Skale's

He looked forward to Skale's return, but when evening came he was still alone, and he dined _tête-à-tête_ with Miriam for the first time.

The Human Chord Algernon Blackwood 1910

The terrific splendors of Skale's possible achievement dazzled the very windows of his soul, but at the same time the sweet uses of normal human life called searchingly to him from within.

The Human Chord Algernon Blackwood 1910

And, in Skale's mouth, it sounded as his own name had sounded -- different.

The Human Chord Algernon Blackwood 1910

And what do you think it was that decided me, and made me choose the wholesome, humble life with little Miriam in preference to the grandeur of Skale's vast dream?

The Human Chord Algernon Blackwood 1910

At first Spinrobin was only aware of the keen delight produced in him by the manner of Skale's uttering her name, for it entered his consciousness with a murmuring, singing sound that continued on in his thoughts like a melody.

The Human Chord Algernon Blackwood 1910

Yet sometimes they did talk; and their conversations, in any other setting but this amazing one provided by the wizardry of Skale's enthusiasm, must have seemed exquisitely ludicrous.

The Human Chord Algernon Blackwood 1910

He might climb to Skale's impossible Heaven, Skale's outrageous Heaven ... on the wings of this portentous experience, or -- he might sink back into the stream of wholesome and commonplace life, with a delicious little human love to companion him across the years, the unsoiled love of an embryonic soul that he could train practically from birth.

The Human Chord Algernon Blackwood 1910

And, but for the currents of a strange and formidable fear that this conception of Skale's audacious Experiment set stirring in his soul, Spinrobin's enthusiasm would have been possibly as great as his own.

The Human Chord Algernon Blackwood 1910

What, in the name of the eternal fires, were a girl's lips and love compared to the possibilities of Olympian achievement promised by Skale's golden audacities?

The Human Chord Algernon Blackwood 1910

Skale's heaven, with all that it portended, and on the other the deep though temporarily submerged human passion of his love for the girl.

The Human Chord Algernon Blackwood 1910