lift her up financially and hold her in your arms. She is Launie, Adam, and Launie is Dora, If you will not do for her her and hold her in is your arms. 177 THE EASE OF FORGETTING