inevitably fall back upon and destroy its makers in the end. If that ` ` is so, it remains for us to live as though it were not so. But to me ` ` the future is still black and blank--is a vast ignorance, lit at a ` ` few casual places by the memory of his story. And I have by me, for ` ` my comfort, two strange white flowers--shrivelled now, and brown and ` ` flat and brittle--to witness that even when mind and strength had ` ` gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart ` ` of man. ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `