y
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 BY 
 
 H. FIELDING-HALL 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 'THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE,' ETC. 
 
 Legend is truth incarnated in story 
 
 NEW YORK 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 1914
 
 PK 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO THE READER 
 
 THE pleasure-seeker on a summer sea notes 
 but the surface, the curve and toss of wavelets 
 that pass by, the colour and the light, the 
 sparkle of the sun upon the foam ; it is enough 
 for him, it gives him pleasure, which is all he 
 seeks and needs. But here and there is one 
 who seeks for more than this. He rises above 
 ihefrivo/e of the individual spray, and, looking 
 down, he sees things that the surface traveller 
 dreams not of. Beneath the ripple and the 
 fret he notes signs of the ocean currents, those 
 that keep the seas alive and fresh, that pass 
 from pole to pole for ever round the world. 
 He sees dim shadows of great things hid in 
 the deep abyss, things that can never be 
 defined, because it is of their essence that they
 
 vi LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 lie beneath all definitions ; he has faint 
 glimpses of the hidden bases of the world. 
 
 I know not which seeker of the two you be. 
 Whichever you may be, you are in your right 
 to take that only which you want, and to you 
 God-speed !
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE ........ v 
 
 CHAPTER I 3 
 
 II . 19 
 
 in 35 
 
 IV ... ... 49 
 
 V 65 
 
 VI .81 
 
 VII .95 
 
 VIII 109 
 
 IX 125 
 
 X . . . . 137 
 
 XI . 155 
 
 XII 169 
 
 XIII .... .183 
 
 XIV ... 199
 
 viii LOVE'S 
 
 PACK 
 
 CHAPTER XV ... . . 213 
 
 XVI 229 
 
 XVII ... .245 
 
 XVIII 261 
 
 XIX . 277 
 
 XX . . . . 293 
 
 XXI .. . 303 
 
 XXII . . .309 
 
 XXIII 321
 
 CHAPTER I
 
 ' The same stream of life that runs through my veins 
 night and day runs through the world and dances in 
 rhythmic measures. 
 
 * It is the same life that shoots in joy through the 
 dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks 
 into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. 
 
 * It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean cradle 
 of birth and death in ebb and in flow. 
 
 ' I feel my limbs arc made glorious by the touch of 
 this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb 
 of ages dancing in my blood at this moment.' 
 
 RABINDRANATH TAGORE.
 
 I 
 
 :T was still quite dark as we 
 rode up the winding jungle 
 path that ended at the cliff. 
 There was not room for us 
 side by side, therefore I rode 
 in front and Lesbia followed. 
 We went in silence, partly because divided 
 thus it was difficult to talk, partly because 
 Lesbia was in a rage. It was not a heated 
 temper that possessed her, but a frozen 
 indignation that radiated silence as an iceberg 
 does a chill, that pushed me from her as the 
 negative pole of a battery would do. The 
 ponies scrambled bravely up, and at last we 
 reached the summit. 
 
 ' Here we dismount,' I said. 
 Lesbia did not answer. She let me help 
 her from the saddle and stood in dignified 
 aloofness while I fastened the ponies' bridles 
 to a tree. Then I stepped into the jungle. 
 4 Come ! ' I said. The bushes and creepers 
 were thick and I had to push them aside and 
 break them to make a way. I could see 
 nothing, of course, except the bushes in front 
 and all round me, but I knew that Lesbia was
 
 4 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 following I heard her footsteps, the rustle of 
 her skirts, and an occasional smothered excla- 
 mation when a too elastic branch sprang back 
 and struck her. 
 
 At last I forced my way out on to the flat 
 rock, and Lesbia joined me. 
 
 ' Look ! ' I said. ' But you had better hold 
 my arm or you may be giddy.' 
 
 She put her hand upon my arm as she 
 might upon an indifferent railing, and looked. 
 
 In front of us was a great vacancy, the 
 wide, deep valley of the river, and within this 
 valley night still lingered, not as a darkness 
 but as a clear blue gloom through which the 
 farther slopes were faintly visible. 
 
 Faint wreaths of mist were drawn along 
 the water meadows, and the air was still. 
 
 4 And now let us look over. I will hold 
 this tree with one hand and hold you with 
 the other. Look right down ! ' 
 
 Her clasp upon me tightened, and we went 
 together to the edge. Then we looked down. 
 
