Julius LeVallon by Algernon Blackwood

"Not unremembering we pass our exile from the starry ways: One timeless hour in time we caught from the long night of endless days." A. E.

And so, in due course, the period of our schooldays came to its appointed end without one single further reference to the particular thing I dreaded. Julius had offered no further word of explanation, and my instinctive avoidance of the subject had effectively prevented my asking pointed questions. It remained, however; it merely waited the proper moment to reveal itself. It was real. No effort on my part, no evasion, no mere pretence that it was fantasy or imagination altered "that". The time would come when I should know and understand; evasion would be impossible. It was inevitable as death.