I knew that I should have been like my mother, who would not dim my father’s glory with her tears. But when my sorrow was too heavy to be borne alone, I would go to the temple; and Ney-sey-ra would talk to me of death, until I saw it truly, as a gentle thing. And before the funeral of my father, he said to me, “If you were in a prison, little Sekeeta, and with you there was one you loved, and one day the door of the prison was opened and he was set free, then, although against you there were still bars, you would rejoice that he had regained a freedom that you had both longed for, and you would try to quench the tears of your loneliness with the thought of his joy.
“And if at night, while the world slept, you could fly through the window of your prison and share in his freedom, where you and your dear companion could be together, and where your eyes, undimmed by the shadows of the prison, could see him while he still held you in arms unshackled by fetters, then you would not shadow your time together by weeping because each day you must return to the four walls that had once enclosed you both.
“When your father was on Earth, you told him of all the things you had done throughout each day; and if you saw him in the evening, you did not sorrow because all through the day he must sit in audience or think upon the guiding of his country. That hour of being with him has now become but a little further from the sunset hour. Sorrow not because you do not hear his footstep at noon, for you have but to draw the curtains of sleep to walk with him.
“We are all travellers upon a long journey, and we pass through many countries. We may find gardens and tranquil rivers where for a time we are happy; yet in our hearts we know that we are exiles and long to return to our true home. When the Overlords of Earth send us forth upon our journey, they judge the span of time of our exile. And when that span is reached, whether it be the hour of a child that outlives its birth, or the day of an old man who for ninety years has watched his body age, then will the traveller see before him the doorway of his home.