Stone; "I will do my best to talk to
you."
There was a silence, and he began to pace the room. Bianca, by the empty
fireplace, watched a shower of rain driving past the open window.
"This is the time of year," said Mr. Stone suddenly; "when lambs leap
off the ground with all four legs at a time." He paused as though for
an answer; then, out of the silence, his voice rose again--it sounded
different: "There is nothing in Nature more symptomatic of that
principle which should underlie all life. Live in the future; regret
nothing; leap! A lamb which has left earth with all four legs at once
is the symbol of true life. That she must come down again is but an
inevitable accident. 'In those days men were living on their pasts. They
leaped with one, or, at the most, two legs at a time; they never left
the ground, or in leaving, they wished to know the reason why. It was
this paralysis'"--Mr. Stone did not pause, but, finding himself close
beside his desk, took up his pen--"'it was this paralysis of the leaping
nerve which undermined their progress. Instead of millions of leaping
lambs, ignorant of why they leaped, they were a flock of sheep lifting
up one leg and asking whether it was or was not worth their while to
lift another.'"
The words were followed by a silence, broken only by the scratching of
the quill with which Mr.
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