Through the day and through the night she was with him now. There was no
time when he could not reach out to find her, no bad dream from which he
could not awaken to put his hand upon her and know that she was there.
And when, time after time, bitterness rose up to submerge his soul, he
could always finally shake it off by thanking God for Ernestine.
For a time the pain in his eyes served as a kindly antidote. The light
was going out with so intense a suffering as to mitigate the suffering in
the consciousness of its going. It was the pain in his temples helped him
hold off the pain of giving up his work. It was not a thing conquered; he
knew that the deeper pain was waiting for him out there in the darkness
when the pain of transition should have ceased, leaving only a blank, a
darkness, no other thing to engage for him any part of his mind. There
was blessedness in the temporary alleviation brought by the pain that was
physical. There were many things for him to meet out there. They were
willing to wait.
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