 At first it seemed almost infinity that we 
 gazed into, so broad, so deep the valley lay 
 beneath. Then far below we could distinguish 
 things, forest-clad banks and rocks, and a 
 great river, smooth and grey as steel, that bent 
 about the bluff on which we stood and dis- 
 appeared. No sound came from the abyss. 
 The great strong river moved quite silently ; 
 the birds were not awake yet, and the forest 
 life was still.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 5 
 
 4 Oh ! ' said Lesbia, with a sigh, c draw me 
 back.' I drew her landward. 
 
 ' Now look up ! ' I said. 
 
 Beyond the valley was a mountain range 
 that stretched into infinity, and behind its 
 peaks the dawn was come. There was a 
 radiance glowing there, and all along the 
 crests a line of fire. First it was pink, then 
 crimson ; then it turned to gold, to molten 
 gold that glowed and trembled as it grew. 
 It seemed as if beyond those hills there was a 
 fountain of pure light that leapt within its 
 chalice. It welled from the hidden sources 
 rising above the brim, and then at length, 
 suddenly, like a great flood, it overflowed. As 
 we watched, the sun rose up, and like the 
 wine of life his light poured into the great 
 valley. Then it was filled. The blue gloom 
 of the night was gone, the forest green was 
 almost luminous, the river gleamed like gold. 
 
 All the world laughed with joy and glad- 
 ness that the day was come again. Down in 
 the river fishes leapt, and in the copses birds 
 burst into song. I felt Lesbia tremble in my 
 grasp, and drew her closer. Her pulses 
 quickened, and I saw upon her cheeks a flush 
 caught from the dawn. 
 
 ' Well,' I asked, with a laugh, ' and am I 
 justified ? ' 
 
 She turned on me reproachfully eyes like 
 the stars. A strand of hair tinted with sun- 
 light glory brushed my face.
 
 6 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 4 You should have told me,' she com- 
 plained. 
 
 'I did.' 
 
 ' You only said it was worth seeing. How 
 should I know it was like this ? ' 
 
 ' How could I tell you that it was like this ? 
 Are there words for that ? ' I waved my 
 hand towards the sunrise. 
 
 For it was not alone the colours spread upon 
 the hills and sky, not only the living light 
 that throbbed and palpitated when dawn was 
 come; it was that in all this splendour there 
 was hidden an emotion and a purpose. It 
 seemed as if in all this life there lay an exulta- 
 tion as of a thought accomplished, a victory 
 won, a dream made real. Some one had 
 thought out all this beauty and had bent all 
 nature to His purpose. Within this radiance 
 laughed the soul of all the world. Dead 
 nature ? Had nature not a soul it had been 
 dead, its energies all dissipated long ago. 
 Indeed it had never lived. 
 
 People who have lived much with nature 
 always see this and feel it. All early peoples 
 saw it and expressed it in a hundred ways. 
 When you are face to face with nature with- 
 out any sign of man you cannot help but see 
 it that in man alone is not all the intelligence 
 or emotion of the world. And once you have 
 seen it you can always see it anywhere. But 
 people born in old countries seem to have lost 
 the sense of nature. They cannot see beneath
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 7 
 
 the trivialities of man's work which overlies 
 it. In old temples, palaces, and castles they 
 will see and feel the design and the desire of 
 those that made them, but mountains and 
 trees and rivers are to them dead things. The 
 sense of God is gone. He is to them far, far 
 away, in some dream-heaven and not on 
 earth. Churches have banished Him, and 
 put themselves in His place. And they are 
 afraid of Him afraid ! Therefore it was 
 that I made Lesbia come here. 
 
 6 Now do you understand ? ' I asked. 
 
 'Yes,' she said at last, ' it makes one under- 
 stand.' 
 
 ' So that I would not have you miss it,' I 
 replied. ' Yet,' and I laughed, ' you gave me 
 a great deal of trouble. You argued. You 
 said you had often seen a sunrise before. 
 Have you ? ' 
 
 'No,' she admitted, 'many dawns, perhaps, 
 never a sunrise.' 
 
 'You didn't want to get up so early.' 
 
 ' It was so dark and cold ! ' 
 
 ' What trouble I had ! ' I repeated, and 
 placed my hand upon her shoulder. ' I 
 argued it was no use. I begged no use. 
 At last I threatened ! ' 
 
 ' How dared you ? ' she said indignantly. 
 ' You said you would come and pull me out 
 of bed. How dared you ? We are not 
 married yet, monsieur.' 
 
 ' No,' I answered, unabashed, ' had we
 
 8 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 been married I would not have threatened at 
 all. I would have acted ! * 
 
 She turned and regarded me severely in the 
 face. 
 
