it
 
 r- 

 
 EVANDER
 
 EVANDER 
 
 BY 
 
 EDEN PHILLPOTTS 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 'THE GIRL AND THE FAUN," "a SHADOW PASSES 
 " DELIGHT," ETC. 
 
 I 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1919 
 
 
 ■
 
 r r\ 
 
 E 9 2- 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. How Festus Wedded Livia 
 
 II. The Disciple of Apollo 
 
 III. Apollo and the Wolves 
 
 IV. The Selfish Oread . 
 V. Faun us 
 
 VI. A Sad Chapter 
 
 VII. Apollo and Evander 
 
 VIII. Bacchus and Festus 
 
 IX. The Pain of the Price 
 
 X. Livia Laughed 
 
 XL A Puteal 
 
 XII. The Naiads 
 
 XIII. Woe of Evander 
 
 XIV. Apollo and Bacchus 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 2 7 
 44 
 59 
 
 77 
 
 83 
 
 97 
 114 
 
 130 
 
 14* 
 156 
 165 
 181 
 
 K 

 
 HOW FESTUS WEDDED L1V1A 
 
 IN time past lawful marriage might only 
 be contracted among the nobler folk. 
 Patricians alone enjoyed the privilege, 
 so that many admirable wives were lost to the 
 community and many good men denied the 
 pleasure of exhibiting a husband's virtues. It 
 is not easy for us to imagine a high civilisation, 
 wherein the upper ten alone were permitted 
 this domestic delight ; but thus it happened, 
 until came the tribune, Canuleius, who — 
 advanced spirit that he was — perceived and 
 declared no reason in the nature of things to 
 prevent the marriage of the middle classes. 
 Nay, this innovator went farther, and, greatly 
 daring, claimed that every Roman citizen 
 might become a husband, if it so pleased 
 him. 
 
 b I
 
 EVANDER 
 
 Heaven was sustained, though we may sup- 
 pose the forum thundered with fierce and 
 bitter opposition, for doubtless your patri- 
 cians resented with all their might so grave an 
 instalment of progressive legislation. The 
 populace began to wed — charily at first, then 
 with greater trust ; and since the gods smiled 
 upon their nuptials, even the rag-picker, or 
 dustman felt he might take a wife without 
 affront to Olympus. 
 
 From the Latins to all the Italians this 
 prodigious boon presently extended, and when 
 Caracalla donned the purple, he conferred 
 marriage as a royal gift on every inhabitant of 
 the Roman Empire. 
 
 Thus we find that even Caracalla, an 
 emperor for whom few just persons spare a 
 smile, can claim one item on the credit side of 
 his sanguinary account. 
 
 But, by Apollo and Bacchus, who shall 
 dogmatise on this great subject ? Has not 
 marriage itself been weighed in the balance 
 of public opinion and found wanting ? The 
 invention loses its old, four-square majesty. 
 
 2
 
 HOW FESTUS WEDDED L1V1A 
 
 Indeed, what institution but grows ruinous 
 and moss-covered in these our days ? 
 
 Moreover, while the gods were held to com- 
 mend all lawful unions, they themselves could 
 not deny that even in celestial circles the 
 marital state worked not to much edification. 
 
 No shadow, however, had crept over mar- 
 riage when the woodman, Festus, desired to 
 wed Livia, the daughter of Carmenta, the 
 washerwoman. For their humble class, a 
 vernal bloom of youth still graced the rite. 
 They were themselves pioneers — the very first 
 in that hamlet to venture upon the doubtful 
 privileges and certain obligations of wedlock. 
 It was, indeed, counted something of an 
 eccentricity when the young man's intentions 
 proved strictly honourable, and the pagan folk 
 doubted whether Festus were not taking him- 
 self and Livia almost too seriously. 
 
 There needed a pinch of the heroine in 
 your soul, also, to wed if you happened to be 
 a washerwoman's daughter in those days, and 
 Livia, when she accepted the woodman, while 
 earning uneasy admiration from certain of her 
 
 3
 
 EVANDER 
 
 friends, won some sneers among her more 
 conservative sisters, who professed to prefer 
 freedom and evaded the rite from choice, or 
 missed it from necessity. 
 
 Indeed, the Mrs. Grundy of that village 
 looked with doubting eye on marriage and 
 feared that it might open a door to many 
 things not convenient. 
 
 But as soon as Festus won Livia's love, they 
 agreed to snap their fingers at convention, 
 pretend to be patricians and enter into the 
 great mystery of united life. After she ac- 
 cepted him, he begged her to fix the day and 
 let it be soon ; but the careless wight was not 
 aware that May must be avoided and that the 
 first half of June would fail their purpose. 
 Indeed all the dies religiosi and the calends, 
 nones and ides were equally out of the ques- 
 tion, if he desired Fortuna to smile upon their 
 experiment. 
 
 " The better the day, the better the deed," 
 said Festus, a free and easy spirit who took 
 no thought for the morrow. 
 
 " Not at all," answered more cautious Livia. 
 
 4
 
 HOW FESTUS WEDDED LIVIA 
 
 " We must court no needless risks, sweetheart. 
 It is well known that a great many months 
 are unpropitious to the marriage of men ; and 
 did we take our vows on some day sacred to a 
 god, or goddess, we should make a powerful 
 enemy from the first. But all are agreed that 
 marriage must be entered into with as few 
 handicaps as possible, and we will not go out 
 of our way to complicate what may prove 
 difficult enough in any case." 
 
 " Be hopeful," said Festus. " I am no 
 authority on the sacred days, Jupiter forgive 
 me, but so that Bacchus smiles, all will be 
 well. Find an occasion that promises to give 
 us a run for our money, my sweet treasure, 
 and the quicker, the better." 
 
 She obeyed him and at a time when religion 
 was powerless to frown, they wedded. 
 
 The pair dwelt in a rude village beside 
 Lake Larius, and since this was the first enter- 
 prise of the kind celebrated among those 
 purple hills, they sent for a flamen skilled in 
 the rite, who directed them how to proceed. 
 
 Livia's hair was arranged in six dark locks, 
 
 5
 
 EVANDER 
 
 and she had more than enough. Upon her 
 head she wore a wreath of valley lilies and alpen- 
 roses of her own gathering, and she shrouded 
 her brow in a scarlet veil. Her tunica was of 
 spotless white, woven without seam and 
 fastened by a girdle of wool. A victim being 
 slain — a little lamb — the auspices were taken 
 and the contract completed. Then her mother 
 having led Livia to Festus, they joined hands 
 and lifted their prayers to the watching gods. 
 There followed the sacrifice of a bull calf on 
 the public altar, and the smoke of it ascending, 
 drifted far over the lake. 
 
 A feast came next, and Carmenta, the 
 washerwoman, did the best in this matter 
 that her means allowed. There was a mess of 
 flesh and fowl with onions and olives ; white 
 bread, lettuces and curded cheese ; chestnut 
 cakes with herbs ; dried figs and apricots and 
 withered fruit of the wild pear. Much red 
 wine went to the banqueting and sweet 
 liqueurs made of heart's-ease and cypress. Not 
 till the shadows fell huge from the hills to the 
 waters spread beneath them, did they stop 
 
 6
 
 HOW FESTUS WEDDED LIV1A 
 
 eating ; not before the first firefly twinkled 
 a little lamp along the ilex groves, had the 
 wedding guests drunk all there was to drink. 
 
 Then night fell and Festus, taking Livia in 
 his arms, bore her from her mother with show 
 of violence, to the shrill cackling of women 
 and laughter of the men. 
 
 Torch-bearers led the way, their pitch- 
 pines blazing and making the blue dusk red ; 
 flute-players pierced the Italian peace and 
 gaily squeaked ; while the folk sang the 
 Fescennini in rough Saturnian verse. They 
 belonged to Silvanus — his festival, but chimed 
 with the business of the time, and the jesters 
 with raddled faces, who rollicked to right and 
 left of the bridal pair, spared no wit to give 
 point to the pagan humour and ribald merri- 
 ment of their ancient song. 
 
 Through the trees, or at the edge of the 
 waters, there peeped nymphs, goat-foot fauns 
 and other immortal creatures of lake and 
 mountain, vale and forest, who spied upon 
 humanity with wonder when the world was 
 young. They perceived that an event out of 
 
 7
 
 EVANDER 
 
 the common was being celebrated and, of 
 their friendship, joined the laughter, though 
 the jokes were beyond their comprehension. 
 
 Two boys, whose fathers and mothers still 
 lived, walked beside Livia, and a third lighted 
 her feet with a white-thorn torch to guard 
 against magic, or any evil fairy ; while behind 
 her were borne the spindle and thread, symbol 
 of wifely duty. Festus threw walnuts to the 
 boys and signified thereby that, as a husband, 
 he put away childish things for ever. 
 
 Then came they to the exceeding modest 
 home the bridegroom had provided for his 
 wife, and Livia anointed the door-posts with 
 oil and fat and decked them with woollen 
 fillets. Over the atrium she was lifted and 
 welcomed by her husband in the partnership 
 of fire and water, which is to say domestic life 
 and worship. For the gods from the first 
 made, or meddled, with marriage, and some 
 are even recognised as the august patrons and 
 supporters of the state. Marriages, indeed, 
 were always made in heaven, but such was the 
 strain, when the demand became so vast, that 
 
 8
 
 HOW FESTUS WEDDED LIVIA 
 
 they had to be turned out wholesale and 
 Olympus henceforth declined to guarantee 
 the quality. 
 
 Now Festus and Livia prayed to Talassio — 
 the unknown god of marriage — that they 
 might be happy ; the epithalamy was chanted 
 and the young pair left in peace. 
 
 A full moon sailed above the clearing where 
 they were to dwell ; the revellers departed to 
 their homes ; a kind old woman wiped away 
 the mother's natural tears. 
 
 " Fear nothing, Carmenta," said she. 
 " Festus is a good man and will use her well 
 if she obey him in all things and minister to 
 his comfort. Moreover, when he is weary of 
 her, he cannot cast her off. Even though he 
 hate her, yet must they now live together 
 until death separates them." 
 
 " That is why I weep," answered Carmenta, 
 " for love hath wings and flies. Marriage, so 
 far as I have grasped it, is love on a chain, and 
 one may not keep a wild thing on a chain, for 
 it will the sooner perish." 
 
 " True," answered the other ; " but it is a 
 
 9
 
 EVANDER 
 
 quality of this thing called marriage that it 
 begetteth a new sense between the male and 
 female. It is designed for the dignity and 
 security of women, so that when love is out- 
 worn, they may still reap the reward of their 
 sacrifice and the respect and position proper to 
 the mothers of those to come." 
 
 " If marriage begetteth a new sense in man, 
 it is well," answered Carmenta ; " he needs 
 manv new senses ; but men are men and 
 women are women, and freedom is the only 
 road to peace." 
 
 10
 
 II 
 
 "THE DISCIPLE OF APOLLO 
 
 HE was called Evander after that son 
 of Hermes and an Arcadian nymph, 
 who shone in goodness, founded the 
 city of Pallenteum on the hill afterwards called 
 Palatine, and introduced the arts of music and 
 writing and the worship of Pan, whom the Latins 
 named Faunus. That Evander was indeed 
 worshipped at Rome as a god, having his altar 
 set on the Aventine ; and our Evander, son of 
 Cornelius, the fisherman, alive to the distinc- 
 tion of his name, lived worthy of it from his 
 youth up. He caught fish to help his father, 
 but, at twenty years of age, he better loved to 
 exhort the people and improve their minds. 
 To Apollo he dedicated his days and practised 
 the self-denial and austerity beloved of Phcebus. 
 Concerning sin, indeed, he knew nothing, since 
 
 ii
 
 EVANDER 
 
 that fantastic concept had not yet come into 
 the world ; but with crime, its sleepless issues 
 and undying consequence, he was familiar. 
 Therefore he strove to turn the Larian folk 
 from evil, edifying all men by the dignity of 
 his discourse and the purity of his days. 
 
 To him goodness belonged as a second 
 nature, and if he ever wondered in the phan- 
 tasm of human existence, unrolled around him, 
 it was why goodness appeared beset with such 
 difficulty for his fellow-creatures, while wrong- 
 doing, despite its notorious sequel, yet attracted 
 the majority of them. 
 
 He was of a placid countenance, large-fea- 
 tured and lofty-browed. The spiders of thought 
 had already woven their first webs upon his 
 forehead ; but his eyes were bright, his mouth 
 was firm, his voice as clear and cold as a moun- 
 tain brook at dawn. He never hastened about 
 anything. The steadfast quality of his intellect 
 was reflected in the distinction of his actions, 
 his reserved gestures and judicial and balanced 
 utterances. 
 
 He ate no meat and partook only of inani- 
 
 12
 
 THE DISCIPLE OF APOLLO 
 
 mate life. Pot-herbs and roots, corn and the 
 harvest of fruit-bearing and nut-bearing trees 
 sustained him and clarified his thought. He 
 drank water and frowned upon wine, though 
 he had doubtless permitted himself the poisons 
 of tea and coffee, after the manner of our own 
 intellectual vegetarians, had those beverages 
 been then within the reach of ancient 
 Italy. 
 
 Once he had lived on the eastern borders of 
 Larius, but the hamlet where his mother died 
 in giving him life, proved not large enough 
 for his missionary instincts and the rude 
 people who dwelt therein, feeling uneasy at 
 the near presence of such waxing virtue, had 
 urged him to seek other fields. When he hesi- 
 tated to oblige them, these pagans so far 
 neglected the light as to insist upon their 
 native son's departure. 
 
 Therefore Cornelius, the fisherman, and 
 Evander departed in their little boat ; and 
 the father, with paternal pride, cursed his 
 neighbours for their folly. 
 
 " You will be proud in time to come and 
 
 13
 
 EVANDER 
 
 lift a statue to my boy," said he ; while they, 
 after the manner of barbarians, declared that 
 they would prefer his statue to himself. " His 
 pillar," said these benighted folk, " shall 
 surely adorn our shores, if his fame ever re- 
 sound from the other bank ; and for our part, 
 being homely men with much upon our hands, 
 we would rather enjoy the after-clap of his 
 glory, than endure those activities upon which 
 it may be built." 
 
 They believed it uncomfortable to live with 
 heroes, holding that, such is the weakness of 
 our nature, we can best look upon their 
 statues and rejoice in their fruits, when time 
 has removed the fierce life force, mellowed its 
 processes, obscured its asperities, and kneaded 
 its accomplishment into the common wealth 
 of human progress. 
 
 On the western border of the lake, Evander 
 presently became an institution, and all men 
 admitted his remarkable attainments. He 
 dwelt in a hut near his father and did not fish 
 very often, but preferred to advance morals 
 and attack error. It was his earnest purpose 
 
 H
 
 THE DISCIPLE OF APOLLO 
 
 to improve everything, uplift everybody, and 
 lead the least and greatest to Apollo. 
 
 An example of this indiscriminate en- 
 thusiasm awaits us upon the occasion of 
 first meeting Evander. 
 
 Sitting before his door, speculating on 
 ethical subjects, there came before him a 
 smoke-grey kitten with amber eyes. She 
 carried her tail erect, as a cat will who in her 
 own opinion has done a good deed, and in her 
 mouth appeared a glittering dragon-fly, which 
 the little creature had captured from a bed 
 of rushes beside the lake. 
 
 Now the kitten had not escaped Evander's 
 care for the improvement of all life, and he 
 was still seeking to wean her from flesh or fish, 
 since it seemed to him that, given a vegetable 
 diet, she would cast off those ferine, feline 
 qualities which make against society. He 
 even hoped that she might develop a measure 
 of altruism and the power to see other points 
 of view than her own. For he had not failed 
 to mark that both the greater and lesser cats 
 are self-centred and inclined to put their 
 
 15
 
 EVANDER 
 
 personal welfare before the good of the com- 
 munity. The kitten, therefore, failed of that 
 applause she expected, and the fact that she 
 had done a clever and original thing was not 
 taken into account by Evander. It was the 
 young man's golden rule to regard every 
 enterprise from the standpoint of morals and 
 justice ; and, viewed in this white light, much 
 that happens will not, of course, bear inspec- 
 tion. He took the dragon-fly from the kitten 
 and shook his head to find the insect was no 
 more. 
 
 " Live and let live, little beast," he said. 
 " Respect your neighbour and recollect that 
 his place in the cosmos is empty if not filled 
 by him. Remove him therefrom and you 
 create a vacuum and wound nature. Enlarge 
 your sympathies until they extend to cover all 
 things ; then only will you attain a synthetic 
 understanding and perceive that to destroy the 
 life of a fellow-creature is to endanger the 
 universal scheme. This dragon-fly had his 
 claim upon society. He was a person of 
 repute with a natural history of the greatest 
 
 16
 
 THE DISCIPLE OF APOLLO 
 
 interest. For years he dwelt beneath the 
 water ; then his apotheosis brought him into 
 the air and he hoped to rejoice in the beams 
 of Apollo while the summer lasted. But your 
 ruthless paw has deprived him of his short- 
 lived joy and struck him into an early grave. 
 His link with the infinite is broken before its 
 time ; a dissonance is created ; the world is 
 so much the worse for the thing you have 
 done." 
 
 Thus he spoke from force of habit, for he 
 had to be talking. Then Evander went 
 farther and looked among his papers, because 
 he was a poet also and had learned to write 
 and read and set down his thoughts in good 
 Latin. 
 
 " I have here some observations on the 
 dragon-fly, and a valuable moral induced by 
 study of the insect," he said, and he read these 
 verses to the kitten. 
 
 A dragon-fly, when from the water's edge 
 
 He cometh, though perhaps the vulgar doubt it, 
 
 Will leave his waterproof upon a sedge, 
 
 Then spread his wings and fly away without it. 
 
 c 17
 
 EVANDER 
 
 But presently, at sign of coming rain, 
 Feeling a little nervous of the weather, 
 
 He seeks to don his waterproof again, 
 
 And finds that he's outgrown it altogether. 
 
 Now, though a dragon-fly won't see the force 
 And hidden lesson of this observation, 
 
 You, with your quicker senses, may, of course, 
 Should morals have for you some fascination. 
 
 Cast down but not convinced, the smoke- 
 grey kitten stole away — to catch another 
 dragon-fly if it might be possible ; and Evander, 
 cheered by the sound of his own voice, set 
 forth upon a mission he had already con- 
 templated. 
 
 The marriage of Festus and Livia interested 
 him exceedingly. He held marriage a hopeful 
 and helpful contrivance, and trusted that it 
 would become more common. Indeed, in- 
 spired by Apollo, he had long proclaimed the 
 need for this contract ; he gave great 
 praise to Festus and Livia and promised them, 
 with confidence, the blessing of the more 
 important gods upon their union. 
 
 Now he walked to visit the youthful pair 
 
 18
 
 THE DISCIPLE OF APOLLO 
 
 and found them, after a fortnight of wedded 
 life, still happy and well content. As he 
 entered their rough dwelling, they were sitting 
 down to a little meal, and Evander, unknow- 
 ing that Festus had procured them at some 
 trouble for Livia, ate up a whole platter of 
 red radishes while he talked. He believed 
 that he was taking the food that mattered 
 least, while, in reality, he devoured the master 
 dish of the banquet. But nothing is so easily 
 misunderstood as humility. 
 
 " A vegetarian can be as greedy as anybody," 
 said Festus, after Evander was gone. His wife, 
 however, reproved him ; she entertained the 
 highest respect and admiration for their guest, 
 and knew that he walked with Apollo and 
 could say something worth hearing in any 
 ear. 
 
 Having eaten the radishes, but failed to 
 mark the cloud upon the eyes of Festus as he 
 did so, Evander invited their opinion of 
 matrimony. 
 
 " It is true," he said, " that one sees more 
 of a thing from outside than from within. 
 
 J 9
 
 EVANDER 
 
 Thus we do not ask a mite his opinion of 
 cheese, or take our judgment of a pear from 
 the maggot who dwells at its heart. Yet the 
 mite and the maggot have their own intimate 
 point of view, and the point of view is every- 
 thing. Only by collating, comparing and con- 
 trasting points of view, do we arrive at the 
 truth about any subject ; for truth herself is 
 many-sided and from that effulgent jewel 
 flash rays of rainbow light, that to Livia are 
 purple, to Festus golden, to Evander emerald, 
 or ruby. Thus knowledge is only reached by 
 the combined experience of all men, and 
 hence w 7 e find that a community, a city, a 
 nation, is wiser than its chiefest citizen, 
 subtler than its deepest philosopher, braver 
 than its bravest soldier, and juster than its 
 first lawgiver." 
 
 " Not here," said Livia. " You know more 
 than all of us put together." 
 
 Evander raised his symmetrical hand for 
 silence, for he resembled other great talkers 
 and disliked being interrupted. 
 
 " Concerning marriage," he said, " we know 
 
 20
 
 THE DISCIPLE OF APOLLO 
 
 that the institution descended from the gods 
 to the patricians, and in process of time has 
 now been extended to our plebeian selves. 
 Whether the heathen and hyperboreans will 
 ever receive and accept it, Jupiter alone can 
 say. It is enough for us that we have marriage, 
 and I feel profound confidence that if we 
 enter the state in a humble spirit, as learners ; 
 if we trust the gods ; if we give and take, and 
 recognise that women are honourable crea- 
 tures and the complement of men, created, 
 as it were, for his completion — if we honestly 
 recognise that the weaker sex is necessary — 
 nay, vital — and therefore worthy of that 
 honour we extend to all necessary and vital 
 things, then, as they create the home, minister 
 to our comfort and provide the vase from 
 which our sons and daughters shall bloom, we 
 must accord our wives all respect and endear- 
 ment. We must consider their requirements, 
 treat them with affection and even admira- 
 tion, if they prove meritorious. While they 
 work for us, we must also work for them, so 
 that home life shall be a beautiful and con- 
 
 21
 
 EVANDER 
 
 tented thing and the inspiration of the gods 
 justified among men." 
 
 " In fact, you must treat them as you find 
 them," suggested Festus, while Evander re- 
 covered his breath. 
 
 Festus was a mountain man of great physical 
 strength and genial nature. He loved the ways 
 of the hills and, lacking distinguished ideals, 
 yet possessed a sense of justice and a generous 
 and kindly nature. But, as many generous 
 and kindly men, he did not deny himself the 
 privileges he extended to others. He enjoyed 
 the good things of life, when he could come at 
 them, and his patron god was Bacchus. Too 
 much a primitive to understand the higher 
 branches of the Dionysian cult, or to grasp 
 more than a little of all that mighty, and ever 
 youthful divinity implies, he knew that he had 
 given man the grape, that he smiled upon the 
 poor and humble, and frowned not upon the 
 joy of life. 
 
 Therefore he worshipped devoutly and ex- 
 plained to Livia that she must pray to Bacchus, 
 who cared for all woodmen ; while she, from 
 
 22
 
 THE DISCIPLE OF APOLLO 
 
 a general and not very lively religious sense, 
 which sacrificed at any altars, now abandoned 
 Venus, in deference to a general opinion 
 that the Foam-born was not in her element 
 on the married couch, and very properly 
 accepted her husband's god. 
 
 But Livia had an emotional and volatile 
 nature. Her god at this period of her young 
 life was really none other than Festus himself. 
 She owned an impulsive heart, considerable 
 vanity and little judgment. 
 
 Evander proceeded and told them many 
 things well worth knowing. His information 
 appeared without limit and embraced the 
 whole rule and conduct of married life, 
 although he was a stranger to it. 
 
 You will have marked a characteristic touch, 
 for while the wonderful young man began his 
 discourse with a question, he had not stopped 
 for Festus, or Livia, to answer it, but chose to 
 do so himself — the mark of a great talker all 
 the world over. 
 
 Presently Evander departed, and Festus, in 
 his simple fashion, regretted that he had 
 
 23
 
 EVANDER 
 
 eaten Livia's radishes ; but she was happy at 
 what she had heard and attached no import- 
 ance to that incident. 
 
 " His words are music," she declared. " If 
 we could remember but half of what he told 
 us, how wise we should be ! " 
 
 " And yet I'm sorry for him in a way," 
 ventured Festus, as he picked up his axe and 
 prepared to return to the forest. 
 
 " Sorry for him ! Surely never was a man for 
 whom one had less to mourn," she explained. 
 
 " I am sorry for anybody who never laughs," 
 declared Festus. 
 
 " He never sees anything to laugh at," 
 declared Livia. 
 
 " Exactly — that's why I'm sorry for him. 
 Even Jupiter laughs." 
 
 " But not Apollo," answered his wife, " and 
 doubtless the true servants of Apollo imitate 
 him in that matter." 
 
 " It may be so, my squirrel, but Bacchus 
 does not frown on laughter and — well, there 
 are times in a man's life when there is reallv 
 nothing to do but laugh." 
 
 24
 
 THE DISCIPLE OF APOLLO 
 
 " I hope we shall always laugh," she said, 
 " if it be not wrong. Yet they who laugh not 
 are on a higher plane, even as the eagle is above 
 the woodpecker. The woodpecker indeed 
 laughs loud enough ; but the eagle soars 
 too near Apollo's sun to find matter for 
 laughter." 
 
 " Give me the woodpecker," answered 
 Festus. " He is the bird of Mars and follows 
 in the train of Bacchus. He was a king among 
 men once on a time — a king of Latium — and 
 Circe turned him into a bird, because he 
 would not love her. So he has had his troubles 
 like the least of us ; but he does not forget to 
 laugh at them." 
 
 Meantime Evander went his way, cheered 
 with that sense of well-doing which it was his 
 daily privilege to enjoy. 
 
 Presently he met his father, Cornelius, re- 
 turning from fishing. The old man looked 
 hot and weary. 
 
 " I will carry those," said Evander, taking a 
 heavy string of lake trout. 
 
 " It would have been better still if you 
 
 ^5
 
 EVANDER 
 
 had helped me to catch them," answered 
 Cornelius. 
 
 " I have been encouraging Livia and Festus," 
 he replied. 
 
 " Get a wife yourself," returned his father. 
 " We need a woman in our home." 
 
 26
 
 Ill 
 
 APOLLO AND THE WOLVES 
 
 LIVIA ascended into the woods that she 
 might bring Festus his dinner. She 
 J carried the food in a frail, and more 
 than her husband's little skin of wine and 
 pasty of baked meat she bore, for the girl 
 had friends on the heights and brought a 
 present for them in the rush basket. 
 
 Her way led five thousand feet upward to 
 a green plateau. Here she rested for ten 
 minutes and then climbed again. 
 
 Still higher, the crags of a mountain, with 
 precipices round about it, ascended to a summit 
 veiled in cloud. Streamlets leapt above the 
 gorges and flung crystal threads into the air. 
 They fell and their waters shouted to the 
 hills, with echoes higher and higher, fainter 
 and fainter, till they died away aloft and 
 
 27
 
 EVANDER 
 
 beneath. In the valleys there stared out 
 rusty wounds on many woodlands. They 
 marked where charcoal burners laboured, 
 stripped the pelt of the brush and calcined it. 
 A feather of smoke swung out beside these 
 naked spaces and, above them, little homes of 
 men clung together for protection against 
 their loneliness. The tassels of the chestnut 
 were breaking into blossom, mile upon mile ; 
 white robinia hung out scented tresses and 
 every dene and dingle was a feast of orange 
 lilies and valley lilies, columbines and delicate 
 white wood-rush. Far, far beneath, Larius 
 lay, like a fragment of green silk thrown down 
 between the mountains, and northward of the 
 climber, the lesser waters of a little lake were 
 cuddled under a hill and shone like a dark 
 cat's eye. 
 
 And now Livia met her friends. While she 
 reclined and let the wind from upper snows 
 cool her forehead and dry the straying strands 
 of hair upon it, there came a noise as of a 
 flight of starlings. But they were feet, not 
 wings, that made the sound, and there galloped 
 
 28
 
 APOLLO AND THE WOLVES 
 
 to her, light-footed as a flock of kids, the 
 Panisci, or little Pans. These fairy folk had 
 horns and hooves, and tails no larger than a 
 rabbit's scut. They stood eighteen inches 
 high and were not loved of the people, for the 
 rogues, though only baby fauns, were exceeding 
 mischievous and delighted to pester human kind 
 with pranks and practical jokes. They sent bad 
 dreams, turned the milk sour and lured away 
 the flocks upon the hills. Therefore wise 
 women made friends of the imps and, though 
 they won small service of them, at least 
 escaped their persecution. Some believe that 
 the Panisci are Pan's baby brothers ; but the 
 more learned suspect they may be his children. 
 It matters not. 
 
 Now their whimsical faces clustered round 
 Livia and their little agate-coloured hooves 
 trod on her toes. 
 
 " Our cakes ! " they cried, and so pushing 
 were they, that the girl gave their leader a box 
 on his prick ear and told him to behave him- 
 self. He wrinkled up his little flat nose and 
 was going to cry, when she brought her gift 
 
 29
 
 EVANDER 
 
 from the basket and gave the faunlet a round 
 cake made of millet and honey. So he forgot 
 hi3 tears and buried his bright yellow teeth in 
 the dainty. 
 
 They laughed and stuffed till all the cakes 
 were gone. Then they tumbled into her lap 
 and climbed upon her back, and tickled her 
 naked feet and asked her to make a game. 
 
 " I must take my husband his dinner," she 
 told them. 
 
 " Give it to us instead," said the Panisci. 
 
 " You're greedy pigs — all of you," she de- 
 clared. " I'm sure I don't know why I love 
 you." 
 
 They looked at her with innocent yellow 
 eyes ; then two fell to fighting, and standing 
 apart, butted at each other till the thud of 
 their hard, little skulls sickened Livia. 
 
 " Stop it ! " she ordered. " Come here and 
 be good, and I'll tell you a story." 
 
 They loved a tale and clustered round her ; 
 but none heard a story that day. Suddenly 
 from above, where the hill fell and a shaggy 
 moraine hung, spread like a cloak, from the 
 
 30
 
 APOLLO AND "THE WOLVES 
 
 shoulders of the mountains, there came a very- 
 strange and melancholy sound. It echoed in 
 the air and seemed also to creep over the earth 
 — the ululation of a hundred hungry throats. 
 
 " Never mind that," said the Panisci as 
 Livia started up to fly, " it's only the wolves." 
 
 " All very well for you," she answered, and 
 her cheek grew pale. " They can't hurt you, 
 but they can eat me." 
 
 Her hearers shouted with shrill laughter, 
 for they had no hearts. 
 
 " We will stop and see Livia eaten by the 
 grey wolves ! " they said. 
 
 But one — from wisdom rather than senti- 
 ment — cast doubt on this hope. 
 
 " If they eat her, she will bring us no more 
 cakes of millet and honey," he told the rest. 
 
 Thus the gravity of the situation dawned 
 upon them and they looked to the broken 
 ground, over which already streamed a pack 
 of hunting wolves. Escape was impossible, as 
 it seemed. 
 
 " Pray to Apollo ! " cried a faunlet. " The 
 wolves are his beasts and in his keeping." 
 
 31
 
 EVANDER 
 
 " And climb up that rock before you pray," 
 directed another, who, though a baby, was 
 not born yesterday, " It will be easier for 
 Phoebus to save you if you are out of reach of 
 their teeth." 
 
 Livia leapt up a solitary rock that, like a 
 monolith, spurred on the hill, and the jaws of 
 the wolf leader snapped vainly six inches 
 below her right foot. But her husband's 
 dinner was gone in an instant, and the Panisci 
 danced and screamed with delight as the 
 wolves bit into the wine-skin and the red 
 wine dabbled their noses. They shook their 
 muzzles and sneezed, for they were not wine 
 drinkers ; then, with the patience of savage 
 beasts, which is one of the things which makes 
 them so horrible to impatient humanity, they 
 squatted panting round the rock to wait for 
 Livia. Her perch was precarious ; her strength 
 would not enable her to hang on for many 
 minutes ; and the wolves, to whom time was 
 nothing and dinner everything, took their 
 stations for the banquet. If dinner turned 
 into supper, or even resolved itself into break- 
 
 32
 
 APOLLO AND THE WOLVES 
 
 fast, it mattered not. Here was a dainty dish, 
 worth waiting for. 
 
 The wolf leader spoke : " All women are 
 liars," he declared. " Only last week I passed 
 a cottage where a child was crying, and heard 
 the mother say she would fling it to the wolf 
 if it made that noise again. So I sat down to 
 wait, and presently, when the babe wept more 
 loudly than before, I lifted my voice at the 
 threshold and said, ' Behold, I am here, 
 madam.' But did I get the baby ? No. I 
 only had a red-hot brand from the fire across 
 my snout. There is no truth in the creatures." 
 
 " Pray to Apollo," shouted Livia's friends. 
 " And he will rescue you if he has time." 
 
 " Alas, I worship Bacchus," she answered, 
 hugging the rock. 
 
 " Apollo may not know it," they replied. 
 
 The wolves lifted their steel-bright eyes to 
 her. Some rested their noses between their 
 front paws, like watching dogs ; some scratched 
 themselves ; one bit at a thorn in his foot. 
 And Livia called upon the Delphic god to 
 save her. 
 
 » 33
 
 EVANDER 
 
 The response was practically instantaneous. 
 Light suddenly burned from a myrtle thicket 
 fifty yards away — a clear, ineffable fulgency 
 that expanded every way, like a mighty star. 
 Then, in the midst of it, they saw the god's 
 celestial form, as it had been a man made of 
 purest silver. He raised his bow arm, an arrow 
 flashed singing through the air and the leader 
 of the wolf pack leapt and fell dead, shot 
 through his heart. He quivered in every limb, 
 gave one great sigh and was still, while the 
 blood trickled from his side. 
 
 The faunlets jumped for joy, while the 
 dead wolf's companions, mad with terror, 
 tumbled over each other to be gone, and 
 vanished in a grey stream, like turbid waters 
 running up hill. The Panisci followed them, 
 for they disliked Apollo, who was not fond of 
 children. 
 
 The god approached and gave Livia a divine 
 hand to help her down. His glorious face was 
 the colour of ivory ; his wide eyes were blue 
 as the noon sky ; golden curls crowned his 
 broad and beautiful brow. His mouth was 
 
 34
 
 APOLLO AND THE WOLVES 
 
 firm and nobly modelled, and his expression 
 majestic and changeless as marble. A ghost 
 of the archaic smile haunted his countenance ; 
 but it was not connected with any perception 
 of humour. He drew his arrow from the wolf, 
 replaced it in his quiver and unstrung his 
 bow. 
 
 Livia fell on her knees and uttered thanks- 
 givings. She blessed him for his mercy and 
 prompt attention ; she commended his 
 miraculous skill, and, allowing enthusiasm to 
 outrun tact, she specially praised him for suc- 
 couring one not of his fold. 
 
 A shadow passed over the divine forehead 
 at her word. 
 
 " Do you not, then, pray to me habitually ? " 
 he inquired, with a voice of music. 
 
 " I pray to Bacchus," she answered, and 
 Apollo frowned. 
 
 " Why ? " he asked. 
 
 " Bacchus is my husband's god, Divine One, 
 and it seemed good to him that we should 
 adore at the same altar." 
 
 " One of those easy generalities which serve 
 
 35
 
 EVANDER 
 
 to conceal careless thinking," Phoebus answered 
 coldly. " Bacchus is no god for women. His 
 vogue is based on a crude pragmatism, Livia, 
 and he relies for his success, not upon the 
 strength, but the weakness of human nature. 
 A god, even as a man, is judged by the company 
 he keeps, and it should be enough for mortals 
 to know that, behind his parade of creature 
 comforts and profession of good fellowship 
 and conviviality, there lurks in my half- 
 brother a very ugly customer. Bacchus is no 
 friend to the mortal race and his boasted 
 gift does a great deal more harm than 
 good. You were better without it ; but such 
 is his jealousy, that those among you who 
 appreciate this truth and seek to decline the 
 grape, he forgives not. His motives are far 
 other than you imagine, for he plots to see all 
 mankind bound to him in the tendrils of the 
 vine, which, weak as infant hands at first, 
 grow gradually stronger till they hold the 
 accursed weed to the trellis and defy the 
 storm to break it down. How different my 
 service ! How superior my appeal ! ' 
 
 36
 
 APOLLO AND THE WOLVES 
 
 " I will tell Festus," faltered Livia. " He 
 is a very sensible man and would not willingly 
 worship danger." 
 
 " There is enough peril in the world with- 
 out courting it," answered the Lord of Light. 
 " By all means tell him what I say ; and if 
 you would hear more concerning me, invite 
 my servant, Evander, to your humble board." 
 
 " Thankfully we will do your bidding, 
 Mightiest One," replied Livia ; whereupon 
 Apollo vanished, and the young wife, still 
 trembling from her terrific adventure, has- 
 tened away to the forest. In half an hour she 
 heard the sound of a woodman's axe ringing 
 not far distant, and soon discovered Festus 
 destroying a great pine tree. 
 
 Two bacchants stood by, waiting for the 
 russet-brown cones that would presently fall. 
 But Festus was not in a good temper. For 
 the first time in her life, Livia beheld that 
 ruthless gleam which lights the eye of a hungry 
 man, and heard the harsh accents that accom- 
 pany hunger. In fact, Festus put his lady 
 horribly in mind of the wolves. He greeted 
 
 37 
 

 
 EVANDER 
 
 her with open annoyance, showed his teeth 
 and asked for his dinner. 
 
 " Fire-drakes and furies ! " he cried, " how 
 much longer am I to earn your keep on an 
 empty stomach ? " 
 
 Her story, of course, appeased him, for he 
 was a large-hearted woodman and loved Livia 
 very dearly. He kissed her, lifted up his voice 
 and thanked Bacchus devoutly for her escape ; 
 upon which his wife reminded him that it was 
 Apollo who had come to the rescue. 
 
 " The Panisci bade me call upon him, 
 because the wolves are his creatures," she 
 explained. 
 
 " Bacchus would have been quite as quick ; 
 and he wouldn't have preached a sermon 
 afterwards, but given you another dinner for 
 Festus," said a bacchant. 
 
 " Of course," declared Festus. " He would, 
 at least, have made good our wine-skin." 
 
 " I have seen him squeeze the grapes that 
 wreathed his hair into the cup of a thirsty 
 man," added the bacchant. " Did you ask 
 Apollo about Daphne ? " 
 
 38
 
 APOLLO AND THE WOLVES 
 
 " Certainly not," replied Livia. " One i« 
 not familiar with the gods." 
 
 " Some like it," answered the bacchant. 
 " Jove both makes and takes jokes." 
 
 " I have never seen Apollo," said Festus. 
 " What is he like ? " 
 
 Livia considered, then a happy illustration 
 occurred to her. 
 
 " He is like a glorified Evander," she 
 answered. " He speaks like Evander, and has 
 the same intensely serious and lofty expres- 
 sion. The god thinks very highly of Evander, 
 for he told me so." 
 
 Festus made a face which Livia slightly 
 resented. 
 
 " The Shining One has saved my life, at 
 any rate," she said, " so you must pardon me 
 if I am grateful." 
 
 " I am grateful too," he replied ; then 
 with a few final strokes of his axe, he flung 
 down the great stone pine. It trembled like a 
 sentient thing and seemed to throw up itl 
 aged arms to the heaven above ; then slowly, 
 majestically, it left the place that it had occu- 
 
 39
 
 EVANDER 
 
 pied for a hundred years, swung away and 
 descended in thunder. The huge earthward 
 limbs were cracked off like twigs, as it crashed 
 down ; the solid ground shook at the impact ; 
 overhead there broke a naked space of blue 
 sky and a thousand little things that had lived 
 in eternal twilight beneath the pine now felt 
 direct sunshine upon their leaves and fainted. 
 Not till the return of darkness and nightly 
 dews did they recover their senses. 
 
 The bacchants plucked the cones until they 
 had sufficient, then they went their way, 
 practising a dithyrambic chant. Livia offered 
 to hasten home and fetch Festus more food ; 
 but he held his day's work done and accom- 
 panied her down the mountain-side. 
 
 For a time neither spoke ; then Festus 
 voiced the matter in Livia's mind so accu- 
 rately, that she felt something like a blush 
 upon her cheek and turned her face from him. 
 
 She had been wondering in the depth of 
 her young soul whether, after all, Apollo 
 might not be a better god to follow than 
 Bacchus. She felt that he was eminently 
 
 40
 
 APOLLO AND 7 HE WOLVES 
 
 trustworthy, prodigiously powerful. And it 
 was clear that he did not admire Bacchus. He 
 was older than the god of the grape and 
 doubtless wiser. She did not think of herself 
 alone ; she considered the moral requirements 
 of Festus, and idly wondered whether, in the 
 time to come, her husband might rise to 
 greater things and a worthier pattern of life 
 if he sacrificed at the altar of the Light- 
 Bringer and left Bacchus for other men. 
 
 Here he interrupted her. 
 
 " You understand that it is not necessary to 
 trouble your head any more about Apollo," 
 he said. " We have agreed to worship Bacchus 
 and, for my part, I find him a good friend and 
 a staunch deity, who demands no impossible 
 sacrifices and is content if I am happy. Wine 
 suits me. I am the better for it. I have a 
 disposition naturally cheerful, and Bacchus 
 openly tells us that as long as we do our duty, 
 treat our fellow-man honestly, and pay our 
 way, the less we think about the gods, the 
 better. The great thing, if you are a mortal, 
 is to mind your own business, and let the gods 
 
 4 1
 
 EVANDER 
 
 mind theirs. Of course, if we are their 
 business, then they will mind us. I don't 
 know anything about that. But the gods 
 certainly help those who help themselves. 
 That is what the Panisci meant when they 
 told you to climb the rock first and call on 
 Apollo afterwards. It is a woodlander's 
 business to fell trees, and if he stands in the 
 way of the falling trunk, not Faunus or 
 Silvanus will save his skull ; nor does Neptune 
 heed the cry of the sailor who goes to sea with 
 rotten sails and a cracked mast. The gods 
 know their business, and they also know ours. 
 And when they punish us, it is generally 
 because we have failed of ours. Come now 
 and feed me, for I am starving. Then to- 
 gether we will pray to Bacchus." 
 
 She did not answer ; but you cannot speak 
 with a god and pass it off as a matter of no 
 significance. Livia, though her feelings were 
 not deep, became deeply influenced by her 
 adventure. To see the celestials at that stage 
 in the world's history was no astounding 
 matter, for they came and went among men 
 
 42
 
 APOLLO AND "THE WOLVES 
 
 and women, to human joy or sorrow, and 
 brought life, or death, as the case might be ; 
 but Livia had actually spoken with a most 
 exalted divinity and the magic and wonder of 
 him were, for the moment, heavy upon her 
 heart. 
 
 She yearned to worship him, but she con- 
 cealed her desire from Festus. Circumstances 
 unfortunately conspired to accentuate her 
 longing and she felt an overmastering im- 
 pulse to follow it. 
 
 There was, of course, much to be said for 
 this apparent conversion ; but it promised to 
 make life exceedingly difficult, not only for 
 her — she was going to have the centre of the 
 stage to comfort her — but also for her husband, 
 a man of fixed ideas and simple but most 
 steadfast religious opinions. 
 
 43
 
 IV 
 THE SELFISH OREAD 
 
 CARMENTA, the mother of Livia, 
 called at the forge of Fabius, the 
 smith, who was accounted a wise man, 
 when he chose to be wise. He and Carmenta 
 had been very good friends in the past ; 
 indeed Livia was their daughter, and the 
 mother thought that Fabius might now 
 reasonably use his brains on the young woman's 
 behalf. 
 
 But the forge lay a mile from the village, so 
 that the sparks that were wont to fly above it 
 should not set fire to the reed roofs. Carmenta, 
 therefore, had to walk a mile and climb a little 
 hill also before she reached it. 
 
 Stopping to rest at the summit of this knap, 
 she fell in with an oread, one of those nymphs 
 who dwell in the woodland. Carmenta felt 
 
 44
 
 THE SELFISH OREAD 
 
 no surprise, for the oreads would often con- 
 sult men and women about their own simple 
 affairs ; they were immortal maidens with 
 more beauty than intellect. 
 
 Now the oread stopped Carmenta and 
 begged a favour. 
 
 " I have a lesson and pray you hear it," she 
 said. 
 
 " Do you do lessons ? " asked the old 
 woman, and listened while the other ex- 
 plained. 
 
 " To-morrow I am to recite one of my 
 poems before Bacchus. For I am a poet and 
 the nymphs have told him about me, so he 
 has bidden me rehearse before him. Naturally 
 one wishes to shine on such an occasion, and I 
 have invented a very long and beautiful poem ; 
 but to learn it by heart was almost too much 
 for me. I have wearied my friends with it 
 and now I begin to doubt if it is as perfect as 
 I thought. For if an artist dwells overlong 
 with her own creation, a time comes when she 
 grows uneasy and discovers only an increasing 
 number of faults. But it will come freshly to 
 
 45
 
 EVANDER 
 
 your ear, and you may do me a great kindness 
 and hearten my sinking spirit, if you can 
 honestly say that you like the poem, and think 
 it worthy to be heard by Bacchus." 
 
 " Drat Bacchus ! — it's Bacchus here, there 
 and everywhere," said Carmenta, much to the 
 oread's surprise. 
 
 " Bacchus is a mighty and glorious god," 
 she answered ; " and if by good chance my 
 verses please him, he will reward me and 
 perhaps permit me to join his train and take 
 my place among his joyful companions." 
 
 " There are too many gods," answered 
 Carmenta flatly. " How on earth is a poor 
 body to decide among them which shall be 
 worshipped and obeyed ?" 
 
 " You pay your devotion and you take your 
 choice," replied the oread. " One should not 
 decide in a hurry, but, having decided, it is 
 well to be faithful, for the gods little like a 
 follower to desert them, and the goddesses 
 never forgive it." 
 
 ; Women ought to worship the goddesses 
 in my opinion," asserted Carmenta. " After 
 
 4 6
 
 THE SELFISH OREAD 
 
 we have done with Venus, who does not desire 
 to see old people at her altars, then let us pray 
 to Minerva and stick to her. I am troubled 
 about my daughter, Livia. However, that 
 won't interest you and you couldn't throw 
 any light upon it. So tell your poetry and I'll 
 listen. But I warn you that I don't know 
 anything whatever about poetry." 
 
 " Few do, but that doesn't prevent every- 
 body from criticising it," answered the oread. 
 " Once you were young and you loved, so you 
 have lived poetry whether you knew anything 
 about it or not — indeed, all humans do. They 
 live better poetry than they can write, in fact, 
 and if the least of you were able or willing to 
 set down his life, great poetry would appear ; 
 but you are too self-conscious. His self- 
 consciousness comes between the mortal artist 
 and his work, so that he can never attain per- 
 fection. Even gods are self-conscious, too, for 
 that matter ; but not the greatest. They say 
 Jupiter is writing a poem for Juno ; though it 
 is much more likely to be for somebody else." 
 
 " Get on," directed Carmenta. " The dusk 
 
 47
 
 EVANDER 
 
 is down and I cannot stay here all night listen- 
 ing to your chatter." 
 
 Thus directed, the oread put her hands 
 behind her, frowned, looked up at the trees 
 and began the poem she had written for 
 Bacchus. 
 
 " It is called ' Friend of the Night,' " she 
 said, then proceeded in this manner. 
 
 Another Night arrived on earth 
 
 After the immemorial way. 
 
 She followed a tempestuous Day- 
 Strangled and stricken from his birth. 
 
 The Queen of Darkness held her breath 
 
 To hear the thunder on the height. 
 
 Her diadem was forked blue light : 
 It seemed she brought not sleep but death. 
 
 " Alas ! alas ! my little reign," 
 
 She cried. " My loyal subjects dear 
 Will hide away for dread and fear 
 
 And I shall woo them all in vain. 
 
 The grey wolf pack will never roam ; 
 
 The badger folk will never rise, 
 
 With lemon streaks and ruby eyes, 
 From out the holt they call their home. 
 
 4 8
 
 THE SELFISH OREAD 
 
 Old russet fox sulks in his earth ; 
 The coney people all lie low, 
 For fur i3 better dry, they know, 
 
 Even at cost of nightly mirth. 
 
 My nightingale has gone to bed ; 
 My goatsucker brings not his churn 
 To secret places in the fern ; 
 
 My corncrake might as well be dead. 
 
 The barn-owl's lady hates a storm ; 
 To stay at home she'll think it best, 
 Spreading her wings upon the nest, 
 
 Keeping her little children warm. 
 
 And humankind, to whom the light 
 Or dark's all one for work or play, 
 Will not a moment now delay 
 
 As through the thunderstorm they fight. 
 
 No scented bloom can smile for me, 
 Nor sphinx-moth dip within its cup, 
 For every petal's close shut up 
 
 Against the weather's villainy. 
 
 No golden moon will glad my eyes ; 
 No star upon my forehead shine, 
 Or in my hair a diamond twine ; 
 
 No greenwood sing my lullabies. 
 
 49
 
 EVANDER 
 
 No gentle magic, no sweet sleight 
 Of dreaming dew, or gleaming lake, 
 A single kindly thought will take 
 
 For such a fury of a Night. 
 
 A troubled memory I speed, 
 
 Storm-foundered, sorrowful, unblest. 
 Because I bring the world no rest, 
 
 I am a friendless Night indeed." 
 
 Forlorn she came unto a dell, 
 
 And wandering there with rain-wet face 
 
 In all her unbeholden grace, 
 A sudden happy thing befell. 
 
 For Glow-worm, plodding through the grass 
 Within that dingle sad and damp, 
 Met Night, and lit a golden lamp 
 
 Out of respect to see her pass. 
 
 That such a tiny soul should see 
 
 Her loneliness, should know her name 
 And greet the Presence with a flame, 
 
 Made Night go much more cheerfully. 
 
 She praised the humble traveller, 
 
 Who shone and shone with all her might. 
 A smile irradiated Night, 
 
 And even thus she spoke to her. 
 
 50
 
 THE SELFISH OREAD 
 
 " Since me, my little one, you've kenned, 
 
 I'll set your spark upon my breast, 
 
 Choosing you for my dearest, best, 
 And, to be frank, my only friend. 
 
 And when far gentler Nights renew 
 The darkness and my tale is told, 
 Tell them I blessed your lamp of old, 
 
 And that I thought the world of you." 
 
 To dawn she passed ; another sun 
 Leapt o'er the earth in lurid might, 
 And Glow-worm, putting our her light, 
 
 Went home well pleased with what she'd done. 
 
 The oread proved word-perfect, but did 
 not recite her poem well. It was rather a sing- 
 song performance. 
 
 " A little incident I observed myself during 
 the last great thunderstorm," she explained. 
 " How does it strike you, Carmenta ? " 
 
 " It's overlong," answered the washer- 
 woman, " and you drone it out like a bee 
 sucking clover ; but I dare say, if you were to 
 hurry up and drop out about half of it, they'll 
 let you finish." 
 
 " Cold comfort," said the oread sadly. 
 
 5i
 
 EVANDER 
 
 " Perhaps, however, it might really be better 
 if I gave Bacchus something short." 
 
 " Be sure it would," answered Carmenta. 
 " Of course time is nothing to you immortal 
 creatures — time is only made for slaves, like 
 us — but it's better not to run the risk of 
 boring a god. Good evening." 
 
 The oread, however, was already so busy 
 considering her other poems, that she did not 
 acknowledge the salute, or thank the human 
 woman who had thus patiently listened to her. 
 In fact, she was a true minor poet to the 
 marrow in her immortal bones. 
 
 Carmenta proceeded to Fabius, who had 
 put out his fire and was sitting at his door 
 eating his supper. He shared with her the 
 best that he had, and they munched and drank 
 together without speech for a time. Then she 
 told him her errand. 
 
 " Our daughter is in grief," she said. 
 
 " So soon ? " asked Fabius. " I feared that 
 her marriage might be a failure, but did not 
 think to hear of trouble yet." 
 
 " It is not marriage, but religion," ex- 
 
 52
 
 THE SELFISH OREAD 
 
 plained Carmenta. " The god of Festus was 
 to have been the god of Livia also, for so it 
 seemed best and Festus willed it. Now, alas ! 
 our daughter finds that she must worship 
 Apollo. But Festus does not like Apollo, and 
 Livia dare not tell him what has happened to 
 her." 
 
 " A plague on the gods ! — there are as 
 many as flies in a marsh," said Fabius. 
 
 " But one must have a god. To have none 
 is to be friendless ; though to pay court at all 
 their altars is to fritter away your prayers and 
 be heard of nobody." 
 
 Let her pray to Apollo in secret then." 
 Bacchus would know it. He is a kindly 
 god, but does not pardon deceit." 
 
 1 Put it to Festus. A woman must be 
 happy, or she will take good care that her un- 
 happiness pours over into her home. Festus 
 is not hard to please — a very good, amicable 
 man and pays me well for his axes. Let Livia 
 tell him that she must worship Apollo, or 
 become a nuisance. Then he will make no 
 difficulty." 
 
 53 
 
 a 
 tt
 
 EVANDER 
 
 " So I thought," answered Carmenta. " But 
 it is not so. If Livia worship Apollo, there 
 will be much difficulty — not of her making 
 but her husband's. He adores Bacchus and 
 already suspects his wife. Festus is religious, 
 and his faith will turn him from Livia 
 and kill his love for her, if she does not 
 share it." 
 
 " He loves her much, however," declared 
 the smith. " He was here but three days ago 
 and told me that he had not known what it 
 was to live until he wedded our daughter. 
 By the same token he blessed Bacchus very 
 heartily for sending him such a bride. He also 
 gave it as his opinion that marriage was a 
 blessing and that he felt thankful he had not 
 lived too soon to enjoy the state." 
 
 " Can we do anything ? " 
 
 Fabius considered. 
 
 " We can be hopeful," he replied. " The 
 Lares are stronger than the Larvae, even as 
 good conquers evil. But this is one goodness 
 against another goodness. What has turned 
 Livia so obstinately religious ? You and I 
 
 54
 
 THE SELFISH OREAD 
 
 were — well, these things did not make life a 
 burden ; nor was it so with her before she 
 wedded." 
 
 " She has seen and spoken with Apollo." 
 " Then let her see and speak with Bacchus. 
 He may persuade her, if he thinks it worth 
 while ; or, better still, let Festus seek his god. 
 Bacchus demands no worship that is half- 
 hearted. Yet I am puzzled, for Livia was not 
 of the frosty spirits. Otherwise she had not 
 loved Festus, who has always enjoyed the good 
 things of earth when he could get them. 
 Livia loved laughter and gaiety. She danced 
 and sang and had no unkind word for any- 
 body. Now, having won the man she loves, it 
 ill becomes her to change her mood and seek a 
 god whose service lies heavy on simple folk of 
 the field. Apollo wins the wise people and 
 those who love the fruit of the brain — those 
 who, being able to choose, prefer the way of 
 austerity and self-denial. These things count 
 to them for righteousness, because they could 
 enjoy purple and fine linen and the fat of the 
 land if they desired to do so ; but for us, who 
 
 55
 
 EVANDER 
 
 live harshly, who deny ourselves from necessity 
 and are not heroes and heroines for so doing — 
 for us, Carmenta, Apollo is an affectation. 
 Let Bacchus and Faunus, Pomona and Juturna 
 be our friends. They at least bring gifts that 
 the poor can understand." 
 
 " We might split the difference and get 
 Livia to pray to Volcanus — your god — as you 
 and I were wont," suggested Carmenta. " It 
 is, I think, only against Apollo that Festus 
 entertains such antipathy." 
 
 " Leave it alone and see what they make of 
 it," advised the smith. " In marriage I under- 
 stand the woman is servant to her lord. I 
 know not how that may result, but we shall 
 see." 
 
 Carmenta left Fabius and returned home- 
 ward. She was troubled and preoccupied 
 with her daughter's affairs, when the poetical 
 oread accosted her again. 
 
 " You thought my last effusion too lengthy," 
 she said ; " then you can sit upon that stone 
 for a while, and I will recite an earlier work 
 that has been much admired by my friends." 
 
 56
 
 THE SELFISH OREAD 
 
 But to the oread's astonishment, she re- 
 ceived a chilly answer. 
 
 " Not again," replied Carmenta. " You 
 want everything for nothing, like a good many 
 other people. I am kind to the kindly ; but 
 where kindness is not recognised or acknow- 
 ledged, I can be flint. Where kindness is 
 taken for granted, it becomes weakness to 
 offer it. In future, when people devote their 
 precious time to your pleasure, at least re- 
 member to thank them ; and when people 
 bid you a friendly farewell, do no less than 
 echo it. Be gracious to the gracious ; and 
 because you happen to make verses, think not 
 that the need for courtesy is ended." 
 
 Carmenta went on her way and the oread 
 felt much too surprised to reply. 
 
 ' If one rehearses poems before a washer- 
 woman, one has only oneself to thank for 
 insolence," she reflected. " But it was ever so. 
 When the artist bends, common persons are 
 prone to take advantage. It is their brutal 
 opinion, apparently, that the poet who invites 
 their views, puts himself in an inferior posi- 
 
 57
 
 EVANDER 
 
 tion. By virtue of criticism, the critic con- 
 ceives of himself as sitting in the judgment- 
 seat, while the creator, forsooth, stands at the 
 bar. In future I will only ask my peers for 
 criticism ; though unfortunately one's peers 
 have seldom a kind or generous word to say of 
 one. It is their wont to look coldly upon your 
 achievements and return, with a secret sigh 
 of relief, to the things that they have made 
 themselves." 
 
 5§
 
 FAUN US 
 
 NOW did Livia, while rejoicing in the 
 love of Festus, none the less terribly 
 wound him. She was a happy woman, 
 but like so many happy women, could not 
 leave well alone, even when she found the 
 peril of trying to make well better. She met 
 Evander and told him that an impulse drove 
 her to Apollo. Naturally he — a devout 
 bachelor — encouraged her greatly and said 
 that, not for twenty husbands, must she set 
 aside the glorious inspiration that had come 
 upon her. But he did not analyse the inspira- 
 tion ; he praised her heartily and his applause 
 exalted Livia in her own opinion. Not content 
 with loving Festus, she must now needs fall in 
 love with herself ; and, as though the dignity 
 of wifehood were not enough, she aspired to 
 
 59
 
 EVANDER 
 
 the smile of fame. It was a foolish ambition 
 in a happy girl, who did not yet know her good 
 fortune, and it sprang from a defect of char- 
 acter, for which Livia was presently called 
 to pay the price. It is probable that had 
 not her impulse to do something out of the 
 common sprung from Apollo, it must have 
 blossomed, late or soon, from another source. 
 At any rate a certain restless factor in the wife 
 of Festus now cried out for change before she 
 had grasped the blessing of stability, and the 
 words of Evander affirmed her in error and led 
 to tribulation. 
 
 Another than Festus might have made light 
 of it ; even he under different circumstances 
 would have had little to say. But he mis- 
 trusted Apollo, who had slain more than one 
 of his friends for their indiscretions, and 
 when Livia presently informed him of her 
 intention henceforth to worship the God of 
 the Sun, Festus made it a personal matter and 
 forbade her. 
 
 She persisted and declared her faith no 
 matter for a husband's interference. He 
 
 60
 
 FAUN US 
 
 found her placing flowers upon the altar of 
 Apollo and beat her and drove her home. 
 
 " Fire-drakes and furies ! " he cried. " Shall 
 the woman I have wedded insult me to my 
 face, and pray to one who has slain my friends 
 with his accursed arrows ? " 
 
 She wept and tasted the fruit of martyr- 
 dom. 
 
 " I am your wife and we have been happy," 
 she answered ; " but your cruel blows banish 
 happiness from my heart for ever. I know 
 now that there are greater things than happi- 
 ness. It was a hard saying on the lips of 
 Evander ; but he spoke the truth. Beat me 
 if you will, Festus — you cannot beat patience 
 and fortitude and faith from my heart." 
 
 Thus he turned his wife into a tragedy 
 queen, and from being a jolly and laughing 
 lass, who loved his embraces and would rather 
 have sat upon his lap than the throne of the 
 Empress, he saw the new Livia — unsmiling, 
 sublimely patient, and with already a hint of 
 that self-righteousness which is often born in 
 those who follow the Apollonian way. 
 
 61
 
 EVANDER 
 
 He wept to her and prayed for forgiveness. 
 She dried his tears and forgave him instantly. 
 She spent all her time forgiving him and in 
 secret felt much gratification at the heights 
 on which she began to move. She displayed 
 the zeal and fervour of the proselyte, while 
 Festus tried, as far as a rough woodman 
 might, to keep his temper with her. Some- 
 times he succeeded, sometimes he failed ; and 
 he knew that each failure was another ray in 
 Livia's new crown of glory. He strove with 
 her and did what his warm heart prompted to 
 win her back to him. But it was in vain and 
 his patience gave out at last. As he truly re- 
 marked, he had married the old Livia, not the 
 new one. 
 
 He beat her sometimes in public, and since 
 it was a new thing for a man to strike a woman 
 before the people, a stranger travelling beside 
 the lake, who saw this sad spectacle, asked 
 what it meant. " They are married," 
 answered the folk. It became a familiar say- 
 ing, so that when a man evilly entreated a 
 woman, it was assumed that they were one. 
 
 62
 
 FAUNUS 
 
 Finally Festus determined to seek Bacchus 
 and beg him to throw light upon the situation. 
 Indeed, he started to do so, for Bacchus might 
 often be found with his train about the vine- 
 lands at this season, and when he was in the 
 neighbourhood, the genial riot of his retinue 
 could be heard for miles on a still night, 
 while their torches made a blaze in the forest 
 darkness. 
 
 But it happened that the woodman's pur- 
 pose was changed, for he fell in with Hope, a 
 youthful goddess whom to meet was always 
 accounted good fortune. Spes wore a light 
 robe of crocus colour, through which her 
 pearly skin glimmered very beautifully. Upon 
 her head was a wreath of purple gentians and 
 golden arnica that she had gathered in the 
 hills ; while in her hand she carried a bud of 
 orange lily. For it was her custom to bear a 
 bud only, never an open flower. Therefore 
 an unopened blossom is the symbol of young 
 Hope, since her sovereignty lies over the 
 future. The past is past and the present 
 fulfils itself and is the past before we can 
 
 6 3
 
 EVANDER 
 
 name it ; but none may tell what lies in the 
 shut bud of future time, and none knows 
 whether it will open pure and perfect, or 
 whether already the invisible worm lies within. 
 
 Spes knew all about Festus and Livia ; 
 indeed she was here to intercept the wood- 
 man on his way. 
 
 " Be advised," she said ; " remember that 
 while there is life, there is Hope. Go back 
 and strive yet again to prevail with Livia by 
 kind words and good sense. She loves you, 
 and it were a grievous thing that your lives 
 should be spoiled by these differences. It 
 is always dangerous to call in the high gods, 
 and though Bacchus is gentle as well as 
 terrible, he would, I think, be the first to 
 advise you to exercise patience and give Hope 
 a trial." 
 
 " It is just because I hadn't any hope left 
 that I was going to him," answered Festus ; 
 " but now I breathe the air of Hope very 
 willingly and will do as you tell me. I have 
 no desire to push myself into the notice of 
 my god if it can be helped, and gladly take 
 
 6 4
 
 FJUNUS 
 
 your advice. You are the goddess of To- 
 morrow, and I will trust to-morrow for a little 
 while, even though to-day be a failure. I 
 love Livia with all my heart, and where there 
 is Love, no doubt there should be Hope 
 also." 
 
 " To love without Hope is the saddest trial 
 that faces mortal man," answered Spes. Then 
 she left him, that she might take her message 
 elsewhere, and Festus, cheered at this meet- 
 ing, held it of good augury and returned to 
 his home in an amiable and sanguine spirit. 
 
 Meantime Livia had taken a walk beside the 
 Larian lake, for the evening hour invited to the 
 air, and so still was it that the twilight star 
 mirrored herself in the water, while the splash 
 of oars could be heard a mile distant, as the 
 fishermen returned to shore. 
 
 Livia had made supper ready for her 
 husband and then, walking beside Larius, 
 she met Evander, who was standing in an 
 attitude of contemplation at the brink of 
 the lake. 
 
 They conversed together and he made the 
 
 F 65
 
 EVANDER 
 
 evening hour still more beautiful by the 
 elevation and dignity of his sentiments. Livia's 
 heart beat with pride that he should thus 
 devote his exalted mind to her, and she strove 
 to rise to the occasion and prove worthy of 
 such a privilege. It proved a strain, but a 
 strain that women can generally bear, for they 
 have an art to appear wiser than they are, and 
 use silence so cunningly that oftentimes, what 
 is in truth their blankness, will be mistaken by 
 the incautious for pregnant understanding. 
 They know that the silence of other people 
 is golden in the ear of the egotist ; for 
 such men only ask for silence and love 
 a good listener better than any created 
 thing. 
 
 When she did speak, Livia answered 
 what she knew he would like to hear — 
 from intuition rather than conviction. And 
 even while she said " Ah, yes," and " Verily it 
 is so," and " You read my unspoken thought," 
 she suspected at the bottom of her young 
 heart that she was not entirely honest in this 
 attitude. 
 
 66
 
 FAUNUS 
 
 Thus she deceived Evander utterly ; her- 
 self, only in part. 
 
 " You are a martyr," he declared, " and 
 I reverence you. I feel, indeed, that we 
 have much in common, and it is no small 
 delight to me, who have worshipped Apollo 
 from my childhood, to speak comfortable 
 words in your ear and so help to sustain your 
 new and precious faith. Be sure that what 
 you endure is not hidden from Phcebus. The 
 more you suffer, the deeper his solicitude. 
 It may even happen to you, as to certain 
 historic maidens, that you will rise to 
 immortality by virtue of your persecution. 
 In fact, if you are miserable long enough and 
 Festus prove sufficient of a brute, your tor- 
 ments should ultimately win for you divine 
 honours and recognition. It is not beyond the 
 reach of hope, dear Livia, that you may some 
 day be turned into a flower, or star, and your 
 name thus associated with an immortal object, 
 to the wonder and admiration of mankind." 
 
 ' Festus will never be as horrible as all 
 that," she answered with conviction. " I feel, 
 
 6 7
 
 EVANDER 
 
 having you to succour me, noble Evander, and 
 heal my bruised spirit with the ointment of 
 your words, that I can endure all things while 
 life remains to me ; but, as a matter of fact, 
 though a passionate creature, my husband is 
 not of the stuff to make a tyrant." 
 
 " He is a stubborn and obstinate man with- 
 out high principles," replied the other. " He 
 may rise to tyranny if Bacchus inspire him. 
 Be firm and bate no jot of your convictions. 
 Remember that my eyes are on you and that 
 Apollo knows. Had it pleased the gods to waken 
 love in our hearts, how different must have 
 been your future — aye, and mine also ! For I 
 perceive in your steadfast courage and clear- 
 eyed outlook upon reality, a reflection of my 
 own best qualities." 
 
 " I thank you, wisest of men," she replied. 
 " I would rather hear you say that than 
 change places with the Star of Evening. Your 
 words will echo in my heart at its saddest 
 moments ; they will make my footsteps firm, 
 when they totter under the weight of afflic- 
 tion ; they will be a beacon when I am storm- 
 
 68
 
 FAUNUS 
 
 foundered, and a tower of strength wherein to 
 hide when most I seek salvation." 
 
 Her voice was melodious and she really spoke 
 with a thrill of conviction. She almost be- 
 lieved herself, and, of course, Evander did not 
 for an instant doubt. Her reply, indeed, 
 pleased him heartily. He was not an emotional 
 person, but in his response came as near 
 emotion as ever he had in his life. 
 
 " What might have been ! " he said. Then, 
 feeling the dramatic climax reached, cast 
 about for an effective phrase at parting. But 
 Livia had even a finer sense of drama than he, 
 for women possess a perfect instinct in this 
 matter denied to men. She felt that the last 
 word should be with her, and rising still 
 higher, an inspiration of dramatic fitness 
 whispered that no spoken word could better 
 the situation now attained. Indeed, more 
 words would mar it. She knelt, therefore, 
 kissed his hand and then hastened away, as 
 swiftly as was compatible with effect. 
 
 Her departure was very beautiful and very 
 convincing to all concerned, save one small 
 
 6 9
 
 EVANDER 
 
 corner of Livia's own heart wherein dwelt her 
 real self. This, of late, she had sought to 
 conceal ; but while it was effectively hidden 
 from everybody else — to their great mystifica- 
 tion and amazement — it still peeped forth to 
 Livia furtively. She grew colder and colder 
 towards it, however, for she preferred to think 
 that her true self had slept until the appeal of 
 Phoebus. 
 
 Now elated and slightly hysterical, she 
 wandered through the night and murmured 
 " Evander ! Evander ! ' Then she corrected 
 herself and said " Apollo ! Apollo ! " But this 
 did not sound so convincing, even when she 
 told herself that it amounted to the same 
 thing. She grew more calm presently and 
 began to reflect. 
 
 Then, in a benignant light, that seemed to 
 burn from within him, there came Pan the 
 Pasturer, that blessed, primeval wood god, that 
 figure for love and adoration, a deity apart, 
 whose altar in man's spirit no other god can 
 share. For worship what divinity you please, 
 still must you revere Pan, the son of Hermes, 
 
 70
 
 FAUNUS 
 
 the loved of herdsmen and hunters, the first 
 and mightiest of the gods of nature. And 
 because he is of nature, nature hides nothing 
 from him, and her deepest secrets, including 
 the heart of woman, he reads as an open book. 
 
 Livia knew him for Faunus, since that was 
 the name he bore in Italy. She bent the knee 
 to him and he stopped. 
 
 " Tell me," said he, " is there a flame 
 among yonder pine trees on the mountain, 
 and do my ears hear the beat of a distant 
 tympanon ? Bacchus makes revel to-night 
 and I go to keep him company." 
 
 Livia looked up, where the shoulder of the 
 hill loomed upon dying day. Already the 
 woods were an amorphous mass of darkness, but 
 in their midst, like a red eye, blinked fire. 
 There came also the dull reverberation of a 
 drum and the throb of cymbals far off. 
 
 " They are there, Mighty One," she said, 
 and he, looking upon her with kindly eyes, 
 knew her better than she knew herself. 
 
 " And so young Livia, daughter of Car- 
 menta and wife of Festus, doth ruminate upon 
 
 7i
 
 EVANDER 
 
 Fame ? " he asked, and she started to find her 
 thoughts read so easily. 
 
 " There is no harm in that, my child, but 
 beware of attempting the eagle's flight on a 
 linnet's wings. Fame comes not by seeking, 
 nor glory by taking thought. Renown steals 
 to the side of him who knows it not. Nor is 
 man a judge of Fame, to recognise her even 
 when he sees her. At best she is little more 
 than the thunder-clap that follows the light- 
 ning ; and do not forget that the dead rather 
 than the living concern her. He who inherits 
 her authentic laurel knows no more about 
 Fame than Death. He cares as little for 
 either as the bronze, or marble that w r e lift to 
 him cares for whom it stands. Not in the 
 heart of the dead but the heart of the living 
 does Fame exist. Yet it also happens that the 
 mightiest, who, so their work for humanity 
 be well and truly done, care not what man 
 wins the fame, are in truth the only im- 
 mortals, though forgotten of their kind. The 
 gods themselves do reverence to such spirits. 
 
 " Consider, therefore, Livia, what phantom 
 
 72
 
 FAUN US 
 
 you pursue and the ambition that lurks in your 
 heart. You desire to be linked with star or 
 stream, forest tree or woodland flower, for 
 ever ; so that mankind, when they mark the 
 star, or pluck the blossom, shall say, (; This is 
 Livia, the washerwoman's daughter, who, for 
 her sufferings on earth, was translated by the 
 high gods and shines upon the sky, or smiles 
 in the cyclamen, or strawberry.' But re- 
 member that you yourself are gone before 
 these things happen. All that you will know 
 is the suffering and sorrow, and there must 
 come a time when you will endure the addi- 
 tional grief of perceiving that the sorrow was 
 home-made. Thus you will vanish with the 
 bitterest doubt whether your life of grief was 
 not in vain ; with the gravest fear that, after 
 all, you may adorn no legend and win no 
 posthumous honour of the gods. For Jupiter 
 knows exceedingly well the difference between 
 reality and make believe. 
 
 " You are making believe, my dear girl, and 
 that road reaches no flower of earth, or star of 
 heaven. Therefore consider whether a happy 
 
 73
 
 EVANDER 
 
 home and a good husband are not better worth 
 your pains than the futile renown of which you 
 dream. Happiness is at your gates, and it is 
 not a heroine but a fool who shuts the door on 
 lawful happiness. I can speak impartially, for 
 my altar robs no other of sacrifice or incense ; 
 therefore I say that your husband's god is 
 good, kindly and powerful. You will do 
 well to worship him and, indeed, the maiden 
 whom Festus loved and courted, if she re- 
 mained true to herself, would be content 
 to adore the god of her husband. Time will 
 prove this to you, and my hope is that the 
 proof may not be withheld until it is too late. 
 Let me see a bunch of black and gold ophrys 
 on my altar to-morrow, so that I may know 
 you have not forgotten what I tell you." 
 
 Then he went his way, after Livia had 
 thanked him for his wisdom ; though in truth 
 she twisted it somewhat to suit her own 
 dreams. 
 
 For now she began herself to see that the 
 immortality of star, or wayside weed, was but 
 a doubtful delight to a living woman. She 
 
 74
 
 FAUN US 
 
 remembered that the joy of life, as expounded 
 by Festus before they were married, had 
 appealed to her exceedingly, and she came to 
 suspect that present happiness might be better 
 worth than future fame. She wondered, as 
 we all so often wonder, whether there was 
 any way to eat her cake and have it also ; 
 whether she might not get the best out of 
 both worlds. 
 
 She forgot Faunus and set her mind upon 
 Evander. For she believed that the way 
 to Apollo led through him and that, with 
 him, might dawn a brighter, temporal 
 happiness than any that Festus could promise. 
 Life would surely blossom with flowers and 
 run over emerald grasses if walked beside 
 Evander. 
 
 " What might have been ! " he had said, 
 and Livia returned home much heartened 
 by the reflection that what might have been, 
 might still be. Better, surely, to join the dis- 
 ciple of Apollo than link a dead name to a 
 star after a lifetime of suffering with Festus. 
 There were, of course, difficulties ; but she 
 
 75
 
 EVANDER 
 
 had set up for heroine, and where is the 
 heroine who cannot conquer difficulties ? 
 
 Thus Faunus certainly influenced her ; but 
 not in the direction he designed. It happens 
 so with much advice, for we are lightning quick 
 to pick from the mass of other people's wisdom 
 what appears to chime with our own. And 
 we are extraordinarily dishonest in this matter 
 and wrest advice from its context, or twist 
 counsel far from the original bent. 
 
 76
 
 VI 
 
 A SAD CHAPTER 
 
 THIS is a chapter so unhappy that it 
 shall be as short as possible, for who 
 loves to dwell on the sorrows of 
 other people if he cannot lessen them ? Art, 
 a wise man said, is with us that we shall not 
 perish of too much truth ; then let Art be 
 with us, to wipe the tears that truth so often 
 brings, and so help us and save us from alto- 
 gether weeping away our vitality and slight 
 value to the world. 
 
 Frankly, Livia's life at this crisis was art, 
 for we are all artists once, and our principal 
 work, which is our own existence, though it 
 may look fine enough to ourselves and our 
 admirers, seldom satisfies any independent 
 critic, or is lived in terms of sufficient distinc- 
 tion to make a masterpiece. Here and there 
 
 77
 
 EVANDER 
 
 we know that a king, or tinker, has achieved 
 mastery and left something completely beauti- 
 ful ; but the sovereignty comes from within ; 
 it is born of the mingled strands a man's fore- 
 fathers have spun, so that if we understood 
 the mystery of procreation, we might predict 
 that given such and such sires and grandsires, 
 greatness should result. 
 
 Herein the gods fail to the superficial eye, 
 and thoughtless men doubt whether they are 
 doing their best for our race while the genera- 
 tions continue to be so mediocre. These mis- 
 taken philosophers argue that the potential 
 materials of superman and super-woman lie 
 all around us, but that love, or ambition, con- 
 venience, or policy, are allowed to mix the 
 ingredients and so practically negative all 
 chance of greatness. In truth, of course, this 
 is a blessing ; for if all were wise there would 
 be no wisdom ; if all were great, no greatness. 
 Therefore be sure the gods still know their 
 business in this matter and give us quite as 
 many heroes and heroines as are good for us. 
 
 But the quality of heroism is not one which 
 
 78
 
 A SAD CHAPTER 
 
 we can determine in our own case ; and, as a 
 rule, the man who feels a sense of majestic 
 suffering, majestically borne, is making an ass 
 of himself. 
 
 Livia now suffered a great deal, for the 
 advice of Spes to Festus produced no lasting 
 results. He was, indeed, as patient as his 
 nature permitted ; but he could not bear up 
 against his wife's obvious enjoyment oi martyr- 
 dom : it proved a trial too great for this 
 simple and amiable man to endure. 
 
 Things therefore went from bad to worse 
 and, in the vernacular, it was common talk 
 that the young couple lived a cat-and-dog life. 
 
 And Evander, conscious of it, began to per- 
 pend. He was an excellent and high-minded 
 person and knew many useful things ; but the 
 workings of a woman's heart pertained to a 
 branch of learning beyond him. This was 
 natural in one of his predilections, for Apollo 
 himself cannot read hearts as old Faunus, 
 and though Faunus too frightens mankind 
 sometimes, his panic terror springs from far 
 other sources than that bewilderment so often 
 
 79
 
 EVANDER 
 
 inspired by the God of Day. Indeed, it mav 
 be argued that so-called panic terror is only 
 another name for conscience. 
 
 But it was small wonder that Evander did 
 not understand Livia, for Livia did not under- 
 stand herself. She could not analyse her emo- 
 tions and assign them to their true source and 
 inspiration. Evander believed that nothing 
 but the most exalted religious conviction now 
 led Livia to suffer, and Livia may have been of 
 the same opinion while she did not think 
 about it. But they were, of course, both 
 royally wrong. Clouds sometimes accompanied 
 the woman's glory of mind, yet they were so 
 tinged with the glory, that she perceived them 
 not. She was true to herself, and since herself 
 was at present false, her truth itself was 
 falsity. Even her real love for Festus faded a 
 little before his roughness, though she knew 
 that it was his love that made him rough. She 
 could not deny that he was quite as attached 
 to Bacchus as she herself to Apollo, and 
 as for his hard words and hard blows, since 
 they made her so attractive and sympathetic 
 
 80
 
 A SAD CHAPTER 
 
 an object, she had no real quarrel with them. 
 Her martyrdom produced a vigorous crop of 
 the weed we call spiritual pride. Much 
 spurious excitement entered into the situation, 
 and it became intensified when Evander, 
 dazzled by her display and quite furious at her 
 domestic sufferings, which lost little on her 
 lips, began to formulate a mighty conclusion 
 concerning her. 
 
 His motives may also have been a little 
 mixed. She was a challenge to his heroism ; 
 through her he might advance upon his own 
 steep path to those heights beyond the reach 
 of common men. He considered whether he 
 should not now notably rescue Livia from her 
 woodman and be to her a helpmate worthy of 
 her unusual character and attainments. He 
 determined to put the question before 
 Apollo, and even told Livia that he was 
 going to do so. 
 
 Her heart sank, but she applauded his resolu- 
 tion and assured him of obedience to the divine 
 mandate, whatever it might be. 
 
 Thus they unconsciously deceived them- 
 c 81
 
 EVANDER 
 
 selves and one another. They believed that 
 they loved with a pure, religious flame and felt 
 confident that they must offer to the people an 
 illuminating spectacle of elevated marriage in 
 its highest exposition ; while stark truth 
 pointed to the contrary and asserted that the 
 true Evander was not endowed by nature 
 to make a satisfactory husband for any woman, 
 and that the real Livia least of all could hope 
 for happiness in his arms. Lack of humour 
 combined with a steadfast instinct for the 
 limelight disqualify a man from shining on the 
 hearth of home ; yet, even while Livia knew 
 this well enough, she thirsted for the renown 
 of Evander's love ; she felt, not, indeed, answer- 
 ing love, but a slave-like gratitude for his 
 magnanimity and feminine pride in her suc- 
 cess, which she mistook for love. 
 
 82
 
 VII 
 APOLLO AND EVANDER 
 
 A MOUNTAIN, whose summits and 
 topmost glens were deep in snow, 
 b. rose, rent and jagged, to one brood- 
 ing cumulus that hung above it, and curled on 
 the blue like a silver dragon. Presently the 
 cloud furled its pinions and settled on the peak. 
 
 Apollo dismounted and waited for his 
 servant Evander, who came to speak with him. 
 
 All the sky was radiant azure ; but beneath 
 it one great passage of shadow spread across 
 the sunlit snow and rippled, as it rose and 
 fell to the contours of the land. There life 
 fought for a place on the uplifted earth and a 
 thin, sore-stricken pinewood fretted the snow ; 
 but beneath, at gentler altitudes, many a 
 green thing grew more happily, and whole 
 forests basked against the spurs and crags, 
 
 83
 
 EVANDER 
 
 that broke from their verdancy to buttress the 
 mountain crowns. Here fell precipices until 
 the lower hills caught them, where hung little 
 plateaux and nestled fertile slopes on the 
 ledges of stone. Then, by a thousand de- 
 clivities, there spread and oozed through every 
 valley and beneath every height the work of 
 man — terrace upon terrace, step upon step. 
 
 Now the trellises of his vines made a splen- 
 dour of every knap and knoll, and his olives 
 wound their orchards, like a grey veil, 
 round the throats of the old, wrinkled 
 hills. And breaking from the rolling green, 
 like wedges of brown honeycomb, his hamlets 
 and villages clung and congregated about little 
 altars of the gods. Here chestnuts lifted their 
 brightness to the girdle of the pines ; here 
 again swung out some great marble cliff to 
 distribute the awful burden of the mountain. 
 
 Sunk in the midst of an immense cup, 
 whose broken rim was the snow-clad peaks, 
 whose sides were chased and fretted with 
 forests and steep places, jewelled with men's 
 homes, glorified with the verdure of June, 
 
 8 4 
 
 ,
 
 APOLLO AND EVANDER 
 
 there spread the Larian lake ; and round it, 
 like bright shells scattered on a beach, other 
 hamlets clustered. 
 
 The hymn of Light was being sung over 
 Italy. Great cloud masses lumbered beneath 
 the zenith and discharged their burden of 
 reflected brightness into Larius ; for light 
 rather than rain they bore and their splendour 
 was mirrored in the waters beneath them, to 
 kill the blue with brightness. This effulgent 
 vision spread upon the face of the lake, and 
 currents of wind also touched it until the deep 
 fluttered into transitory darkness at their 
 pressure. 
 
 The last enchanter to move upon Larius 
 was shade, and, as wonderful as the reflections 
 of the light, there roamed over the water 
 wine-purple shadows of the high clouds. They 
 seemed ponderable and sank from the surface 
 to stain the depths ; while amid their patterns 
 and tinctures of lapis lazuli, the sun shone 
 directly and woke rich blues and emerald 
 greens, that set the shadow shapes in a net- 
 work of brilliant enamels and followed their 
 
 85
 
 EVANDER 
 
 changingfoutlines as they dislimned and passed 
 again. 
 
 Magical was the sleight that shadows played 
 with the shore also. They flew over forests 
 and mountains like a flock of great-winged 
 birds ; they hid whole villages beneath their 
 gloom and then, lifting, revealed the vanished 
 homesteads again, aglow in the sunlight. 
 
 Yet all this detail and harmonious splendour 
 was as nothing to the incarnate spirit of light 
 that gave birth to it. Light quickened noon 
 and throbbed through the veins of the earth- 
 mother. From cloud to mountain, from 
 mountain to the least flower that dwelt thereon, 
 the spirit forgot nothing. It swept land and 
 lake and sky with a presence like a bloom — a 
 blessed aura that crowned all things in earth 
 and heaven ; an ineffable glory of melting, 
 magic blue, that soaked through matter and 
 spread Demeter's own veil of violet and 
 gentian, between Persephone and every eye 
 that might gaze and grow dim at sight of 
 her. 
 
 The God of Day was well pleased and his 
 
 86
 
 APOLLO AND EVANDER 
 
 solemn eyes rested upon the world, where it 
 rolled at his immortal feet and uttered a thanks- 
 giving for his gift of sunshine. Then came 
 Evander and made obeisance. 
 
 " Your situation is known to me," said 
 Apollo ; " you need not, therefore, be at the 
 trouble to rehearse it. I may tell you frankly 
 that I do not always see at one with the 
 Supreme. Jupiter is my father, and he would 
 be the last to say that I am not a worthy son ; 
 but, as with gods so with men : the seed of 
 one man, or woman, will blossom into both 
 weeds and flowers, and who can tell why this 
 boy is a saint and his brother a rascal ; this 
 boy a genius, that one first cousin to an idiot ? 
 We only know it is the will of Jupiter and must 
 leave it at that. With gods, I repeat, this law 
 of nature holds. Were not Bacchus and I 
 both begotten of the Highest ? I need not 
 pursue the illustration." 
 
 He paused awhile and followed his thoughts 
 in silence. Then he returned to Evander. 
 
 " Your case has occasioned a difference of 
 opinion among us, and I find myself in a 
 
 87
 
 EVANDER 
 
 minority. That, however, is no new experi- 
 ence for me. It is enough that my august 
 sister, Diana, sees with my eyes. Indeed, she 
 usually reflects my highest thought, even as 
 the moon reflects the sun upon her bosom. 
 We are agreed concerning your affair, and 
 when we agree, the opposition of other 
 divinities seldom causes us any uneasiness. 
 There is no question but that our servant, 
 Livia, must leave this boor, her husband. 
 Faithful as he is to Bacchus, it follows that he 
 can be no spouse for any disciple of mine. 
 Certain cynical gods, who entertain less hope 
 of your race than I do, have hinted that this 
 woman is deluding herself and you ; but fear 
 not. It is enough that I do not think so ; it 
 is enough that I see her associated with you 
 as my active servant, ardent disciple and stead- 
 fast follower. Any disposition to backsliding, 
 did such occur, will be your affair to control 
 and combat. In your hands she should be 
 strong, and the happiness of sacrifice and self- 
 control, which is the priceless reward of those 
 who keep my words, should be hers, even as it 
 
 88
 
 APOLLO AND EVANDER 
 
 is already yours. In short, my sister com- 
 mends this union and I command it. Livia 
 must abandon Festus and cast in her lot with 
 you. The future will depend upon your 
 united efforts, and the ultimate reward, since 
 I am the living soul of justice, may safely be 
 left to me." 
 
 Evander bowed and became a little too self- 
 conscious for the company of his god. 
 
 " Only an intellectual could afford to pursue 
 this line of action, Shining One ; but what 
 would be difficult, probably impossible, for 
 those of less luminous faith and moral courage, 
 will be well within my power." 
 
 Thus replied Evander (smugly, it must be 
 confessed) and the god snubbed him. 
 
 " Boast not yourself in your intellect, but 
 on my support," he answered. " I notice 
 among certain of my followers a disposition to 
 undue elation on the subject of their intelli- 
 gence. Consider, however, who call you the 
 ' intellectuals ' ? The rank and file of man- 
 kind, who, being practically without any intel- 
 lect whatever, are prone to servile flattery 
 
 89
 
 EVANDER 
 
 before those who exhibit even a modest 
 evidence thereof. There is no salt in the 
 praise of fools, or significance in the applause 
 of the norm of men. Your mental gym- 
 nastics and gyrations ; your opinions and 
 ideas ; your approval or disapproval — these 
 help not either to remodel the world, or alter 
 the real convictions of anybody. Remember 
 that when the gods design a change on earth, 
 they do not choose the ' intellectuals ' as their 
 tools, but cast about for the man of his hands, 
 whose force can influence his kind, whose 
 voice can make a nation move at his call, 
 whose power can be felt in the hearts of king- 
 doms. Those who have created the history 
 of the human race, ate meat, risked their own 
 lives daily and feared nothing. The 'intel- 
 lectuals ' are decorative, even valuable in 
 their way, and I am the last to speak lightly of 
 them, since one and all are mine ; but if they 
 have a fault, it is their unintelligent assump- 
 tion that they really matter ; and a stupid world, 
 dazzled, as I say, by the slightest manifestation 
 of intelligence, is prone to feed this error and 
 
 90
 
 APOLLO AND EVANDER 
 
 foster their delusion. You have your place in 
 the cosmos, even as art, music and other 
 desirable manifestations of human energy and 
 imagination, which I myself inspire ; but you 
 must not make the mistake of supposing that 
 you alter anything, retard anything, hasten 
 anything, or control anything. You afford 
 entertainment to a very small minority — 
 nothing more than that." 
 
 Before this challenge Evander showed a 
 spark of human feeling. He tried, indeed, to 
 get a little of his own back, as they say. 
 
 " When you tell me that the ' intellectuals ' 
 are all yours, Giver of Light, I fear you have 
 been misinformed," he murmured. " Certain 
 of them wallow openly in the sty, and not only 
 eat birds and beasts, but also wash them down 
 with juice of the grape in very large quantities 
 — when opportunity occurs. They preach 
 their opinions balanced on a wine-skin, and 
 some are notoriously at their best when under 
 the influence of the accursed berry of Bacchus. 
 Such take your doctrines plentifully diluted 
 and glory in the flesh. They lead the life of 
 
 9 1
 
 VANDER 
 
 pleasure in bo \y as well as spirit, and find 
 existence much ;nore amusing than, of course, 
 they have any l'ght to find it. I know what I 
 am talking about, for I have met and argued 
 with these fellows, and though they are a 
 devious and tricky sort, who lack honesty in 
 argument and care not by what mean dialectics 
 they reach their goal, yet it is idle to deny 
 them a surpassing measure of brain power, 
 however false and ridiculous their conclusions." 
 " You know nothing at all," replied the god, 
 " and if such vain sophists can get the better 
 of you in argument, so much the worse for 
 your own wits. I say that all of you, whether 
 of my cult, or a lesser, are neither better nor 
 worse than other people. You are, in fact, 
 merely noisier. And when, therefore, you 
 suggest that only an ' intellectual ' can appro- 
 priate another man's wife without censure, 
 you talk through your hat, if you will pardon 
 the expression. You will run away with 
 Livia, not because you are an ' intellectual,' 
 but because I tell you to do so. You take her 
 from the torment of life shared with Festus, 
 
 92 

 
 APOLLO AND EVANDER 
 
 because you are a man of courage and under- 
 standing, sense and self-control. Many who 
 lay no claim to exceptional intellect have done 
 as much — perhaps more successfully than you 
 will. And remember for your chastening, 
 that between the highest human intellect and 
 the lowest, there is really no very appreciable 
 diversity in divine eyes. The ants and locusts 
 vary as much. They, too, have their * intel- 
 lectuals,' and the hive also knows them. One 
 spider differs from another in cunning, and it 
 is not the ' intellectual ' fish that your father 
 catches, but the duffer. 
 
 " In truth," concluded the Shining One 
 " you hold the germ of intellect, but really 
 little more at this stage of your history, and 
 the very fact that you ' intellectuals,' so to 
 call you, are the last persons to the fore, when 
 anything has got to be done, shows too clearly 
 that reason is still but a broken reed among 
 you. The prime gift of your Creator you 
 resolutely flout and neglect. Why, even the 
 ' intellectuals ' themselves make war on reason, 
 using their reasoning powers to do so ! ' 
 
 93
 
 EVANDER 
 
 Evander bowed his head before this lecture, 
 which he naturally applied to certain of his 
 friends rather than himself. He then begged 
 for guidance as to his next move and so put 
 his foot into it once more. 
 
 " The details are yours, not mine," replied 
 Apollo coldly. " One does not come to me 
 to learn the scales on the lyre, but to listen to 
 the utmost a lyre can be made to do. You ask 
 me to direct your course of action and I have 
 done so. Being an ' intellectual,' I doubt not 
 the necessary details will lie within your reach. 
 Your wits, I imagine, are called to cope with 
 the right arm of Festus, for he attaches great 
 importance to the possession of Livia, and will 
 not suffer the woman to depart from him 
 without such opposition as occurs to his 
 indignant heart. Livia herself will raise no 
 difficulty, since she aspires to be your helpmate ; 
 but regarding Festus — that is entirely your 
 affair, and if your intelligence and craft cannot 
 triumph over his brute strength, then you 
 will only afford another example of what I 
 say : that the momentous affairs of the world 
 
 94
 
 APOLLO AND EVANDER 
 
 depend far less upon the talkers, than the 
 talkers are prone to believe." 
 
 Evander, however, discovered in his reply 
 that diplomacy has its uses. 
 
 " Since the ultimate appeal must lie between 
 Apollo and Bacchus," he answered, " there 
 can be no doubt as to the issue." 
 
 The Lord of Light was gratified. 
 
 " You have spoken well," he said, " and I 
 entertain every hope of your success." 
 
 He then vanished, and his disciple wandered 
 down the mountain-side, deeply conscious that, 
 for once, physical action was demanded. He 
 hesitated to enter a world so much outside his 
 own. In matters of thought, he had ever 
 moved securely ; but his thought, though it 
 had often provoked other people through 
 irritation into action, which it is the province 
 of thought to do, had never taken him into 
 the field of action until now. 
 
 He regretted the necessity. When some- 
 thing had to be said — disagreeable or other- 
 wise — Evander was always ready and willing ; 
 but now something had to be done. 
 
 95
 
 EVANDER 
 
 He consoled himself with a reflection. 
 
 " Everybody knows that moral bravery is 
 much rarer and grander than physical courage," 
 he thought. " Then it follows that I, who 
 lack not the first gift, shall of a surety find 
 myself endowed with the second." 
 
 He began by doubting whether there was 
 really any need for haste ; but he decided 
 before he reached his home that haste must be 
 made. He felt that he had better act while 
 the mandate of Apollo still sounded in his 
 ears. 
 
 " To-night," he said aloud. But his own 
 familiar voice surprised him, for there had 
 come into it a new and untranquil tone. 
 
 9 6
 
 VIII 
 BACCHUS AND FESTUS 
 
 BY one of those coincidences, common 
 in real life but viewed uneasily by the 
 artist, Festus sought his god on the 
 evening of the day when Evander listened to 
 Apollo. 
 
 The woodman's patience broke down at 
 last and he began to realise the gravity of his 
 position. Livia throve on hard words and 
 Festus grew ashamed and miserable at utter- 
 ing so many. More than her perversity, it 
 exasperated him to feel his own failure. He 
 was angrier with himself than with her, as so 
 often happens in these cases, for our annoy- 
 ance, when our will fails to impose itself upon 
 another, is really personal, though at the time 
 we imagine otherwise. 
 
 Festus now felt the situation no longer to 
 h 97
 
 EVANDER 
 
 be endured, and when Carmenta, concerned 
 for her daughter, told him that he was a tyrant, 
 a bully, a slave-driver and a disgrace to man- 
 hood, he — poor soul — after failing to con- 
 vince her that his only purpose was to open 
 his wife's eyes to her mistake, began to see 
 that none save Bacchus himself could throw 
 any light upon the painful problem. 
 
 And when dusk came down, he sought the 
 courts of the god, for it happened at this 
 season that Bacchus and his train were harbour- 
 ing in the woods about Larius, and the drone 
 of drums, the tinkle of distant cymbals and 
 the blaze of great fires were nightly to be 
 heard and seen upon the hills. 
 
 Festus found the merry throng without 
 difficulty. Bacchus himself, crowned with a 
 wreath of ivy, lolled in the midst, while 
 bacchants replenished his golden cup when it 
 was empty. Silenus, oldest of satyrs — he who 
 prompted Bacchus to the vine cult — sat beside 
 him on a wine-skin. He was ancient, bald, 
 pot-bellied, with a fat breast as hairy as a 
 beast. His nose was round and red, his eyes, 
 
 98
 
 BACCHUS AND F EST US 
 
 diamond bright and merry as laughter's self. 
 An ass was tethered behind him and stood 
 munching a litter of maize. The unvenerable 
 but sagacious deity was not drunk, but merely 
 market merry. 
 
 Round about a noble fire, that blazed in 
 the midst of the party, sat also bearded 
 Silvanus, protector of fields and flocks ; Faunus 
 himself, divine master of all woodlands and 
 wild creatures ; fair Libitina, guardian god- 
 dess of garths and voluptuous delights ; and 
 august Mater Matuta, the deity of birth and 
 dawn. Pales, who protects the herdsmen and 
 shepherds, was also there, and young Feronia, 
 spirit of flowers ; Pomona, goddess of the 
 fruit trees, and Vertumnus, her husband, who 
 taught the use of the pruning-knife. Nor was 
 Juturna, mother of all fountains, absent ; she 
 who bore to Janus young Fontus, the god of 
 Springs. 
 
 Many lesser immortal folk completed the 
 company. Fauns and satyrs ringed the fire, 
 with nymphs and naiads of the rill and stream, 
 oreads of the hills, dryads and hamadryads 
 
 99
 
 EVANDER 
 
 who cherish the forest trees. In a circle close 
 to the burning logs, their eyes glimmering like 
 emeralds and rubies, sat the Panisci eating 
 grapes and warming their little ivory hooves. 
 The bacchants had laid down their thyrsi, 
 their tambourines and their cymbals and were 
 also resting for a while after a corybantic 
 whirlwind. 
 
 The oread who had recited to Carmenta, 
 was just about to begin one of her poems, 
 when Festus appeared in the red light and 
 flung himself upon his face. 
 
 " Who art thou ? " asked Libitina, and the 
 suppliant, rising to his knees, made answer. 
 
 " I am Festus, the woodman, and I humbly 
 pray my god and master to hear me." 
 
 " You shall speak," replied the Care-dis- 
 peller. " Not that it is needful, for I know 
 why you are come ; but first we will hear this 
 oread, whose turn it is to entertain us." 
 
 " Great god," began the oread, " I much 
 fear the poem is overlong." 
 
 " Then do not make it longer with explana- 
 tions and apologies," retorted Bacchus. " We 
 
 ioo
 
 BACCHUS AND FESTUS 
 
 shall better judge if it be too long after we 
 have heard it." 
 
 " It is a minor incident in the life of 
 Demeter," proceeded the poet, and again 
 Bacchus stopped her. 
 
 " All this we shall learn from the poem," 
 he said. " Therefore proceed, fair lady, for 
 other pleasures await us beside your verses." 
 
 The dreamy eyes of the god, which in the 
 firelight were as deep pools of purple, shone 
 benignantly beneath his crown of leaves, and 
 when the oread began, he closed them, the 
 better to estimate her performance. 
 
 She made a nervous start and it seemed, 
 indeed, that her fatal weakness was always to 
 extend her compositions beyond seemly length. 
 But courtesy to an artist is a rule of the Bacchic 
 court. Not a sound interrupted her delivery, 
 and even the Panisci listened with the patience 
 that the least of those who seek to entertain us 
 should earn from right-thinking gods and 
 men. 
 
 She told the tale of Demeter and that wilful 
 
 101
 
 EVANDER 
 
 imp, Abbas, who paid such a hard price for his 
 improper behaviour. 
 
 On a far day, Demeter, wandering, 
 
 Came wearied to a little dingle deep, 
 Where leapt the crystal of a secret spring, 
 
 And countless starry blossoms woke from sleep. 
 The Mother smiled and took great joy to find 
 A peaceful resting-place so fitted to her mind. 
 
 Straight from the cold, sweet cisterns of the earth 
 That fountain leapt, the goddess longed to taste ; 
 
 But first she ministered unto the dearth 
 Of a wood hyacinth, then, without haste, 
 
 Made tender quest to see if all were well 
 
 With every precious thing that homed upon the dell. 
 
 She stroked the golden saxifrage that hung 
 Over the fountain ; many a primrose bright 
 
 Trembled beneath her hand ; aloft among 
 The lemon catkins, sparks of crimson light 
 
 The goddess counted, knowing that in these 
 
 Lay hid the harvest sweet of all those hazel trees. 
 
 The dim wood-rush, the dewy moschateL 
 The sun-bright kingcup and the orchis sweet, 
 
 The least campanula with azure bell, 
 
 And the veined violet, kissed her tired feet. 
 
 Sure the forget-me-not had never known 
 
 That Dame Demeter's eyes were bluer than her own. 
 
 102 

 
 BACCHUS AND FESTUS 
 
 Now sat she down and arched her stately palm 
 To make a ready cup whence she might drink ; 
 
 Whereon ere swam, without a thought of harm, 
 A shoal of shining minnows to the brink ; 
 
 Touched her white fingers and, with glad surprise, 
 
 Stared up, a humble love in all their goggled eyes. 
 
 Alas ! that on an hour so gracious, fair 
 
 And comely, falls a shade ; it must be told 
 
 How laughter shrill awoke the ambient air, 
 And echoed rude and shrill and overbold. 
 
 A naked human boy the reeds among 
 
 Made faces and poked out his saucy little tongue. 
 
 Demeter, scarcely used to infant slight — 
 For sweet Persephone and griefs to come 
 
 Were hidden still within uncertain light 
 Of future time — the urchin ordered home. 
 
 But little Abbas laughed and disobeyed, 
 
 For at her lovely look, what child could be afraid f 
 
 " Then shalt thou be a human boy no more ! " 
 Quoth the great goddess, " but a plague and pest 
 
 To every traveller upon this shore. 
 
 To all who hither come on thirsty quest 
 
 Of these bright waters, henceforth, prone and mute, 
 
 Thou art, thou naughty rogue, a scarlet-crested newt ! " 
 
 With but one cry poor Abbas, down and down, 
 Sank through the silver to the amber sands 
 
 Beneath the fountain ; changed from pink to brown ; 
 Put forth small paws instead of feet and hands ; 
 
 103
 
 EVANDER 
 
 Dwindled to inches three, while like a flame 
 Along his back and tail, a scarlet crest there came. 
 
 Now, when the wayworn traveller runs to sip 
 And bends to touch the sparkling crystal clear, 
 
 Young Abbas creeps upon his nether lip, 
 Whereon he leaps with horror, or with fear. 
 
 But should this hap to you, feel no annoy ; 
 
 The scarlet-crested newt was once a little boy. 
 
 None applauded at the completion of the 
 poem until Bacchus clapped his hands. Then 
 the oread received a gratifying testimonial to 
 her talent. 
 
 " Too long, as you feared," declared the 
 god, " but none the less a promising effort." 
 
 " I have always thought that Demeter's 
 punishment was in excess of the child's crime," 
 said Mater Matuta, " but so, indeed, I often 
 find myself thinking before the ways of gods 
 with men." 
 
 " Demeter is a little apt to deceive humanity 
 — unconsciously, of course," remarked Silvanus. 
 " She looks so benignant that the people err, 
 and having gazed upon her face, often find that 
 her temper is cast in another pattern." 
 
 104
 
 BACCHUS AND FESTUS 
 
 " But she is a blessed goddess and has seen a 
 great deal of trouble," answered Juturna. 
 
 Then Bacchus turned to the oread. 
 
 " You shall join us," he said. " Let her 
 drink from my cup and sit beside me." 
 
 " We must tune her to wilder music, how- 
 ever — worthy of dithyrambic measures. This 
 is a little starched and prim for our society," 
 declared Libitina. 
 
 They had all forgotten the woodman, but 
 now the eyes of Bacchus sought him, where he 
 stood without the circle leaning against a 
 pine, and he bade Festus stand forth and tell 
 his trouble. 
 
 "I am a married man," he announced, 
 " and knowing well that I worshipped Bacchus 
 and made my sacrifice at his altar, Livia, the 
 daughter of Carmenta, came to my home con- 
 tent that my god should henceforth be hers 
 also. For a brief while all went happily with 
 us, then circumstances inclined her to another 
 god and she now worships Apollo. This is to 
 break her bargain with me. I have done 
 all in a man's power to bring her back to you, 
 
 105
 
 EVANDER 
 
 Divine One, but despite words and even blows, 
 for in my exasperation I have struck her, she 
 cleaves to Apollo and prays to him the more 
 resolutely for my remonstrance. Nevertheless, 
 I still love her, as never man loved woman 
 before, and it is my love that persecutes her, 
 since well I know that if she were her true self 
 and not blinded and deluded, she would 
 naturally find in Bacchus the rule most suited 
 to her spirit. For she is changed by this error. 
 She laughs no more, since Apollo loves not 
 laughter ; she sings no more, out of fear that 
 her singing will not be perfect enough for his 
 ear. She suffers my correction with smiles of 
 delight, and is happiest when I am most harsh. 
 Thus the people see in her a martyr and in me 
 a tyrant, whereas— fire-drakes and furies ! — the 
 truth is exactly contrariwise, for she is the 
 tyrant and I am the martyr. 
 
 " I pray, Vine-bringer, that you will light 
 my steps in this sad tribulation and show me 
 how best I may save my Livia — both for your 
 worship and my love." 
 
 " Find somebody else," advised Libitina. 
 
 1 06
 
 BACCHUS AND FESTUS 
 
 " That will soon bring her back to Bacchus 
 and her proper mate." 
 
 " I do not want anybody else, most gracious 
 goddess," replied the native. " I love her 
 with a great passion and, as I tell you, but for 
 this new craze, she would love me gloriously, 
 as she did before she fell in with Phcebus. 
 Even now her love has not withered to death. 
 There is enough still left to leap into a fire 
 again, if but this delusion were taken from 
 her heart." 
 
 " A child will bring her back," foretold 
 Mater Matuta. 
 
 " We are too far apart for that to happen," 
 replied Festus. " One cannot ask for such 
 sacred gifts from Livia now. Who would 
 desire to make a woman the mother of his 
 child when so great a cloud stood between 
 them ? " 
 
 Then, looking upon this rough but honest- 
 hearted woodman, Bacchus sorrowed for him. 
 
 " The future is hidden from the gods," he 
 said, " though it is our sleight to pretend 
 otherwise. As a matter of fact, however, 
 
 107
 
 EVANDER 
 
 nobody is more anxious about the future than 
 are we, and it may be that nobody has more 
 reason for such anxiety. For the naked truth 
 is this : that the gods and goddesses live in 
 man's heart, not man in theirs ; and if man 
 pluck us out of his heart " 
 
 He paused while a sigh and shiver passed 
 through his assembly. 
 
 Faunus bent forward. 
 
 " These are no words for a human ear," he 
 whispered. " The peasant may proclaim this 
 highly compromising truth to those who will 
 understand it." 
 
 " At any rate," proceeded the Giver of the 
 Vine, " it is something to deserve well of the 
 future — a remark which applies quite as much 
 to us as to you. Then, at least, we come to it 
 with a clear conscience, and if the future fail 
 us, we have not the additional bitterness of 
 reproaching ourselves. We always hold our 
 punishments too great for the occasion and 
 our rewards too small. In fact, none that 
 ever I met was satisfied with his good or ill. 
 
 " With respect to Livia," he continued, 
 
 108 

 
 BACCHUS AND FESTUS 
 
 " you err from natural forthrightness of mind. 
 Livia must have full liberty to worship whom 
 she will. No woman can pray to a god, unless 
 he is in her heart ; and even if he be there, 
 you finite beings are prone to self-deception 
 and may either go with a god hidden in your 
 heart and know it not, or fancy a god within 
 you when he is far away. Not piety inclines 
 Livia to Apollo, but a natural feminine desire 
 to be out of the common if possible. If a 
 woman find that she can cut a dash, she will 
 seldom flinch from the pain of the price. 
 Their ambition is ever to stand on a pedestal 
 — nor do they stop to think if their feet be 
 beautiful enough for that position. Livia, 
 then, is cutting a dash, and you are helping 
 her to do so. Thus her love is polluted at the 
 source and she is loving you for being unkind ; 
 whereas if she were not playing a part, she 
 would hate you for being unkind in the 
 normal manner. Go home, therefore, and be 
 as kind as you know how. There is no zest like 
 a martyr's ; therefore cease to whet that zest 
 and do what you may to damp it. 
 
 109
 
 EVANDER 
 
 " A period of discontent must follow, for 
 none of us likes to come down off his or her 
 pedestal ; but in process of time, love will 
 return to its natural channel. In short, give 
 her liberty and leave to pray to Apollo. En- 
 courage her devotions. Remind her if she 
 neglects them. Prepare his sacrifices for her ; 
 beam upon her religious enthusiasm ; spare 
 no thought or action to make her goings soft 
 and her ways full of delight. All this lies well 
 within your power, for you are a model 
 husband. Persist in this course and, if I know 
 anything of Livia's heart, she will presently 
 lose this Apollonian flair and perceive that 
 your god has also a good deal to say for him- 
 self. She will find that I, Bacchus, have made 
 her husband wise, tolerant and gentle ; that I 
 have helped you to find the joke that lies in all 
 human quarrels, like a sweet pip, at the core of 
 every bitter apple. She will perceive that you 
 are a sane man, who seeks to bring happiness 
 to your fellow-creatures and shuns to come 
 between them and anything that may cloud 
 the little happiness they can hope for in this 
 
 no
 
 BACCHUS AND FESTUS 
 
 difficult business of leading a distinguished 
 life. Then your altar shall again be her altar 
 and your god her god. I speak, of course, with 
 special knowledge of Livia. There are some 
 women to whom Apollo makes more direct 
 and real appeal than can I. But such a woman 
 would not have wedded you. Therefore de- 
 part in peace and act as I have spoken." 
 
 Festus returned thanks in the best words 
 that he could command, then went his way 
 from the presence, in good heart and full of a 
 cheerful determination to withstand his wife 
 no more. He whistled down the mountain- 
 side, stood for a moment to listen to the 
 whirl and sob of the timbrels that broke out 
 soon after his departure, and then sought his 
 home. 
 
 But a shattering surprise awaited him. 
 Evander, learning that Festus had gone to the 
 mountains, doubted not that Apollo's hand 
 was in it and, hastening to Livia, came before 
 her as her saviour. 
 
 " Presently," said he, " we shall be united, 
 
 in
 
 EVANDER 
 
 and a life of ceaseless well-doing may, in the 
 time to come, win us such divine recognition 
 as we desire and must labour to deserve." 
 
 He then touched the practical side. 
 
 " A boat lies at the beach and I design to 
 row you to yonder spur of land over against 
 our present homes. On that peninsula we will 
 dwell and soon win the people's hearts with our 
 worth and wisdom. As for Festus, you need 
 have no fear of him. We are under Apollo's 
 protection henceforth, and no mightier god 
 rules human hearts." 
 
 " It will be a nine-days' wonder," said 
 Livia, " and people are sure to cry our names 
 in the market-place. Oh, amazing Evander ! 
 henceforth I dedicate my life to you, and never, 
 if I live to be a hundred, can I repay you for 
 your generosity and self-sacrifice. To have 
 won such a spirit was worth my crown of 
 suffering. And if you worship Apollo, then 
 shall I worship you, for you are his priest for 
 ever, and, through you, his ineffable and 
 burning ray will fall a little gentler upon my 
 heart. You shall lift me, raise me, sanctify 
 
 112
 
 BACCHUS AND FESTUS 
 
 mc, until I am at last worthy of the god and 
 you yourself." 
 
 " Excellent 1 ' replied Evander. " Now 
 follow me, if you please." 
 
 " For ever and for ever," she answered. 
 
 Thus it came about that when Festus burst 
 into his hut, shouted for Livia and told her 
 that Bacchus directed she must henceforth 
 worship Apollo and command every facility 
 for so doing, the lady was not there to hear his 
 good news. 
 
 113
 
 IX 
 
 THE PAIN OF THE PRICE 
 
 FOR a long time her great achievement 
 obliterated the true Livia. So over- 
 whelmed was she with the splendour 
 of Evander's conduct, that her words came 
 true and she showed him far more reverence 
 and extended to him a worship more complete 
 than Apollo himself won from her. She kept 
 ever in mind the extent of her obligation and 
 the immensity of his condescension. Indeed 
 the remarkable thing that Evander had done, 
 in rescuing Livia from Festus, ran on many 
 tongues round the Larian lake, and the infamy 
 of Livia's husband, flying on rumour's wings, 
 grew greater as it spread, until the people 
 considered whether he should be slain for his 
 abominable conduct. Evander, on the con- 
 trary, though in plain Italian he had run away 
 
 114
 
 THE PAIN OF THE PRICE 
 
 with another man's wife, became exalted and 
 all men agreed that he was worthy of praise. 
 To say that the folk were as pleased with him 
 as he was with himself would be but a slight 
 exaggeration. 
 
 For his part he treated Livia with reverence, 
 and no doubt had she run away with any less 
 excellent person than Evander, many unkindly 
 words might have been spoken. But he was a 
 man above reproach, and though certain 
 brainless fellows of the baser sort held him to 
 be a bore, that was the worst ever whispered 
 against him. When, too, he stated to the 
 inhabitants of the peninsula where now he 
 made his home, that Apollo had personally 
 directed him to save Livia for the faith, 
 none dared criticise. Indeed, Evander came 
 out of the incident with flying colours every 
 way ; for it increased his own self-respect, 
 which is always desirable ; it gave him for 
 companion an adoring woman — a high fortune 
 enough ; and it led the people to regard him 
 a9 a man of fortitude and character and an 
 acquisition to the peninsula in every way. 
 
 115
 
 EVANDER 
 
 His purpose was to educate and elevate all 
 who would listen to him. He designed a sort 
 of priestly ministration and hoped heartily to 
 lessen the woes of the world with Livia's 
 assistance. He credited her with sound judg- 
 ment, in virtue of her attitude towards himself, 
 and he argued that an intellect ready to accept 
 him as completely and absolutely as she had 
 done, must be of fine material and capable of 
 considerable expansion. 
 
 It became his grateful task, therefore, to 
 preach Apollo to Livia, and she for a consider- 
 able time made intuition, which she possessed, 
 serve the turn of intellect, which she lacked. 
 She flashed out admirable sentiments and even 
 anticipated an Evander conclusion sometimes. 
 Indeed, she promised well and they lived 
 under one roof in great contentment. But the 
 strain for Livia was severe. A woman can 
 play a part with grace, success and personal 
 enjoyment for a great length of time, but not 
 for ever. The natural feminine instinct is 
 toward a change, and when the actress 
 finds life's play beginning to grow dull, her 
 
 116
 
 THE PAIN OF THE PRICE 
 
 unfailing, artistic inspiration is to try some- 
 thing new and expand in a fresh character 
 giving farther scope for her abilities. 
 
 Livia was called to play a decidedly difficult 
 part during this season of her picturesque 
 young life. Instead of the pressure diminish- 
 ing, as she had hoped ; instead of creeping 
 presently to the human side of Evander and 
 winning a little respite from his exalted 
 thinking and plain living, she found an opposite 
 tendency. He was always most courteous and 
 considerate, but he was also always austere 
 and high-principled. He moved on such a 
 plane that Livia sometimes felt the air almost 
 too rarefied for her lungs. She struggled 
 gamely to live up to him and she succeeded 
 by the exercise of many deceptions and great 
 courage. She kept her admiration and grati- 
 tude in the forefront of her mind and blamed 
 her spirit bitterly at any occasional display of 
 weakness, or shadow of doubt. 
 
 They lived platonically until Livia should be 
 free, and Evander, though full of wisdom and 
 virtue, failed to perceive that what was the 
 
 117
 
 EVANDER 
 
 natural condition of his spirit might not be 
 reached by a lesser mind without effort. In- 
 deed, he regarded Livia as his feminine counter- 
 part, a musical echo of himself — in fact, Diana 
 to his Apollo — and for a considerable time, at 
 a cost he was never to learn, she succeeded in 
 preserving this impression. She kept a sleep- 
 less watch upon her tongue and never uttered 
 a natural thought uncensored by her mind. 
 But the natural thoughts would rise, and 
 though she put them from her with scorn and 
 horror, they returned. 
 
 Mneme, that ancient Muse of Remembrance, 
 did not forget her, and pictures from the past 
 mirrored themselves in her wandering thoughts. 
 They concerned the life with her mother, and 
 it hurt her unutterably to find the lower part 
 of her nature winning satisfaction in thinking 
 of the days at the wash-tub. But what was 
 far worse, when memory would wing, chiefly 
 by night, her futile mind not seldom turned 
 to her days with Festus. Nor did the spectacle 
 disgust her as she had the right to expect, for 
 it is a gracious quality of our simple human 
 
 118
 
 THE PAIN OF THE PRICE 
 
 hearts to dwell upon the past sweet of life 
 rather than the bitter, and memory, ignoring 
 the indignities and sorrows and all things 
 inconvenient in Livia's former existence with 
 the woodman, turned its light and focussed 
 its brightness on what was comely and made 
 for their united happiness and content. 
 
 At first she regarded these recollections as a 
 deliberate insult to Apollo and little less than 
 an outrage on Evander ; but the fact remained 
 that in the night watches her heart turned 
 upon past happiness. 
 
 She did not whisper these things to the 
 partner her god had given her, but seeking to 
 explain them to herself, entered upon a very 
 painful and enlightening analysis of her own 
 character. Her vocabulary was hardly equal 
 to the test and, since the mind cannot outrun 
 the machinery of words with which we think, 
 no very subtle depths were plumbed by Livia. 
 Perhaps no very subtle depths existed. She 
 found at least that what she believed a lofty 
 enthusiasm for Apollo, was in reality the 
 sudden delight of finding herself at the centre 
 
 119
 
 EFANDER 
 
 of her own small stage. It was not Apollo 
 who had made her deny Festus and awaken 
 his indignation and ill conduct, but the con- 
 sciousness that by taking this course she had 
 unexpectedly sprung into the most interesting 
 and challenging girl beside the lake. Such 
 fame resulted, not from her worship of Apollo, 
 but from her husband's attitude towards that 
 devotion, and she knew now exactly what 
 Bacchus had explained to the woodman : that 
 the opposition of Festus, with its consequent 
 trial to herself, was what upheld her. A very 
 stupid vanity had to be thanked for the 
 situation ; and now looking back, she saw a 
 little of her old true self and became exceed- 
 ingly depressed. Nor did the way of Apollo, 
 exemplified by Evander's steadfast conduct, 
 serve as anodyne to her low spirits. She con- 
 tinued in an attitude quite servile towards her 
 preserver ; but what was at first a reality, 
 became in process of time to be a pose. She 
 abated nothing of reverence and honestly 
 felt the deepest regard for him ; but, in the 
 secret places of her heart, she began to doubt 
 
 1 20
 
 THE PAIN OF THE PRICE 
 
 whether Evander, despite his generous gifts 
 of mind and beauty of person, despite his cool 
 and dignified temper, level judgments and un- 
 failing and beautiful attitude to herself, really 
 knew anything more about love than a cater- 
 pillar. Love, in her experience, demanded 
 for its rites a certain lack of — well, ' self- 
 consciousness ' was the only word that occurred 
 to her. Love argued a power to forget your- 
 self sometimes and sacrifice to passion. Now 
 Evander condescended to no such concessions. 
 It was wildly impossible that he should forget 
 himself for a moment, and his blood never 
 prompted him to play the fool even for half 
 an hour. Livia accordingly was called to be 
 careful. Not that the slightest temptation 
 ever offered to play the fool with Evander. 
 His measured accents, deliberate actions and 
 intellectual outlook on all things, both great 
 and small, left no room within his ordered 
 days for frivolity and tempted none in other 
 people. He never unbent the bow, and 
 having, as we have seen, a mistaken impression 
 that Livia was the feminine complement of 
 
 121
 
 EVANDER 
 
 himself, felt not the slightest suspicion that 
 she desired or required any such relaxa- 
 tion. 
 
 He designed for them a lifetime of well- 
 doing, and his ambition was to emulate the 
 mighty teachers of old and presently go to 
 Rome and found a Porch, wherein he might 
 instruct the rising generation for Apollo's 
 sake. Livia would, of course, do her part also. 
 
 But what of Festus ? 
 
 It is certain that he suffered a great deal, 
 and his experiences, beating on a third-class 
 brain that could neither appreciate nor ex- 
 plain them, very nearly unseated his reason. 
 Indeed, he endured great torments, because 
 his convictions, inspired by genuine love for 
 Livia, hammered into him that these things 
 were not only contrary to justice and right, 
 but flouted reason also. For Livia had loved 
 him : he knew it. She must soon have been 
 supremely happy with him had she waited for 
 his return from Bacchus. In their bitterest 
 moments she had loved him, and it was his 
 love of her that had made him cruel. 
 
 122
 
 THE PAIN OF THE PRICE 
 
 He threw all the blame on Evander, and his 
 first design was to swim across the lake with a 
 knife in his teeth and not rest until he had slain 
 his rival. But a storm blew next day, and by 
 the time it had abated the anger of Festus 
 began to kindle against Livia herself. Every- 
 where the people shouted at him that she was 
 a heroine and that he was a brute. They told 
 him that he had got less than he deserved ; 
 that henceforth he would be a pariah among 
 them and no fit company for honest men. 
 
 He went to see Carmenta, who greeted him 
 somewhat coldly, but she blamed him less for 
 being wicked than foolish. 
 
 " You will live it down," said she. " This 
 comes of marriage. Be warned ; set her free 
 as quickly as the law permits, and let Evander 
 marry her. We shall then learn if his wisdom 
 extends to living in this doubtful state. As 
 far as women go, though Livia is my own 
 daughter, be sure there are as good fish in the 
 lake as ever came out of it ; and always were 
 and always will be ; but ' once bit twice shy ' 
 is a sound saying. Don't marry again. Leave 
 
 123
 
 EVANDER 
 
 these new-fangled complications of life to 
 your betters and remain free." 
 
 Festus thanked Carmenta, who had put an 
 idea into his head. As so often happens when 
 we give advice, the point to which we attach 
 the least importance is seized on by the 
 listener, who anon tells us that what we 
 counselled he has performed, though we may 
 doubt exceedingly whether our words fairly 
 bore the interpretation he has placed upon them. 
 
