If this is so, it is worth while to have lived and died; if
not, then, Geoffrey, farewell!
"If I may I will always be near you. Listen to the night wind and you
shall hear my voice; look on the stars, you will see my eyes; and my
love shall be as the air you breathe. And when at last the end comes,
remember me, for if I live at all I shall be about you then. What have
I more to say? So much, my dear, that words cannot convey it. Let it be
untold; but whenever you hear or read that which is beautiful or tender,
think 'this is what Beatrice would have said to me and could not!'
"You will be a great man, dear, the foremost or one of the foremost of
your age. You have already promised me to persevere to this end: I will
not ask you to promise afresh. Do not be content to accept the world as
women must. Great men do not accept the world; they reform it--and you
are of their number. And when you are great, Geoffrey, you will use your
power, not for self-interest, but to large and worthy ends; you will
always strive to help the poor, to break down oppression from those who
have to bar it, and to advance the honour of your country.
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