Book Two The Woman - Chapter 15 Which May Be Skipped if the Reader So Desire

As this life is a Broad Highway along which we must all of us
pass whether we will or no; as it is a thoroughfare sometimes
very hard and cruel in the going, and beset by many hardships,
sometimes desolate and hatefully monotonous, so, also, must its
aspect, sooner or later, change for the better, and, the stony
track overpassed, the choking heat and dust left behind, we may
reach some green, refreshing haven shady with trees, and full of
the cool, sweet sound of running waters. Then who shall blame us
if we pause unduly in this grateful shade, and, lying upon our
backs a while, gaze up through the swaying green of trees to the
infinite blue beyond, ere we journey on once more, as soon we
must, to front whatsoever of good or evil lies waiting for us in
the hazy distance.

To just such a place am I now come, in this, my history; the
record of a period which I, afterwards, remembered as the
happiest I had ever known, the memory of which must remain with
me, green and fragrant everlastingly.

If, in the forthcoming pages, you shall find over-much of
Charmian, I would say, in the first place, that it is by her, and
upon her, that this narrative hangs; and, in the second place,
that in this part of my story I find my greatest pleasure; though
here, indeed, I am faced with a great difficulty, seeing that I
must depict, as faithfully as may be, that most difficult, that
most elusive of all created things, to wit--a woman.