 Festus, however, did not do what Livia's 
 mother advised, for her suggestion set him on a 
 new train of thoughts. There was not as good 
 a girl in the world for him as the wife he had 
 won. There could be no second Livia, and he 
 perceived that any attempt to be angry with 
 her for more than a moment at a time was 
 impossible. To hate her would be to misread 
 the past in the light of the present ; to con- 
 template a future without her was still quite 
 beyond his simple soul. In fact he refused to 
 do so, and when Carmenta reminded him that 
 he must now invoke the law and separate from 
 Livia, he started on a series of considerations 
 
 124
 
 THE PAIN OF THE PRICE 
 
 which calmed him for a time and even helped 
 to soothe his bewildered and stricken heart. 
 
 " They can't have it both ways," reflected 
 Festus. " Indeed, the situation is a night- 
 mare — not a reality at all. I'm hoodwinked, 
 spellbound, hag-ridden, foredoomed, fated, 
 and all the rest of it, if you look at my fix from 
 the outside ; but there is one stark reality to 
 cling to in this welter, and that is — I'm mar- 
 ried. I'm married to Livia, and not fifty 
 Apollos can undo it if I don't choose." 
 
 He had wandered as far as the forge of the 
 smith by this time and looked in to see if 
 Fabius scowled upon him, as most people now 
 were wont to do. But Fabius never scowled 
 upon anything, unless it was a stubborn mule 
 who would not be shod. For the moment he 
 was singing a song to the beat of a heavy 
 sledge-hammer. 
 
 He had but one song and he sang it many 
 times a day. 
 
 I'D ling a song- — 
 Ding-ding-a-dong — 
 Shall waken yesterday from slumber. 
 
 125
 
 EVANDER 
 
 I'll dust its toys, 
 
 And tell its joys, 
 Iti pleasures count, its troubles number. 
 
 Ding-ding-a-dong, 
 
 Ding-ding-a-dong — 
 I waken yesterday from slumber. 
 
 I'll sing a song — 
 
 Ding-ding-a-dong — 
 Shall the eternal present favour 
 
 And tune my lay 
 
 Unto to-day, 
 Its greatness and its stinging savour. 
 
 Ding-ding-a-dong, 
 
 Ding-ding-a-dong — 
 I the eternal present favour. 
 
 I'll sing a song — 
 
 Ding-ding-a-dong — 
 Shall glorify a glad to-morrow, 
 
 Since time untold 
 
 Do all men hold 
 The only time that knows no sorrow. 
 
 Ding-ding-a-dong, 
 
 Ding-ding-a-dong — 
 I glorify a glad to-morrow. 
 
 " Can I do anything for you, Festus, disciple 
 of Bacchus ? " asked the smith mildly. 
 
 126
 
 THE PAIN OF THE PRICE 
 
 " Yes," answered Festus, " you can sing 
 that last verse again." 
 
 Fabius obliged him and the woodman 
 spoke. 
 
 " It is a great truth you sing," he declared. 
 " Though the past is sad and the present still 
 more so — I speak of myself — the future cannot 
 be." 
 
 " The future has no attributes," answered 
 the old man, " and therefore the truest wisdom 
 is to live as much in the future as possible. 
 The sure instinct of mankind is to do so. From 
 the present, full often, we look back at the 
 past and find, to our surprise, that we have left 
 behind the happiness we thought had yet to 
 come. Then we shed futile tears, that we 
 cannot go back and live those days again with 
 understanding and acknowledgment of their 
 worth ; but the future is always unsullied ; 
 the future is the home of good resolves — an 
 unturned page pure for most of us ; though 
 indeed many defile it by anticipation." 
 
 So Festus went on his way a little happier, 
 and if his future embraced no higher hope, 
 
 127
 
 EVANDER 
 
 or nobler purpose, than to win back Livia and 
 be a good husband, we must remember an 
 ambition that looks mean to us, with two 
 thousand five hundred years of marriage 
 behind us, was a new and a great thing to him. 
 The state conveyed no solemn tradition ; it 
 came not sanctified through the centuries ; 
 and that Livia had broken her contract did 
 not inspire in his mind that universal indigna- 
 tion proper to such an act to-day. Because 
 she, too, could not know what the mystery of 
 marriage meant, or measure fairly the enor- 
 mity of her rebellion. All that Festus really 
 understood was this : he wanted Livia back 
 again with his whole heart, and the problem 
 before him simply amounted to a question of 
 how quickly he could get her back. 
 
 He did not fear Evander in the least ; 
 Apollo was, of course, the difficulty. But 
 even here he felt that things might come right 
 at no distant time, for surely Apollo could not 
 remain long under the delusion that Livia was 
 a true disciple and servant ? The gods were 
 highly intelligent ; therefore Apollo must 
 
 128
 
 THE PAIN OF THE PRICE 
 
 surely discover that Livia could never be of 
 his elect. 
 
 That night there came a dream to Festus, 
 though it was red dawn before he slept. It 
 seemed that Mercury had sent Morpheus — 
 that gentle son of Sleep — through the gate of 
 horn ; yet Morpheus did nothing in par- 
 ticular. He merely smiled on Festus, bade 
 him be of good heart, and then warbled — no 
 divine hymn, or celestial measure, but the 
 third verse of the smith's homely little song. 
 Thus Festus woke refreshed ; for a good dream 
 will often strengthen the weary spirit more 
 than sleep itself. 
 
 K 129
 
 X 
 
 LIV1A LAUGHED 
 
 EVANDER grew mildly anxious be- 
 cause there came no news concerning 
 Festus. 
 "If his wits were as quick as his temper, 
 you would doubtless be free ere this," he said 
 to Livia. " For the moment we must wait 
 his pleasure. One can only hope that his 
 sense of decorum, or the good advice of other 
 people, will induce him to proceed and liberate 
 you as swiftly as it may be done." 
 
 Livia was, however, depressed at this season, 
 and Evander, with a view to cheering her 
 spirits, decided that they should make a 
 holiday. 
 
 Wondering in secret what his idea of a 
 holiday might be, she willingly agreed to do 
 as he desired. 
 
 130
 
 LIVIA LAUGHED 
 
 " My father," he said, " shall row us across 
 the lake to the eastern shore, whence he and I 
 originally came. Then will we climb aloft 
 and eat a meal lifted up nigh the snows on 
 yonder mountain. Perchance Apollo may 
 look upon us and utter a word of encourage- 
 ment and cheer, for he often visits that lofty 
 region." 
 
 Cornelius, Evander's father, rowed them, 
 and they landed where to-day the rowan-red 
 tower of Varenna stands to fling the music of 
 silver bells over the water. 
 
 The old man promised to return at evening 
 time, and, meanwhile, set out to fish ; while 
 Evander went forth beside Livia. They 
 climbed among the cobbled tracks of the 
 mules, ascended beyond the olive belt and pre- 
 sently walked amid the fir trees and breathed 
 the breath of Eurus, which came to them 
 cooled by mountain snows. 
 
 Evander found himself in an instructive 
 mood and, forgetting that their purpose was 
 pleasure, as instructive people so often do, he 
 gleaned many a sound moral and elevating 
 
 I3 1
 
 EVANDER 
 
 fable from the beautiful world spread around 
 them. 
 
 They ate their simple repast, and while he 
 did so, the young man repeated a poem which 
 had come to him during the previous night. 
 
 " Being sleepless," he said, " I looked up into 
 the sky and composed the following stanzas." 
 
 " Did you, dear heart ? ' she answered. 
 " How wonderful you are ! " 
 
 " It is becoming in a disciple of Apollo to 
 strike the lyre," he answered. 
 
 " Quite," she said. 
 
 Unlike the prolix oread, Evander kept his 
 numbers short. It was an advantage that 
 Livia did not fully appreciate as yet. 
 
 Now he recited his verses. 
 
 I do not think there is a lonely star 
 Upon the firmament's unmeasured height. 
 To us they flash their messages of light 
 
 And show their circling places from afar ; 
 
 But still, though to our seeing points of rest, 
 If we but soar aloft on reason's wing, 
 We find in each a mother sun to bring 
 
 Life to the children parted from her breast. 
 
 132
 
 LIVIA LAUGHED 
 
 What shall the giants blazing on our night 
 Behold among the worlds that call them sun ? 
 What consciousness is from their bosoms spun ? 
 
 What hearts do they enchant, what eyes delight ? 
 
 " Very beautiful," declared Livia. " I'm 
 sure Apollo would love it." 
 
 " I am not so sure," he replied. " It is, 
 indeed, rather a perilous poem. You see, 
 speculation of this sort travels very far beyond 
 the accepted order of things, and may even 
 tread on people's corns. I am not altogether 
 certain that it does not traverse sound dogma 
 and perhaps even indicate a train of thought 
 inimical to Apollo. Now, to tread on Apollo's 
 corns is no task for me." 
 
 " Quite," she answered, and Evander indi- 
 cated annoyance. 
 
 " I wish you wouldn't keep on saying 
 ' quite,' " he retorted. " When a woman 
 hasn't the most shadowy idea of what I am 
 talking and doesn't want to confess it, she 
 always says ' quite.' Apollo, I repeat, might 
 see in the poem a suspicion of unfaith. He 
 might argue that we have his sun, and that 
 
 133
 
 EVANDER 
 
 his sun is enough for us, without vague opinions 
 concerning other suns. Why, he might even 
 be seriously annoyed with me for soaring 
 aloft on reason's wing at all." 
 
 " Qu " began Livia, but stopped. " In 
 
 that case," she said, " I should forget all about 
 the poem. If he heard it and resented it — 
 how awful ! " 
 
 Evander looked up a little nervously him- 
 self. 
 
 " It shows where versification uncontrolled 
 by faith may land us," he declared. " I must 
 make a sacrifice to Apollo and we can regard 
 the poem as deleted from my repertory." 
 
 "If you would only sleep at night instead 
 of thinking so much," she ventured. " And 
 when you wake up, don't look at the stars. 
 Just turn over and go to sleep again." 
 
 He reproached her. 
 
 " There was a time — and not a remote 
 time — when you hoped that we might be 
 translated into twin stars ourselves — circling 
 in the heavens for ever and seen by common 
 mortals every evening, or morning." 
 
 134
 
 L1V1A LAUGHED 
 
 " I know," she replied wearily, " but I'm 
 not so keen as I used to be about what happens 
 after I'm dead. I'm much more interested in 
 what is going to happen before I'm dead. I 
 suppose it's a come down rather ; but after 
 all, you've got to live before you die." 
 
 " True," he admitted ; " but life is merely 
 a preparation for death, and in any case, when 
 we consider the trifling duration of human 
 life balanced against the immortality of stellar 
 bodies, this existence is reduced to such a 
 pin-point in time that one can hardly regard it 
 seriously. How brief the fullest days ! How 
 little to distinguish or commend them ! " 
 
 " Be bright," she begged with a note of 
 something akin to despair in her voice. " Re- 
 member this is a pleasure party. We are 
 going to be happy and live in the passing hour 
 — just for once in a way. Whatever Apollo 
 may say, he's always bright, so I suppose he 
 can't blame us for trying to be." 
 
 Evander shook his head. 
 
 " I detect a play upon words," he answered. 
 " That is unworthy of my Livia." 
 
 135
 
 EVANDER 
 
 She restrained a reply that would not have 
 pleased him and apologised. 
 
 " Sorry," she said, " but I wanted to get a 
 light touch into our holiday if I could." 
 
 " Do not confound light with levity," he 
 replied. " I am as willing as any man to enjoy 
 innocent happiness, but you must be careful 
 not to fall into a way of cultivating humour 
 at the expense of wisdom. There is very 
 little to laugh at in the world at any time, and 
 we can be much better employed than in seek- 
 ing that little. Laughter is, in fact, a form of 
 madness. The man who laughs is, for the 
 moment of that senseless explosion, no longer 
 strictly sane. He is, as we say, beside himself. 
 You will seldom find a person of distinguished 
 mind indulge much in this weakness. It un- 
 seats the reason for the time being." 
 
 They proceeded presently up the mountain- 
 side, and Evander, though he affected the 
 lightest vein he knew, took care to better 
 every turn of the road with a wise word. 
 
 He was now improving Livia's mind so fast 
 and enlarging her sphere of mental activity by 
 
 n6
 
 LIV1A LAUGHED 
 
 such leaps and bounds, that sometimes she felt 
 giddy and experienced a vertiginous emotion, 
 as of falling from a great height and clutching 
 in her passage at the stars. Her thoughts 
 were, indeed, growing slightly too large for 
 the brains the gods had given her, and this is 
 a condition that makes the head ache. But 
 even to ache was something in the passionless 
 serenity of Evander's system, and she thanked 
 him for that. Festus had made her body 
 ache, when he struck her in his mistaken anger ; 
 but Evander, after all, hurt most, and she had 
 to confess it to her soul. She misunderstood 
 the symptoms, however. 
 
 " My poor head throbs to think how un- 
 worthy it is of such an amazing man," thought 
 Livia. 
 
 Now they passed a tiny farm, where poultry 
 scratched and a young he-goat stood and 
 browsed, tethered to the stem of a pear tree. 
 
 " I am reminded of another trifle," said 
 Evander. " If you've heard it before, stop 
 
 me. 
 
 Livia had heard it before, but she did not 
 
 137
 
 EVANDER 
 
 stop him ; she never stopped him. She only 
 concealed a yawn. 
 
 " A second of my dawn effusions," he told 
 her. " It is a fact that in the hour of the 
 morning crepuscule, I nearly always find my 
 most successful verses." 
 
 Then he stood still and proceeded in this 
 fashion. 
 
 At peep of day the barn cocks crow, 
 While still the stars are in the sky, 
 
 And men awakened are not slow 
 To curse their importunity. 
 
 At peep of day the wise ones keep 
 
 Their watch, to tell if Truth hath stirred ; 
 
 But they who shorten the world's sleep 
 Shall never win the world's good word. 
 
 " Quite," said Livia — " quite beautiful I 
 mean," she added hurriedly — " so true ! " 
 
 And then fell out a brief but fearful adven- 
 ture that might have ended this narrative 
 with a very dark tragedy. Livia learned how 
 Death is always hiding behind life's many- 
 coloured tapestry and always ready to thrust 
 his bony fingers through it, even while we stand 
 
 138
 
 LIV1A LAUGHED 
 
 and admire the pattern. A file of four mules 
 passed by, laden with charcoal from the beech 
 woods, and the last, without shadow of warn- 
 ing, suddenly lashed out in Livia's direction, 
 so that she was conscious of a cruel, steel shoe 
 glittering within two inches of her face. The 
 creature went round the corner almost before 
 they realised what had happened, and then 
 Evander, white with emotion, called upon 
 Apollo to slay it. He stood and trembled in 
 natural human horror at the thought of what 
 might have been. 
 
 The mule lived a hateful life and had been 
 made sore and cynical by many blows ; so 
 that, when he saw a happy creature, he tried 
 to make her unhappy. There are many other 
 people who would have done the same. 
 
 Evander took the incident more seriously 
 than Livia, who held that a miss was as good 
 as a mile ; but he believed their sleepless god 
 had lifted his almighty hand between the mule's 
 hoof and the woman's beauty. He considered 
 that sacrifice must at once be celebrated 
 for so great a deliverance, and remembering 
 
 139
 
 EVANDER 
 
 the tethered goat behind them, turned back 
 that he might make an offering to their divine 
 preserver. 
 
 " It is not your goat," ventured Livia ; but 
 people who design great gifts to the gods, do 
 not permit piety to be hampered by trivial 
 questions of fact. The ownership of the goat 
 seemed a small matter in Evander's eyes and 
 he took the young creature from its tether. 
 Then he led it to a flat stone, well suited 
 to sacrifice, and prepared to slay it ; when 
 the goat, apparently suspecting his purpose, 
 made a sudden and desperate effort to 
 escape. 
 
 Now it is a law of oblations that the victim 
 which shows unwillingness, or attempts to evade 
 the sacrificial knife, may undo all. Bad is the 
 omen when an offering follows not in volun- 
 tary fashion to the altar ; while, conversely, if 
 it bow its head and die without protest, the 
 augury promises well. Evander's goat escaped 
 and thus the higher meaning of the sacrifice 
 was frustrated ; but he, forgetting this for 
 the moment, strove with all his might to 
 
 140
 
 L1V1A LAUGHED 
 
 recapture the creature, and, for the first time 
 in her life, Livia saw the young man in a 
 hurry. 
 
 To behold this staid and philosophic spirit 
 capering after capricornus, offered such irre- 
 sistible entertainment that the girl could only 
 with a painful effort smother her laughter, 
 and when, presently, the nimble kid doubled 
 between Evander's legs and threw him over in 
 an attitude utterly inglorious and undignified, 
 Livia laughed, because she had to laugh. Then, 
 feeling that she might as well be hung for a 
 sheep as a lamb, she allowed her merriment 
 full play. She had not laughed for several 
 weeks and she made up for lost time. In 
 truth she was still chuckling helplessly when 
 her companion gathered himself up, adjusted 
 his flagrant disarray and sat down to comfort 
 a broken shin. 
 
 She ran to gather a cooling herb for the 
 wound ; but Evander, on whose forehead now 
 sat darkness, waved her from him. 
 
 " Fond and foolish ! " he said. " Heaven 
 support the man whose future wife finds 
 
 141
 
 EVANDER 
 
 matter for laughter in a sacrifice spoiled and a 
 fellow-creature injured ! " 
 
 " I didn't know you were hurt, dear 
 Evander," she replied. " Don't think I am 
 laughing at a sacrifice spoiled, or my own 
 precious master in pain. I am laughing at the 
 tricks of the clever little goat, who didn't 
 want to die, and the madly funny figure you 
 presented when you fell. And if you had only 
 been able to see yourself as I did, you must 
 have roared with laughter for a week, great 
 and good though you are." 
 
 " Excuses aggravate your offence," he 
 answered. " Well you know that physical 
 accidents often embrace serious and far- 
 reaching omens. To allow a depraved sense 
 of humour to reduce you to the level of an 
 idiot before my failure in this matter, ill 
 becomes any woman who pretends to piety 
 and self-respect. You stand much condemned, 
 and your folly is a very poor compliment 
 to Apollo, who generously prevented the 
 mule from dashing out your apology for a 
 brain." 
 
 142
 
 L1V1A LAUGHED 
 
 Then did Livia lose her temper and make 
 answer. 
 
 " What's the good of being alive if you're 
 always going on like this ? " she asked passion- 
 ately. " You say ' Heaven help you ' because 
 I laugh when a bit of a goat knocks you heels 
 over head, and I say ' Heaven help me, or any 
 woman, whose husband can't see anything 
 funny on earth, and won't let her either.' 
 You don't understand what it is for a simple, 
 every-day girl to live beyond the sound of 
 laughter. I'm accustomed to it ; I miss it 
 horribly. To go for weeks without even 
 seeing a smile on your face is — oh, I don't 
 know what it is. But it makes me feel that I 
 never, never please you. When people please 
 you, you ought to smile at them. It's only 
 natural. It's only human. Even the dumb 
 animals try to smile — some of them. The 
 kid smiled, I'm positive. At any rate, our dogs 
 get fearfully down in the mouth if they don't 
 hear us laugh sometimes. They understand 
 our laughter if they can't laugh them- 
 selves." 
 
 143
 
 EVANDER 
 
 " Love me, love my god," replied Evander 
 coldly ; and far from smiling, he distinctly 
 frowned. " You cannot have it all your own 
 way, Livia," he continued, " and only your 
 feminine unreason induces you to imagine that 
 you can. Apollo never laughs, and since I am 
 his faithful servant, I never laugh and should 
 think shame upon myself were I to do so. 
 Laughter at best is always foolish, but in your 
 case it was unseemly also ; for consider what 
 you laughed at. You laughed at a he-goat 
 who deliberately evaded sacrifice, and was 
 doubtless assisted to do so by Bacchus, or some 
 other enemy ; and you laughed at a physical 
 misfortune, which overtook the one who 
 should be nearest and dearest to you in the 
 whole world. And what was Evander doing 
 when you laughed ? He was endeavouring to 
 recapture a beast, which he designed to sacri- 
 fice to our deity, as a slight recognition of his 
 ineffable goodness and consideration. We 
 need not stop to inquire whether Apollo pro- 
 tected you on my account, or on your own. 
 It suffices that he did most surely save you 
 
 144
 
 L1V1A LAUGHED 
 
 from horrible and sudden destruction. And 
 you laugh immoderately because, in my ardour 
 and concern that the omens are unfavourable, 
 I tumble down backwards, hurt myself a great 
 deal, no matter where, and shed several drops 
 of blood from my shin." 
 
 Livia was utterly contrite and subdued by 
 this time. 
 
 " Forgive me," she said. " It is the privilege 
 of gods and such men as you to forgive us 
 commoner creatures. I'm sorry — heart-broken, 
 in fact. I realise only too well what I have 
 done, and I'll never laugh again as long as I 
 live. I was over-excited after my own adven- 
 ture, and if I hadn't laughed, I should have 
 cried. And my mother, Carmenta, taught 
 me from childhood that, when in doubt, it 
 was always better to laugh than cry." 
 
 " Just a foolish thing your mother would 
 say," replied he. " But know henceforth that 
 all expressions of emotion, save religious 
 fervour, are equally to be deprecated. As a 
 matter of fact, in this particular case, tears I 
 could have understood and pardoned easily. 
 
 L 145
 
 EVANDER 
 
 However, enough has been said. I forgive you. 
 Dry your eyes. It is quite certain that we 
 shall not see Apollo to-day, so we had better 
 retrace our steps." 
 
 They returned to the shore without farther 
 incident, but at the landing-stage, where 
 Cornelius awaited them, were certain persons 
 of the hamlet who congratulated Evander on 
 the fame which began to gather about his 
 footsteps. 
 
 He addressed them briefly, begged them to 
 concentrate their attention on the God of 
 Light, and so set off for the peninsula where 
 now he dwelt. 
 
 When they landed, Evander, who had fallen 
 very silent, went forward to their home, and 
 Livia helped his father to draw up the boat 
 upon the shore. 
 
 She liked old Cornelius and now related 
 their unfortunate experience. 
 
 " He is so wonderful," she said, " but 
 doubtless the wonderful are always difficult." 
 
 " As a rule, yes," admitted Cornelius. 
 
 " If I could but win him to the joy of life 
 
 146
 
 L1V1A LAUGHED 
 
 within the warmth of my circling arms ! " 
 mourned Livia. 
 
 Whereupon the ancient man gave her a very 
 large, dead fish, which he had netted in the 
 course of that morning. 
 
 " Win back that trout ' to the joy of life 
 with the warmth of your circling arms,' " 
 said he, " and if you succeed, then hope to do 
 the same for my son, Evander." 
 
 H7
 
 XI 
 A PUTEJL 
 
 WHEN Evander presently heard that 
 Festus had not separated himself 
 from Livia under the law ; and 
 when he farther learned the woodman in- 
 tended no such step, he began to be sorely 
 troubled. 
 
 Needless to mention that a man of his prin- 
 ciples had not treated the lady, save in the way 
 of highest respect and honour, until he might 
 legally take her to wife ; but the refusal of 
 Festus to comply with the State's require- 
 ments put Evander in a difficult position. 
 
 In those archaic times, it was not necessary 
 that either a man, or woman, should be de- 
 graded, before the law granted freedom. Re- 
 finements of that sort grew out of a more truly 
 religious age and the rare mental delicacy and 
 culture of our Church and State as we have the 
 
 148
 
 A PUTEAL 
 
 privilege to know them. But Evander could not 
 wed Livia until Festus annulled her former 
 marriage ; and this the girl's husband absolutely 
 declined to do. Lesser men in this fix had doubt- 
 less fallen back on the old ways ; but not so 
 Evander. It was marriage or nothing for him. 
 
 On a fine morning he left the peninsula and 
 rowed himself across Larius to Livia's former 
 home. He had heard that his action with 
 respect to her had been much applauded ; he 
 felt he was in the right to make Festus listen to 
 reason, and he doubted not that he would meet 
 with a strong body of opinion to support his 
 argument. 
 
 But, steadfast soul that he was, he forgot the 
 propensity to change v/hich gives its rainbow 
 charm to the human mind. Much had hap- 
 pened and a new spirit arisen since Evander 
 rowed away with his father and Livia ; for it 
 is a quality of ignorant people to veer with 
 the wind. From that universal scorn directed 
 against Festus, the folk had first begun to cool 
 in enmity, and in a fortnight they turned round 
 altogether and declared him worthy of applause. 
 
