The+End

"There was a sudden clearing of his eyes (was there not?) as he saw you for the first time, and recognised the part you had had in him and knew that you had it no longer."  "He got through so easily! No gradual misgivings, no doctor's sentence, no nursing home, no operating theatre, no false hopes of life; sheer, instantaneous liberation."  "I know what the creature was saying to itself! 'Yes. Of course. It always was like this...How could I ever have doubted it?'"  "...now he could say to [the angels], one by one, not 'Who //are// you?' but 'So it was //you// all the time.'"  "Pains he may still have to encounter, but they //embrace// those pains. They would not barter them for any earthly pleasure."