"There are two ways of preventing a rise of temperature from the sun's
heat. One is to oppose a shield of non-conducting and opaque material: that is
Cyril's way, and at the best it is imperfect; some heat always gets through.
The other is to remove every particle of matter from the space which you
wish to be cold; then there is nothing there to become hot; and that is the
Way of the Tao."
Lisa put an arm round Cyril's neck, and rested her head on his shoulder. "I
shouldn't know how [69] to begin!" she said: "and — I know it would mean
giving up Cyril."
"It would mean giving up yourself," retorted the mystic, "and you'll have to
do it one day: But be reassured! Everybody has to go through your stage —
and unless I'm mistaken, you are about to go through it in a particularly acute
form."
"I've tried the Tao," said Cyril, half regretful, "but I can't manage it."
The old man laughed. "You're like the old man in the storm who realized
that he would be warmer elsewhere. So he decided to diminish the amount of
himself by removing his clothes, and only found it colder. It gets worse and
worse till the moment when you vanish utterly and for ever. But you have
only tried half-measures. Naturally, you have found your will divided against
itself — the will to live against the will to Nirvana, if I may call it so — and
that is not even good magick."
The boy groaned inwardly. He could understand just enough to realize how
far the heights reached above him. His heart almost failed him at the thought
— which was instinctive knowledge — that he must scale them, whether he
would or no.
"Take care!" suddenly cried Simon Iff.
At almost the same instant a terrible scream shrilled out from a
neighbouring studio.
"It is my fault," murmured the old man, humbly. "I divided his will. I have
been talking like an old fool. I must have been identified with Simon Iff for a
moment. Oh, pride! Oh, pride!"
But Cyril Grey had understood the warning. He rose to his full height, and
made a curious gesture. Then, with a grim face, he ran out of the studio. In a
moment he was battering at the door of his neighbour. It burst open under the
momentum of his shoulder. [70]
A woman lay upon the floor. Over her stood the sculptor, a blood-stained
hammer in his hand. He seemed absolutely dazed. Grey shook him. He