 149
 
 EVANDER 
 
 To his amazement old friends came back 
 and new friends appeared. His determination, 
 to prove faithful to the memory of his wife 
 and his obstinate refusal to free her, awoke in- 
 terest, then approval, and finally enthusiasm. 
 The women who had thrown stones at him 
 now brought gifts. He found himself an ob- 
 ject of regard, and his neighbours declared 
 that they were proud of him. 
 
 And Festus, well knowing that the voice of 
 the people is the voice of the gods, grew more 
 cheerful in his going, and felt that this sudden 
 return of popularity was an omen of future 
 happiness. He became more than ever fixed 
 in mind to wait with patience the progress of 
 events. He felt a growing conviction that 
 time was on his side, and designed presently 
 to restore his happiness, in the shape of his 
 Livia. 
 
 On the occasion of a public ceremony, 
 Fabius, the smith, addressed the people and 
 commended the woodman to them for his 
 great fortitude and faithfulness. The busi- 
 ness had nothing to do with Festus, or Fabius 
 
 150
 
 A PUTEAL 
 
 either, but such was the regard now mani- 
 fested to the man who had lost his wife, that 
 when Fabius, after a brief address concerning 
 the matter in hand, touched the affairs of 
 certain among the people, his allusion to 
 Festus was much applauded. 
 
 A thunderbolt had fallen in a public place, 
 and, as usual upon such a solemn occurrence, 
 the people set about due observances. Their 
 faith demanded that the bolt of Jupiter, where 
 it fell, should be buried in a grave, with cere- 
 monies and offerings. It was the pious task of 
 those among whom the lightning had struck, 
 to inter it in seemly fashion and to lift a 
 puteal, or inclosure of stone, about the spot. 
 The earth touched by the divine fire was 
 collected and placed in a bottomless coffin, 
 while round about the lightning's grave, a 
 wall was raised and the event inscribed upon 
 it. Onions and other sacrifices were then 
 offered ; and if by evil chance a human being 
 had perished at the stroke, he, too, was buried 
 and the spot sanctified for ever. 
 
 On this occasion, happily, no victim sank 
 
 I5i
 
 EVANDER 
 
 into the earth, and the burying of the light- 
 ning being duly accomplished, Fabius, who 
 officiated, addressed the people. He had just 
 pronounced a handsome eulogy on Festus, 
 who fortunately was not himself present, 
 when Evander's boat touched the shore and, 
 seeing the company engaged in some sacred 
 rite, he proceeded to join them. 
 
 Being only aware of the general sentiment 
 in his favour when he rescued Livia, and 
 knowing not that the wind now set in his 
 rival's sail, he marched to the midst of the 
 company with assurance and expected that 
 they would greet him as one worthy of honour 
 and regard. When, therefore, he faced scowl- 
 ing foreheads and clenched fists, sulky eyes 
 and harsh voices, he suffered much amaze- 
 ment and a certain natural indignation. 
 
 For the moment the explanation of such a 
 change was withheld from him, but when 
 Fabius had concluded his oration, the bitter 
 truth hurtled about the visitor's ears and he 
 learned that, far from applauding his achieve- 
 ments, all men now held Evander to have done 
 
 152
 
 A PUTEAL 
 
 an evil and unsocial deed. Not a soul was on 
 his side. Therefore, instead of putting the 
 case before the husband of Livia and directing 
 Festus to divorce her immediately, or incur 
 the anger of Apollo, Evander found himself 
 threatened very sharply with the displeasure 
 of Bacchus. He had, in fact, forgotten all 
 about Bacchus. Now was he beaten by many 
 tongues and scourged with the sharp voices 
 both of men and women. Neither would any 
 hear his defence, and when he sought to 
 speak, they shouted him down and became 
 so threatening that the philosopher was 
 constrained to run for it. He revealed 
 an unexpected turn of speed as he hastened 
 to his boat, and when he perceived that 
 other boats were about to set out to his 
 hurt, he pulled steadily and strongly into mid- 
 lake and did not desist until beyond reach of 
 danger. 
 
 Incidentally he called upon Apollo to with- 
 stand his mistaken enemies and drown their 
 wherries ; but, to his disappointment, the god 
 was at no pains to assist him on this occasion, 
 
 153
 
 EVANDER 
 
 and Evander returned whence he had come in 
 very deep concern. 
 
 He informed Livia of what had taken place 
 and she wept grievously. Nor did her tears 
 abate when he explained that this evil thing 
 had doubtless happened as a punishment for 
 the frustrated sacrifice already recorded upon 
 their recent holiday. 
 
 " We must mortify ourselves and do bitter 
 penance," declared he. " We are in the 
 shadow of our god's wrath and shall need to 
 abase our spirits to the dust and suffer in our 
 bodies and souls, lest a worse thing come upon 
 us." 
 
 Then Livia began to feel in her fair flesh 
 what it meant to live with an ' intellectual ' ; 
 but the severity of their fastings and the in- 
 genuity of the discomforts designed by Evander 
 were as nothing in her mind to the bitter know- 
 ledge that he had lost the goodwill of the 
 people, and that the thing they had done was 
 no longer accounted heroic and worthy of 
 admiration, but quite the contrary. 
 
 " If they think thus of him, what think 
 
 154
 
 A PUTEAL 
 
 they of me ? " she asked herself ; and the 
 reply of her spirit made her complicated 
 penance quite trifling by comparison. 
 
 And then arose within her a mighty resolve 
 and the desire to accomplish a deed the like 
 of which no woman had ever yet done. She 
 succeeded without difficulty in convincing 
 herself that it would be for the best in any 
 event, and such was Livia's desperation that, 
 though her purpose threatened her life, she 
 cared not. 
 
 Had either Festus, or Evander, suspected 
 her intention, it is certain that he had experi- 
 enced the most acute anxiety ; but she re- 
 vealed the matter to none ; not even to a god 
 did she confess it ; for at this unhappy 
 moment, Livia felt only too conscious that no 
 god, or goddess, could be expected to feel the 
 least interest in her. So she determined to do, 
 or die, and cared little about the sequel of her 
 adventure ; for whether she perished, or came 
 out alive, the future appeared almost equally 
 unpromising. 
 
 155
 
 XII 
 
 THE NAIADS 
 
 A PARTY of naiads, tiring of the 
 water-springs, descended on a night 
 , of full moon to Larius, that they 
 might disport them in the lake. These fair 
 nymphs are related to the oceanids and nereids 
 and share their virtues and admirable qualities. 
 Naiads are the guardians of the fructifying 
 water on which all life depends ; they are 
 generous of favours and give increase to fruits 
 and grain, to herds, to cattle and to mankind. 
 They are, moreover, the guardian goddesses of 
 marriage — a circumstance that proved most 
 significant on this occasion — and since they 
 were the foster-mothers of Bacchus himself in 
 his infancy, it is reasonable to suppose that by 
 the will of the god, though they knew it not, 
 their way was turned to the waters of the lake 
 upon this memorable night. 
 
 i 5 6
 
 THE NAIADS 
 
 The tireless immortals revelled in their 
 pleasure and plunged and dived with the grace 
 and charm of gold and silver fish. Nor were 
 they too breathless to sing. They lifted their 
 sweet voices so that men or women who slept 
 not, rose and listened to the unearthly melodies 
 floating through the moonlight. And keen 
 eyes saw the water broken into foam and the 
 naiads, as they sped this way and that, under 
 the cold radiance from above. 
 
 The beautiful beings rested presently, and 
 one who was unusually wise, told of other 
 lakes, more precious and sacred than Larius, 
 that spread their shining faces near the great 
 heart of Rome. She spoke of Diana Nemorensis 
 and the waters over which she presided, and 
 told how human women thither went to win 
 the boon of the goddess. The naiad, as all 
 naiads, sang rather than spoke ; and she sang 
 in verse, according to their poetic custom, 
 which changes not. 
 
 Here is her sanctuary and her grove 
 
 Where little Nemi's jade-green water fills 
 
 An emerald cup, while purple shadows rove 
 Upon the lake and the fair Alban hills. 
 
 157
 
 EVANDER 
 
 Ilex and arbutus and myrtle ray 
 
 The dusky brink, and throbbing nightingales 
 Pour out their muffled songs by night and day 
 
 Where the dim, secret, goddess-haunted vales 
 Open upon the waters. Yonder crags 
 
 Hold up a hamlet ; roofs and mellow walls 
 Of russet and of amber spring, and rags 
 
 Flash blue and crimson where the sunlight falls 
 In the dark ways. Beneath, reflected bright, 
 
 The village shines upon the placid face 
 Of Dian's sacred glass ; and on a night 
 
 Under the moon of promise, in their grace 
 Fair suppliant women met upon the shore 
 
 To beg for women's blessings, while the blaze 
 Of flaming, votive torches that they bore 
 
 Thrid fire through the dark forest, by whose ways 
 The future mothers in a choral band 
 
 Passed to the altars of the Huntress. Soon 
 They knelt and prayed, and each a blazing brand 
 
 Burned to Diana, till the risen moon 
 Ascending, rained her crystal light to cool 
 
 The sanguine passion of the running flame 
 That bound a hoop of fire about the pool 
 
 And circled sacred Nemi in her name. 
 
 The naiads praised their sister's song, and 
 presently they were about to return to the shore 
 and regain their fountains in the hills, when a 
 human cry arrested them. 
 
 It was a woman's voice, and they feared 
 
 i 5 8
 
 THE NAIADS 
 
 that some impious persons had set forth in a 
 boat to watch their revel ; but the moonlight 
 revealed no boat and the cry was one of terror 
 and distress. 
 
 Then they discerned a white arm lifted and 
 saw that the sufferer must quickly perish if 
 they did not hasten to her aid. 
 
 Leaving a wake of moonlit bubbles behind 
 them, the naiads swam swiftly and were just 
 in time to rescue Livia from Larius. For it 
 was she who, inspired by mingled emotions, all 
 quite beyond the reach of reason, had fondly 
 thought to swim across the lake by night and 
 so return to her mother ! 
 
 Her purpose must, of course, have ended 
 in death but for this supernatural inter- 
 vention ; nor, examined intelligently, could 
 any sufficient reason have been found for such 
 a desperate expedient. No necessity had 
 existed to fly from Evander, for he was not in 
 the least that sort of person. But she neither 
 explained nor invited his opinion of her 
 project. Instead, with a certain vanity, for 
 which there was no longer any excuse, she 
 
 *59
 
 EVANDER 
 
 believed that Evander would feel his life but 
 a broken reed without her and most surely 
 refuse any suggestion of a separation. For 
 her, however, farther life with this excep- 
 tional man began to be impossible. Thus was 
 she driven to her rash endeavour, for she felt 
 that even death by drowning would be better 
 than life under these penitential conditions 
 with the servant of Apollo. 
 
 Now, thanks to the protecting arms of the 
 naiads, her life was saved, and when she was 
 able to speak again and explain her position 
 and wishes, they bore her among them to the 
 shore, rayed her in a garment of reeds and lily 
 flags, kissed her, hoped she would yet be 
 happy, and left her to go to her mother's 
 house. 
 
 Carmenta, as may be imagined, was beyond 
 measure surprised to see her shivering girl and 
 hear how Livia had attempted to swim the 
 lake and been saved by benignant water 
 nymphs. In her common-sense way she 
 thanked the gods for their mercies, lighted a 
 fire of charcoal, and prepared a hot drink of 
 
 1 60
 
 THE NAIADS 
 
 milk for her daughter ; and when Livia was 
 better and more collected, Carmenta sat 
 beside her and uttered hopeful words, until 
 the young woman fell into a refreshing sleep. 
 Then her mother drew a hood over her grey 
 head and went swiftly through the first light 
 of dawn to call upon Festus and tell him what 
 had happened. 
 
 She was just in time to catch the woodman 
 before he started for the forest, and when he 
 heard the tremendous news that his wife was 
 at Carmenta's home, he dropped his axe and 
 his basket and hastened then and there with 
 mighty strides to the cottage where Livia 
 slept. 
 
 He reached it long before Carmenta re- 
 turned. Then he entered and stood presently 
 quite silent with beating heart before the 
 pallet on which Livia lay. He feared his 
 throbbing pulses would wake her and devoured 
 her with his eyes, as the fore-glow warmed the 
 morning and cast a rosy light into the cabin. 
 It seemed that his presence had entered the 
 consciousness of the sleeper by channels un- 
 m 161
 
 EVANDER 
 
 known, for she woke suddenly, beheld Festus 
 gazing down upon her with wet eyes, and 
 leaping to her feet, she knelt before him and 
 embraced his knees. 
 
 " For God's sake take me back to you ! " 
 cried Livia. 
 
 " For what god's sake ? " he asked, his hands 
 trembling to encircle her. 
 
 " For your god — for your god," she answered 
 " I will pray to any god, or goddess — anybody 
 — anybody in heaven but Apollo." 
 
 " I cling still to Bacchus," replied her 
 husband ; and then he embraced her, blessed 
 her with heartfelt blessings, and praised the 
 Bringer of the Vine for his goodness and 
 mercy. 
 
 " The night is turned into day," said he, 
 " even as my sorrow is turned into joy. You, 
 too, have suffered " 
 
 " I have," said Livia. 
 
 " Then let our dreadful lesson suffice for 
 our lives," he implored her. " Let no shadow 
 ever come betwixt us more ; and let not the 
 rising sun descend again until we have made 
 
 162
 
 THE NAIADS 
 
 sacrifices, ample and generous, to our blessed, 
 all watchful, all kindly Bacchus, who has saved 
 you and the situation, and rewarded my 
 patience and longsuffering in this glorious 
 manner." 
 
 " Never again," she assured him, " shall I 
 have a thought you cannot echo, or whisper a 
 prayer you cannot applaud. I will cease not 
 in my service and worship of Bacchus, and, so 
 far as I may, reward the mighty god for his 
 unspeakable and undeserved kindness." 
 
 " Who could say fairer ? " cried Festus with 
 great joy. 
 
 Then Carmenta returned and the man 
 stopped to breakfast, after which his wife and 
 he repaired to the Bacchic altar ; and all the 
 people grew merry and happy to learn how 
 Fate had wearied of tormenting the woodman 
 and restored a sadder and a wiser Livia to her 
 husband's arms. 
 
 That day they ceased not to sacrifice to 
 Bacchus until the stones of the altar ran with 
 fatness ; and since the sheep that Festus 
 purchased for this act of devotion and grati- 
 
 163
 
 EVANDER 
 
 tude all came willingly to play their painful 
 part in the rite, there existed no doubt in any 
 orthodox mind that the god accepted their 
 offering and deigned to be their friend during 
 the future, as he had so notably proved him- 
 self in the past. 
 
 164
 
 XIII 
 WOE OF EVANDER 
 
 WHEN Evander heard all that had 
 happened and how Livia was 
 returned to Festus, woe settled 
 upon him like a stifling garment, and he 
 threw ashes on his head and became deeply 
 dejected. He remembered bitterly how of 
 old Midas hunted in the forest, that he might 
 find and question the god, Silenus, and how 
 at last he met him in the train of Bacchus 
 and asked him the great and grand question, 
 ' What is best of all and most desirable for 
 mankind ? ' At first the deity remained dumb, 
 then, urged to speak, he had retorted upon 
 the King with biting words. 
 
 " Oh, wretched race of a day ! ' cried 
 Silenus, " children of chance, heirs of misery, 
 why do you compel me to say what is least 
 
 165
 
 EVANDER 
 
 expedient for you to hear ? The best and most 
 desirable tiling for humankind lies eternally 
 beyond their reach. It is best not to be born 
 at all." 
 
 For a season Evander believed this dreadful, 
 if Hibernian, utterance of the god, and he 
 departed and hid himself for three days in the 
 loneliness of the hills. But he took his tablets, 
 well knowing, as a poet should, that even his 
 pangs would probably seek to be expressed in 
 terms of art. 
 
 " I suffer agony," he said to his father, 
 Cornelius, " and since the suffering of an 
 ' intellectual ' will often produce very exalted 
 poetry, or even prose, calculated to allay the 
 lesser pangs of commonplace people, I take my 
 notebook with me. It is, however, impossible 
 at present to describe my grief at this unseemly 
 incident. Do not seek me. I shall return after 
 the worst is over ; but when that will happen, 
 and when I shall find myself in a state of mind 
 to proceed with my life in a manner worthy of 
 my ideals, I cannot at present determine." 
 
 Then Evander went off and truly endured 
 
 1 66
 
 WOE OF EVANDER 
 
 excruciating torments. He cared not whether 
 the sun scorched, or the rain drenched him in 
 his lonely wanderings. When he was athirst, 
 he drank of the brooks, and when hungry, ate 
 roots or nourishing herbs. For it was not the 
 season of fruits, or nuts ; therefore even in 
 his misery, he knew that it would be necessary 
 to return to civilisation soon if he desired to 
 live. 
 
 At first, indeed, such was his confusion and 
 sorrow, that he felt indifferent. In the earliest 
 flush of his sufferings he blamed himself and 
 endured a genuine shame that he had failed 
 to win Livia ; but his self-respect was not 
 long shaken and he soon understood that not 
 he was worthy of censure. As Festus before 
 him, he perceived that Livia was the offender. 
 She had fallen from grace and shown herself 
 unequal to any life of real distinction. Tem- 
 porary connection with her faulty character 
 it was that had reduced him to his present in- 
 sufferable position. 
 
 But he could not escape thus. Logic re- 
 minded him that he had failed to measure 
 
 167
 
 EVANDER 
 
 Livia, that he had deemed her a woman well 
 worthy of himself not many weeks ago, and 
 that it should have been his part to recognise 
 her limitations and make no such transparent 
 error. His intellect had failed to read one 
 which now proved vastly inferior. Then what 
 of his own mental gifts ? 
 
 Thus he found himself faced with the hate- 
 ful conclusion that he was not the man he had 
 thought himself to be — always the most painful 
 revelation for any of us. Indeed it demands 
 some courage and good sense to hold on in 
 steadfast fashion, after sanely and squarely 
 accepting the fact that our self-valuation is 
 mistaken ; and few are courageous enough 
 either to admit the doubt or stand up to the 
 consequence. 
 
 In the chastened mood awakened by such a 
 discovery, truth may come as a tonic, or a 
 sedative, according to the humour and bent 
 of those who are faced with it. For Evander 
 (who after all was an artist in his way) it 
 wakened his muse. He sat on a mossy stone in 
 the sun, drew out his tablets and composed 
 
 1 68 

 
 WOE OF EVANDER 
 
 the following pessimistic verses. But before 
 he had finished with them and was about to 
 experience the relaxation of grief that creation 
 brings, Apollo's bow flashed its prismatic 
 glory upon the bosom of a purple cloud ; and 
 this accident inspired him to a philosophic 
 conclusion. 
 
 Thus he wrote : 
 
 My life's but an antic 
 Half sane and half frantic, 
 Half kicks and half halfpence, 
 
 Half smiles and half tears ; 
 Half dross and half treasure, 
 Half pain and half pleasure, 
 Half dreaming, half seeming, 
 
 Half hopes and half fears. 
 
 A seat in a galley, 
 A little blind alley, 
 A plunge into being, 
 
 A leaf in the wind, 
 A beautiful bubble 
 On oceans of trouble, 
 A road where the signposts 
 
 Are all going blind. 
 
 A shadow that passes 
 Along thirsty grasses, 
 
 169
 
 EVANDER 
 
 A fungus that's fretting 
 
 The face of the earth ; 
 A pitiful blunder, 
 A sorrowful wonder, 
 A cry out of darkness, 
 
 A hunger, a dearth. 
 
 A cradle to cry in, 
 A coffin to He in — 
 Betwixt them I steal 
 
 Past the fun of the fair — 
 Chance calling, Fate guiding 
 Life's roundabout gliding, 
 Till Death, the grey dustman, 
 
 Surprises me there. 
 
 O link with thy glory 
 Both ends of my story, 
 Thou bow of my god 
 
 Spanning sorrow and strife. 
 From osier to elm 
 Light some road through the realm 
 Where Evander still wanders 
 
 The antres of life. 
 
 He liked this and it cheered him up ; for 
 among the countless disabilities of a poet's 
 existence, let it never be forgotten that he 
 who makes things can always, for a season at 
 least, escape his darkest suffering. And 
 
 170
 
 WOE OF EVANDER 
 
 though the creative effort itself be a suffering 
 and the thing made be brought out of pain, 
 there is still a parental joy that heralds achieve- 
 ment. Time may kill the infant ; its creator 
 on returning to it may destroy the bantling 
 with his own hands as a creature unworthy 
 to see the light ; but the gestation was not all 
 pain ; the maturation served at least this 
 purpose : that it came between the creator 
 and reality for a season, suspended his life 
 sorrows and enabled him to return to them with 
 a mind rested, if not refreshed. 
 
 As Time gleans the first whiteness of the 
 dayspring and stores a sunrise wonder, that 
 he may turn its silver into gold at even, when 
 dawn is forgot, so the artist, from precious 
 moments of love, joy, grief, welds his lamp, to 
 light other days and other hearts, when his 
 own day is done, his own heart at rest. And 
 if, as mostly happens, he lacks the authentic 
 fire and his little taper is blown out even 
 before his own pulse of life be extinguished, 
 at least he has not missed the supreme joy of 
 creation and upon his grave let it be written 
 
 171
 
 EVANDER 
 
 with reverence, ' He tried to make beautiful 
 things.' 
 
 Now Evander, at the first thrill of his 
 rhymes, grew comforted. 
 
 " I may find this no good to-morrow," he 
 reflected, " but I like it for the moment ; and 
 now, while in a more placid mood, I will 
 go on thinking about Livia and these present 
 griefs." 
 
 He did so and proceeded from the ad- 
 mission already reached : that he had been 
 mistaken in her. Then, with an inspiration 
 worthy of all praise in a man of his character, 
 he asked himself whether it was possible she 
 might have been mistaken in him. The ques- 
 tion interested him deeply and he came to the 
 conclusion that it was so : Livia had un- 
 doubtedly arrived at a mistaken conclusion. 
 But wherefore ? Was it her fault, or his 
 own ? He laboured the problem and began 
 to retrace every incident of their unfortunate 
 friendship, when an effulgent ray flashed 
 across his vision and the divine form of his 
 guardian god stood beside him. 
 
 172
 
 WOE OF EVANDER 
 
 Evander abased himself and Apollo bade 
 him get up and listen. The Fountain of 
 Light was annoyed. 
 
 " I have heard what has happened," he said, 
 " and, needless to say, my anger is kindled. 
 There has been a serious lapse here and I 
 would learn the facts from your own lips, 
 before proceeding to take what steps may be 
 necessary for my honour." 
 
 " At the moment when you revealed your 
 godhead to my humble eyes, august Apollo, I 
 was wrestling with the subject," replied 
 Evander. " I have spent long hours upon 
 these inhospitable hills in deepest dejection, 
 and my spirit has moved in the dust. But, 
 thanks without doubt to your own beneficent 
 voice in my heart, there has now come a 
 salutary ray into the darkness. From this 
 disaster I have learned a mighty truth : that 
 man must, before all else, cultivate his imagina- 
 tion and enlarge his cosmic sympathies. In 
 other and simpler words, it is up to us — all the 
 time and every time — to look at other people's 
 point of view. To be inhuman in a human 
 
 173
 
 EVANDER 
 
 world is waste of energy ; to stand aloof from 
 a gregarious organisation is not the way to help 
 it. In fact, to be really useful, we should first 
 admit the humanity of all things human and 
 the weakness of all things human. I was as 
 weak as the rest. I, that thought I stood, fell 
 into a grave error. The woman you gave me 
 might have been won by sympathy, but proved 
 invulnerable to doctrine. Some people seem 
 to set a good example like a trap. Perhaps I 
 did myself. At any rate, I see now that my 
 methods and invincible dogmatism are not 
 best suited to the work I desire to accomplish 
 on your behalf, and henceforth I propose to 
 alter my system and cultivate a more sym- 
 pathetic attitude to my kind. Only so will it 
 be possible for me — indeed, only so is it 
 possible for any of us — gods or men — to fulfil 
 our purpose. Not long since I heard an 
 impious wretch declare that religion makes 
 quite as many unhappy homes as drink ; and 
 though, of course, that is going too far, 
 
 yet " 
 
 But the Delphic god had heard enough. 
 
