“ ‘I am content. I am resourceful still. I deal in diamonds and pearls. I use the Mind Gift to make me rich. I cheat no one. I am clever beyond what I need. And I keep Petronia always with me. I love the company of Manfred. He and I play chess and cards and we talk and we roam the streets of Naples together. I remember so vividly the night that she brought him here, cursing that she had had to keep a bargain.

“ ‘They had met here in Naples, she and he, and she had taken a fancy to visiting the swamps where he lived, and having there a hideaway. It had seemed to her an appropriate wilderness from which she could hunt the drifters and the drinkers and gamblers of New Orleans and all the Southland. And eventually, he built her a domicile and a fancy tomb such as she desired, and she loved to retreat to that place whenever she was angry with me, or whenever she wanted what was new and raw, and would be away from Italy, where everything had been done a hundred times over.

“ ‘But in time she’d come to promise Manfred that she would give him the Blood, because she had told him what she was, and at last she had had to keep her word, or so I told her, and do it she did, and brought him here, so that those he loved would think he had died in the swampland.

“ ‘Now it will be the same with you. They will imagine that you died in the swamp. Is that not so?’

“I didn’t answer him.

“Then I said:

“ ‘Thank you for all you told to me, and for all you’ve taught me. I’m humble in your presence. I’d be a fool if I claimed to fully understand your age, the value of your perspective, your patience. I can only offer gratitude. May I put one more question to you?’

“ ‘Of course you may. Put any question.’ He smiled.

“ ‘You’ve lived over two thousand years, perhaps closer to three,’ I said.

“He paused, then he nodded.

“ ‘What have you given back to the world on account of this?’ I asked.

“He stared at me. His face became thoughtful but it remained warm and cordial. And then he said gently, ‘Nothing.’

“ ‘Why?’ I asked.

“ ‘What should I give?’ he asked.

“ ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I feel as though I’m going mad. I feel as though if I’m to live forever I have to give something back.’

“ ‘But we’re not part of it, don’t you see?’

“ ‘Yes,’ I said with a gasp. ‘I see only too clearly.’

“ ‘Don’t torment yourself. Think on this matter for a while. Think. You have time, all the time in the world.’

“I was near to weeping. But I swallowed it back down.