But whenever a man finds the real one, whenever it is his good fortune
to encounter the genuine article, there remains no doubt in his soul of
its reality. He sees and feels and knows. There is no denying the
absoluteness of it. It is a perfect knowledge brought home to him with
an absoluteness, which for the moment, is almost paralyzing in its
effect, and the immediate consequences of which are utterly beyond
comprehension.
Standing there in the presence of Zara de Echeveria, surrounded as we
were by throngs of guests, interrupted frequently as it was quite
natural we should be, we two were yet as utterly alone as if we had
been standing upon a solitary rock in the midst of a waste of waters
beyond which the vision could not penetrate.
We were utterly alone in a world by ourselves; and the strange part of
it was that we both seemed to realize the truth, although neither of us
at that moment could contemplate the understanding of the other.
Until I drove with the prince to that house where she received, my
whole mind and intelligence had been centered upon the work I had to do
at the Russian capitol; but having passed the portals of Zara's palace,
and being taken into her presence, made the whole world appear suddenly
small indeed, and left all that was great, and good, and worth
attaining, encompassed in the very small space in which she stood.
There was a sense of completeness to it all which is inexplicable;
there was a compelling force emanating from her, like the energy of
radium, unseen but all powerful, which dominated me as surely, though
nonetheless subtly, as the sun dominates the planets.
I have never remembered the words that passed between us at that first
interview, for the reason that whatever I said, was uttered
subconsciously, and became a mere incident in the great event. The
meeting itself was the event. We had come together from different parts
of the world. We were born of different nationalities. We had been
nurtured differently, and every impulse of our respective lives had
been trained in different grooves, and for different motives; and yet
out of that chaos of differences had happened the wonderful thing of
our meeting.
I suppose we talked as other people talk, who meet and part for the
first time as we met and parted then, if we were to be judged from the
standpoint and observation of others. To me it was an epoch, focused
into a moment of time. To her I now know that it was the same.
I was suddenly conscious that there were many others who were waiting
to claim her attention, and I got upon my feet.
"So soon, Mr. Dubravnik?" she said.
"Necessarily," I replied. "I cannot take to myself all the delight of
the evening."