 174
 
 WOE OF EVANDER 
 
 " Peace, preposterous person ! ' thundered 
 outraged deity. " Would you teach ME ! 
 What whipper-snapper are you to tell gods and 
 men their duty, and to dare mention gods and 
 men in the same breath ? Whether it was 
 your unspeakable stupidity, or her own wicked- 
 ness, that has led Livia, the washerwoman's 
 daughter, back to Festus and my brother — 
 my half-brother — matters not. For you, if 
 you would escape my swiftest arrow yourself, 
 double your worship, treble your burnt offer- 
 ings and atone, in tears and tremblings as best 
 you may, for your insolence and folly. To 
 preach to me ! To babble your nonsense 
 about cosmic sympathies to me ! Think you 
 the cosmos is your affair ? Mend your own 
 dreadful manners. Scourge your self-conse- 
 quence and ridiculous vanity and leave cosmos 
 to your betters. As for the woman, she dies. 
 Many have I sent to the Shades for less than 
 this, and, in eight-and-forty hours, if not less, 
 the worthless creature will vanish off the earth 
 for ever." 
 
 " Do you propose to destroy her on my 
 
 175
 
 EVANDER 
 
 account, or your own, Heavenly Musician ? " 
 ventured Evander. " If upon mine, I pray 
 you listen to your sorrowing servant yet a 
 little longer. When first she left me, I should 
 have almost approved your purpose. I felt 
 like that myself ; but now I have searched 
 the secret chambers of my own heart and am 
 humbled. It was not all her fault. Her 
 character proved different from what I had 
 been led to imagine. I will not say that she 
 purposely deceived me. Women must act, 
 and sometimes they do not really mean to 
 deceive us, any more than the professional 
 mimes of the stage design to do so. Often 
 they know that we know they're acting ; and 
 many men even like it. Livia is young, and as 
 a matter of fact, when you saved her from the 
 wolves, you turned her head. She was never 
 worthy to be your disciple : she's not really 
 built that way ; while as far as I am concerned, 
 she has taught me one thing — fool though she 
 was. I am not a marrying man, Lord of 
 Light. Even had she been more serious- 
 minded, she would never have made me 
 
 176
 
 WOE OF EVANDER 
 
 lastingly happy ; and it is quite certain that 
 I should have made her lastingly miserable. 
 These bitter truths I have learned in the 
 solitude of the mountains ; and I rejoiced, 
 even in my sufferings, to learn them, for I 
 thought that you yourself had whispered them 
 to me, and that my growing peace and resigna- 
 tion came from you." 
 
 " Not at all," replied the god. " You are 
 merely following the line of least resistance 
 and pretending that everything is for the best. 
 Where do I come in ? You are great on 
 points of view — well, what about mine ? I 
 suppose it has not occurred to you to ask your- 
 self that paramount question ? I arranged 
 this affair. I had the matter in hand, and 
 presently, when this clown, Festus, learned 
 that he was inflicting a wicked wrong on Livia 
 by not divorcing her, he would have done so. 
 By leaving you, she stultifies me ; and the 
 human being who stultifies me only does so 
 once." 
 
 " She did not look at it in that way," de- 
 clared the young man, " and your faithful 
 
 N 177
 
 EVANDER 
 
 Evander prays you upon his knees to spare her. 
 I assure you that only nature, and not im- 
 piety, drew her away from me. Faunus may 
 have inspired her, and it is ill to deny Faunus 
 his way in the heart." 
 
 Apollo's brow grew darker than ever. 
 
 " This accursed woman has done you much 
 harm," he said, " and as it appears you prefer 
 your own stupid voice to mine, I will leave you 
 to purify yourself and regain your wandering 
 wits in the wilderness. Seek me no more until 
 your soul is cleansed and you can talk sense. 
 As for her, I repeat, she dies at a fitting 
 opportunity. My name shall not be taken 
 
 in vain." 
 
 " You couldn't punish me instead, I suppose, 
 Everlasting One ? " asked Evander, and the 
 god replied : 
 
 " Very easily ; and you deserve punishment 
 if ever idiot man deserved it. Your attitude 
 to this disgraceful incident appals me. Be 
 under no anxiety : your turn will also 
 
 come." 
 
 " I said ' instead,' " murmured Apollo's un- 
 
 i 7 8
 
 WOE OF EVANDER 
 
 happy disciple ; but the Source of Light 
 vanished without more words, and Evander 
 was left in the extremity of woe. He knew 
 that Apollo must, of course, be right ; never- 
 theless his own weak and faulty humanity 
 wept for Livia and his poor, finite under- 
 standing dared to suggest her destruction was 
 an extreme step hardly excused by the facts. 
 Looking back upon Apollonian doings, however, 
 he remembered, only too surely, that the god 
 never threatened in vain. It was clear that 
 Livia must die ; and Evander felt that she 
 and Festus had better learn her approaching 
 doom as quickly as possible. In sober honesty 
 he hated to have to tell them. Once he 
 would not so much have minded ; but now 
 real life had slightly modified his old serene 
 outlook. 
 
 " What will Bacchus do about it, I wonder ?" 
 thought the young man. He detected himself 
 in impiety and trembled like a guilty thing 
 before he reached his home again, for he knew 
 that he did not see eye to eye with Apollo in 
 this matter : he could not deny to his conscience 
 
 179
 
 EVANDER 
 
 that he both regretted and questioned the pur- 
 pose of his god. And this was the unkindest 
 cut of all, for he naturally suspected that a 
 demon was playing with his understanding 
 and tampering with his faith. 
 
 1 80
 
 F 
 
 XIV 
 
 APOLLO AND BACCHUS 
 
 " nr^IRE-DRAKES and furies ! Kill her 
 for coming back to her lawful hus- 
 band ! " cried Festus, when Evander 
 stood before him and his wife and proclaimed 
 the dreadful tidings. 
 
 Livia fainted immediately, and when they 
 had restored her to consciousness, Evander 
 spoke to her husband. 
 
 " Understand," he said, " that this dreadful 
 affair has nothing whatever to do with me. 
 While Livia was swimming away from me, I, 
 on my side, had already begun to feel doubt- 
 ful also. We were not so perfectly suited to 
 one another as we imagined, and she must not 
 think that she was the only one to find it out. 
 I had slowly but surely begun to see it ; before 
 long I might even have brought her back 
 
 181
 
 EVANDER 
 
 to you myself. But Apollo — that is a very 
 different matter. The Divine Archer takes 
 the gravest possible view of Livia's conduct 
 and will surely destroy her, because she has 
 made his name a laughing-stock." 
 
 " I never did," declared the unfortunate 
 victim of Apollo's anger. " I honestly thought 
 I was going to be his servant and follower ; 
 but you showed me I wasn't. You cannot help 
 your destiny, any more than you can help 
 your nature. Plenty of people have changed 
 their gods without dying for it." 
 
 " No man or woman plays fast and loose 
 with Apollo," answered Evander. " You have 
 done a dreadful thing, but on my knees I 
 implored the Giver of Light to let you off. I 
 offered to do anything in my power." 
 
 Then Festus spoke and revealed the extent 
 of his love. 
 
 " Rather than that should happen," he said, 
 " I will give up my own hope of happiness. 
 If Livia is to die, I die also. But anything 
 that can happen is better than her death. 
 Since that is the awful doom pronounced upon 
 
 182
 
 APOLLO AND BACCHUS 
 
 her, you had better take her back, Evander, 
 and train her in the worship of Apollo. Be 
 tender to her, make her as happy as you can — 
 and let her laugh sometimes, and teach her to 
 forget me." 
 
 " Anything, as you say, is better than that 
 Livia should die," admitted Evander some- 
 what ruefully, " but, I too, will gladly sacrifice 
 my own peace of mind and prospects, if by so 
 doing I can preserve her alive. Should the 
 worst happen, that shall be done, if Apollo 
 will permit it ; and in my humble way I will 
 try to give Livia a happy life and let her laugh 
 as often as she finds she can. But it occurs to 
 me that Bacchus also is a very great god, 
 though of course I ought not to say so, or 
 think so for a moment. Certainly I do not 
 myself trust Bacchus, nor does Apollo ; yet 
 they both have the Eternal for father, and I 
 cannot help feeling, under the circumstances, 
 that Bacchus, who is a cunning and crafty 
 spirit, might yet save the situation and get 
 round the Source of all Light, if he cares to 
 do so." 
 
 183
 
 EVANDER 
 
 " We will kneel in prayer to Bacchus 
 instantly," declared Festus, " and we will 
 implore all our friends who believe in him 
 to cease not from entreaty and sacrifice." 
 
 ■ And I, on the other hand, would weary 
 Apollo," promised Evander, " but it is in 
 vain just now to do so, for I regret to say his 
 face is turned from me." 
 
 They thanked him and from night far into 
 dawn ceased not to importune the God of the 
 Grape. 
 
 But little knew these three how near the 
 woman's fate had come, or what great matters 
 had fallen out on the mountain-side, not 
 ten miles distant, even while they spoke 
 together. 
 
 For on a distant hill Apollo, descending with 
 shining feet upon the hamlet, had met with 
 Bacchus himself, and though the incident ap- 
 peared accidental, it is most certain that such 
 pregnant things as followed could not have 
 happened by chance. 
 
 Bacchus was alone, sitting in his chariot and 
 wrapt in divine meditation. His leopards 
 
 184
 
 APOLLO AND BACCHUS 
 
 crouched together drowsily, waiting for him 
 to proceed. Their paws were tucked in and 
 their green eyes shut. The god's companions 
 had dispersed in the woods and he sat in 
 immortal beauty with his young head upon 
 his hand, his inscrutable eyes fixed upon 
 distance — the true Dionysus of the Destinies. 
 
 He knew that Apollo must pass that way to 
 destroy Livia, and had, of set purpose, hither 
 brought himself, that he might discuss the 
 case with his elder brother. 
 
 " Well met, Lord of Day ! " he said. " You 
 come upon my thoughts very happily and will 
 not deny me a flash of the light you so gener- 
 ously dispense to great and small. I am con- 
 cerned about a small matter touching humanity, 
 and since your interests are also with mankind, 
 it may well be that you can assist me." 
 
 " Humanity is very disappointing," replied 
 Apollo shortly. His bow was strung and he 
 was fingering a silver arrow with a scarlet 
 feather and bitter point. 
 
 " We must not suffer it to disappoint us," 
 replied the other god. " Consider first prin- 
 
 185
 
 EVANDER 
 
 ciples. I hate metaphysics and you adore 
 them ; but reason is reason, even if one be a 
 god, and I venture to think that reason rejects 
 as irrational this eternal demand on your part 
 for unsullied perfection from a creature 
 created imperfect." 
 
 " Man holds a possibility of approaching far 
 nearer to perfection than is at present the case ; 
 and it is our duty to urge him onwards, not 
 hinder his footsteps — or unsteady them," 
 replied Apollo. 
 
 " You allude to the grape, of course. We'll 
 come to that, since you are good enough to 
 let me detain you. Dear brother, remember 
 this : if the pendulum doesn't swing, the 
 machine stops. So the root of things is pulled 
 up and we return to chaos. You are asking 
 for the absolute, but the absolute is impossible. 
 You know, as well as I do, that no such thing 
 as the absolute exists. Mankind can be good 
 or evil — he can be too good as well as too 
 bad ; but it is beyond his power to be abso- 
 lutely good, or absolutely wicked. Why, we 
 can't ourselves ! It is equally impossible to 
 
 186
 
 APOLLO AND BACCHUS 
 
 have light without shadow, strength without 
 weakness, ugliness without beauty, heat with- 
 out cold, odd without even, the static without 
 the dynamic — in a word, Apollo without 
 Dionysus." 
 
 " Your vanity makes you think so," replied 
 the elder deity. " I prospered exceedingly 
 well before you were born. You are a hind- 
 rance to me, not a help." 
 
 " Jupiter, however, felt the need of me, be 
 sure. But listen a little longer. I argue that 
 everything is relative and dependent, nothing 
 absolute and independent — not gods, or men. 
 And think not that I care less for the human 
 family than yourself. My hands are full of 
 gifts for him." 
 
 " What gifts ! " 
 
 " Yours we know," answered Bacchus. 
 " You bring him light and music, the glory of 
 heaven and the melody of the spheres, the 
 rule of self-control, the noble doctrine of 
 self-denial, fine thinking and pure living. I 
 present him with the joyous grape, the dithy- 
 ramb, the drama. From me springs art, 
 
 i8 7
 
 EVANDER 
 
 which embraces not only the tragedy, but the 
 comedy of life. My gifts, if you could only 
 see it, are the complement of your own. I 
 make man diligent and therefore happy. I 
 inspire him to creation, and in his highest 
 creative moments he comes nearest to your- 
 self. Yours the blinding light ; mine the 
 purple shadows wherein all born of women 
 must pursue their toil. I loosen care ; tend 
 that difficult plant, happiness ; smile on merry 
 meetings ; inspire the race of men to give and 
 forgive ; to share their few joys as well as 
 their many griefs ; to find in their weakness a 
 reason for unity and that universal sympathy 
 wherein lies their sole hope of reaching the 
 best they may reach. You light all human life ; 
 I lighten it. Gentleness is mine and forgive- 
 ness. These, also, are virtues, for it is seldom 
 unjust to forgive. I am in the thirsty man's 
 flagon, the cold man's fire ; I know the frailty 
 of mankind and condone it ; but you find 
 that to be a task increasingly impossible and 
 exaggerate their small faults, until they grow 
 large enough for your great punishments." 
 
 188
 
 APOLLO AND BACCHUS 
 
 " I punish for example," replied Apollo 
 sternly. " I punish, that seeing the reward of 
 ill-doing, man may rise above himself in his 
 own interest to nobler conduct. Man is in 
 blood akin to the brutes that perish ; and 
 until we break the brute in him and drive it 
 forth once and for ever, no large advance can 
 be hoped. He must be tamed before anything 
 useful will be done with him." 
 
 " You cannot have better bread than is 
 made of wheat," replied the younger god. 
 
 " You can improve wheat." 
 
 " True, but wheat it will always be ; and 
 you can improve man, but man he must 
 always remain, and his mortal ancestry is a 
 heritage beyond even your power to uproot 
 or destroy." 
 
 " It is within our power to eradicate their 
 vices," replied Apollo. " And that is my ever- 
 lasting purpose and steadfast intention. You, 
 on the contrary, pander to their weakness and 
 exhibit a mistaken tenderness, which can only 
 retard improvement and affirm him in his 
 false opinions and vain conceit." 
 
 189
 
 EVANDER 
 
 " Vice, as you call it — what does that mean, 
 brother ? If it means anything, it means the 
 mess that man continually finds himself in as 
 a result of his nurture, antecedents, and the 
 iron ring of circumstance. We know that — 
 he does not. Who deplores his vices more than 
 he, poor fellow ? But do remember that you 
 are the son of Jupiter. Never lose your divine 
 temper with these harassed and hardly-treated 
 creatures. Recollect the grim legacy of the 
 blood in their veins ; consider the little 
 measure of their intellect, the shortness of their 
 days, the futility of their hopes, the pathetic 
 limitation of their ambitions. If anything 
 could make me weep, it is their ambitions. 
 To be angry with such a race is bad enough ; 
 to destroy them because they err, ill becomes 
 omnipotence." 
 
 Apollo's glorious blue eyes grew cloudy. 
 
 " Look back," continued the Care-dispeller. 
 " Take Niobe's little business. You do not 
 need to be reminded that both you and your 
 divine sister were long in the cold among us 
 after that ebullition. Yesterday I saw a 
 
 190
 
 APOLLO AND BACCHUS 
 
 human boy beating a gosling, and I asked him 
 what the bird had done to make him so cruel. 
 He replied that the goose-mother of the 
 gosling had hissed at him, so he was making 
 her child smart for it. You see the analogy ? 
 How were you better than this little idiot 
 when you killed Niobe's boys and girls — 
 butchered them one after another because 
 their silly goose-mother, in her maternal pride, 
 cackled at Latona ? Niobe bore twelve chil- 
 dren to a man ; Latona bore two — to Jupiter ; 
 and this poor gnat-brained woman, proud of 
 her pro-creation and ignorant of the fact that 
 quality is more important than quantity, or a 
 god and goddess worth a wilderness of boys 
 and girls, permits herself a vain word at the 
 expense of your august mother. 
 
 " Had you reasoned with her in your glory ; 
 had Diana gone to her side and permitted her 
 awful loveliness to burst upon the poor 
 matron's vision, she had repented, her face 
 upon the earth, and, together with her 
 progeny, made sacrifice and wept humble 
 tears. Henceforth you would have been the 
 
 191
 
 EVANDER 
 
 tutelary god of all her children and her 
 children's children. Instead, you sweep away 
 a dozen promising young men and maidens, 
 whose only fault was a stupid parent they did 
 not choose for themselves." 
 
 " The sins of the fathers and the mothers 
 shall be visited on the children," replied 
 Apollo. 
 
 " Then the human boy who beat the gosling 
 was right. But you know perfectly well he 
 was not. You cannot and will not see that 
 allowance must be made. You ram duty down 
 their throats till they are poisoned with it. 
 You blind them, weary them, oppress them 
 under the weight of your own perfections. 
 You are merciless — so is Diana. People with- 
 out a sense of humour generally are. Forgive- 
 ness — why, my dear brother, these leopards 
 are more forgiving than you." 
 
 " You confuse attributes," replied Apollo 
 coldly. " Your leopards forget : they do not 
 forgive." 
 
 " Well then, practise the art of forgetting. 
 Your power is prodigious, but power without 
 
 192
 
 APOLLO AND BACCHUS 
 
 imagination plays the very Hades with human 
 life. Consider how they use power them- 
 selves, and shudder. It is exercise of power 
 without imagination that accounts for all the 
 convulsions of their brief existence. From 
 their insensate lust for power spring their 
 cruelties, atrocities, misfortunes and bloody 
 wars. Why can't you laugh at them some- 
 times, or, better still, laugh with them, as I 
 do ? Has my sovereignty weakened because I 
 gave them the grape ? " 
 
 " You know what I think about the grape," 
 replied the brother of Bacchus. 
 
 "I do ; but if you would try drinking it 
 instead of thinking about it, you might make 
 more friends. Consider how brimful of un- 
 conscious humour the mortals are. Why not 
 let them amuse you sometimes, instead of 
 shocking you always ? Think, for example, 
 how they measure everything in terms of their 
 own reason. What can be more entertaining ? 
 They approach Nature on a rational basis and 
 expect her — her, the mad mother — to proceed 
 along the path of their own ratiocination, 
 o 193
 
 EVANDER 
 
 Does not that make you tender with them ? 
 But I would forgive you if you were kind, for 
 truth is greater than humour and compassion 
 purer than wit. Let your sun shine on the just 
 and the unjust, for its warmth may soften the 
 hardest heart as well as gladden the best. 
 Shall the immortal be less patient than man ? 
 Observe how the human father treats his child 
 — how patient he is, how longsuffering, how 
 quick to find the bud of grace. Will you not 
 even reach mankind's own ' aidos ' ? Shall it 
 be said that he has conceived a more perfect 
 ideal than Apollo can attain ? Why, your 
 servant Evander was sore troubled and wept 
 many secret tears because you designed to 
 slay the woman Livia. And yet he had en- 
 dured more for her sake than anybody, and 
 might have entertained a deeper grudge than 
 you. 
 
 " And remember this : it is really something 
 to think about. The god who neglects his oppor- 
 tunities will very soon find himself neglected. 
 Don't, I beg of you, for all our sakes, forget 
 that ! " 
 
 194
 
 APOLLO AND BACCHUS 
 
 Apollo nodded doubtfully. 
 
 " There may be truth in your remark," he 
 answered. " I didn't know you had so much 
 sense." 
 
 "Still they ask 'Why?' 'Whence?' 
 ' Whither ? ' Still they win no reply ; but 
 what will happen when they grow weary of 
 asking and find they are able to prosper with- 
 out an answer ? " 
 
 " We can't tell them what we don't know 
 ourselves," replied the Light-Bringer moodily. 
 
 " Exactly. And if dogma is once diluted, 
 the waves will break the dyke and we shall all 
 be washed away together." 
 
 " We can remind them terribly that we 
 exist." 
 
 " But how much better to remind them 
 pleasantly. You're always wanting them to be 
 godlike ; but does it ever strike you that you 
 might try with advantage to be manlike ? " 
 
 The Divine Archer stared. 
 
 " This is sacrilege," he said. " You would 
 strike at the very roots of religion. You would 
 have us cease to be incomprehensible to man- 
 
 195
 
 EVANDER 
 
 kind. Vain Bacchus ! If we always did what 
 their reason and sense of justice approved — 
 what then ? We should be understood." 
 
 " And why not let them understand us ? 
 Better that than they should grow weary of 
 trying to do so ? For if once they find they 
 can get on without us, and save time from 
 religious precept for moral practice, where are 
 we then ? " 
 
 " Religion and morals are one," answered 
 Apollo ; but his brother laughed gently. 
 
 " Keep that for them," he replied. " You 
 know better, and anything more immoral than 
 divine behaviour on thousands of occasions, 
 the history of our way with men does not 
 hold. Religion is to morals as alchemy to 
 chemistry, as astrology to astronomy ; and 
 when humanity finds that out — well, brother, 
 you may probably be the first to find naked 
 altars ; as I shall be the last ; because the 
 more humanity in the god, the longer humanity 
 will tolerate him." 
 
 Silenus lurched round the stem of a red 
 pine behind their backs. 
 
 196
 
 APOLLO AND BACCHUS 
 
 He was going to shout ' Cheer-o ! ' when he 
 saw Apollo. Whereupon he first put a drunken 
 finger on his lips and then crept away on all 
 fours. 
 
 " Take it not amiss that I have said these 
 things," concluded Bacchus. " The wisest of 
 us make mistakes, and error and immortality 
 may go hand in hand. The sum is that, in- 
 stead of worshipping you and not me, or me 
 and not you, mankind might do wiselier to set 
 our temples side by side." 
 
 The ghost of a smile flickered on Apollo's 
 glorious lips. It was but a transient twinkle, 
 and yet all the children of men throughout 
 the waking earth felt a sudden sense of well- 
 being, a throb in their hearts of gladness at 
 that splendid moment. 
 
 " Say you so ? " he asked. " Think you that 
 your material outlook could ever chime har- 
 moniously with the spiritual altitudes on 
 which I move ? Shall your votaries of the 
 valley breathe the icy mountain air where my 
 disciples climb ? " 
 
 197
 
 EVANDER 
 
 ' The truth lies ever in a golden mean," 
 answered Bacchus. " In fact, for mortals at 
 present you are Scylla and I, Charybdis : 
 perhaps their only safe course is to steer 
 between us and avoid both your rocks and my 
 whirlpools. But we will confer, brother ; we 
 will give and take and devise a new table of the 
 law, wherein your counsels of perfection shall 
 mingle with my joy of life as snow water with 
 red wine. So shall my draught of philosophy 
 be tempered by the spirit of your exalted 
 ideals and bring to man the sweetness of the 
 gods in a cup from which his human lips can 
 drink. Above all, do not let us drown him 
 between us. The more I see of man, the more 
 I perceive he is prone to excess ; and yet if 
 there is a drug best taken in homoeopathic doses, 
 it is religion." 
 
 Apollo considered before replying ; then he 
 spoke. 
 
 ' Since it seems you are come to years of 
 discretion and dimly perceive some of the 
 graver problems at present challenging 
 
 198
 
 APOLLO AND BACCHUS 
 
 Olympus," he answered, " we will, as you pro- 
 pose, have speech together ; and should we 
 arrive at any useful conclusions, submit them 
 to our Father. It is, however, improbable. 
 Meantime, of course, I know perfectly well 
 why you have detained me and taken all this 
 trouble. You shall have your way. I will 
 spare Livia, the washerwoman's daughter." 
 
 He unstrung his bow, snapped his silver 
 arrow with the scarlet feather, and flung the 
 pieces upon the earth. Then he vanished up- 
 ward into the light of evening, that washed 
 heaven with rosy gold to the zenith. 
 
 Bacchus smiled wearily, while at the de- 
 parture of his brother the Vine God's people 
 returned to him. 
 
 " I am athirst," he said. " Bring me a cup 
 of white wine." 
 
 Then, turning to a faun — one Coix, famed 
 for his fieetness of foot — he bade him hasten 
 to the valley and bring the news of her salva- 
 tion to the wife of Festus. 
 
 " That done, swim the lake and tell Evander 
 too," said he. 
 
 199
 
 EVANDER 
 
 Whereupon Coix leapt away, like a hart of 
 the mountains, and the bacchants burst into a 
 paean of riotous delight. It was not often that 
 they sang praises to Apollo, but with one 
 heart and voice they did on this occasion, and 
 the Light-Bringer himself, hearing them from 
 his high place, felt not ill pleased. 
 
 THE END 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BKKNDON AND SON, LTD., PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND
 
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