 ' Do you know what I was thinking all the 
 way as we rode up ? ' 
 
 4 Certainly/ I answered. 
 
 ' Oh ! ' she replied, as one suddenly disarmed 
 of a secret weapon. ' What was it ? ' 
 
 ' You were thinking whether you had not 
 made a mistake, whether you had not better 
 break it off. It seemed a pity after you had 
 taken the trouble and expense to come all this 
 long way to marry me, but better a mistake 
 before than after.* 
 
 c How still more horrid of you to have 
 guessed ! ' she said. ' How did you do it ? ' 
 
 ' Well,' I replied, ' you have a tell-tale face 
 and eyes. But it wasn't they that told me, 
 because it was too dark to see. It was the 
 atmosphere.' 
 
 ' The atmosphere ? ' 
 
 c Your atmosphere. You radiated cold like 
 an iceberg does. You were as cheerful as a 
 stalactite, as ' 
 
 ' I won't be called names,' and she stamped 
 her foot. ' Iceberg and stalactite indeed ! I 
 wonder what you were A a ' searching 
 for a word with visible annoyance that she 
 had not one ready. 
 
 4 1 was all that,' I admitted, to save her the 
 trouble.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 9 
 
 'You were just determined and horrid,' she 
 continued. ' Monsieur, I warn you, you had 
 better be very careful till this day week, or 
 this day week may never come.' 
 
 4 Well,' I returned, you must settle that 
 with the almanack. For myself, even in an 
 official capacity, I never dared to interfere with 
 either the almanack or the weather. There 
 are limits even to the authority of govern- 
 ment. Besides I am careful. I am very care- 
 ful. If I had not brought you up here, I 
 should never have forgiven myself.' 
 
 ' What about my forgiveness ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' True,' I said. c I am glad you reminded 
 me. There,' taking her face in my hands and 
 kissing her on both cheeks, ' I forgive you, 
 Lesbia.' 
 
 4 Oh,' she said indignantly, when she had 
 recovered, ' I didn't mean that at all. Tou for- 
 give me, indeed ! I meant, " what about my 
 forgiving you ? " That 's the important part.' 
 
 ' So it is,' I admitted. c Well, I am quite 
 ready,' holding my face to hers. ' Now, 
 forgive me ! ' 
 
 ' Do you want to be forgiven ? ' she asked 
 demurely. 
 
 c I do,' I said. 
 
 ' Then say, " Please forgive me, Lesbia." 
 
 ' Please forgive me, Lesbia, dear,' I repeated. 
 
 ' I won't ever do it again,' she dictated. 
 
 ' I won't ever do it again till next time.' 
 
 ' You don't say it quite right,' she com-
 
 io LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 plained. 'But there,' forgiving me on one 
 cheek, 4 and there,' forgiving me on the other, 
 ' now it 's all forgiven and forgotten.' 
 
 ' That 's the amende honorable on both sides,' 
 I answered. ' Now let 's turn again to watch 
 the sunrise.' 
 
 We were at the very head of the thousand- 
 mile valley, down which the river flows into 
 the sea. Before us stretched a wilderness of 
 mountains rising into peaks in the far distance. 
 To the east was China, to the north the hills 
 that rise and rise up to the roof of the world. 
 
 It is from this watershed of mighty rivers 
 that the male stream comes. No man has 
 ever yet seen its birthplace up amid those 
 eternal snows. Born of the glaciers on the 
 slopes of that unknown land, it is a boisterous 
 and a headstrong river, falling down precipices 
 with a loud roar and laughter, bursting through 
 mountain barriers that it cuts into deep gorges, 
 buried sometimes in forests where no axe has 
 ever sounded, resting a while in levels, only to 
 hurry forward once again, until at length, 
 its youth and play-time past, it breaks through 
 one last deep defile and comes out into the 
 great valley where its course must run. There 
 it joins another stream, a slower and more 
 placid water born of a lower level, flowing with 
 slower, sweeter rhythm. The junction was 
 just before us as we looked. We saw the 
 hurrying, tumbling, snow-fed torrent and the 
 rain-born stream join in one channel, to march
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND n 
 
 together to the sea. They joined, yet did not 
 merge. Side by side they lay within one bed, 
 yet for a time they were distinct. He hurried 
 still ; his whirls and eddies had not ceased. 
 Her measure had hardly quickened yet out of 
 her placidness. He pulled ; she clung to bank 
 and rock, afraid of his haste. 
 
 ' Why, look ! ' said Lesbia, pointing down at 
 the two streams ; ' it 's you and me. Look 
 how you burst from out your gorge with 
 noise and foam and haste, just like a man. 
 Look at poor me, how quiet and happy while 
 I was alone, flowing between the meadows, 
 now disturbed by all your turbulence.' 
 
 ' Yes, look at you ; slow and hard to move, 
 clinging to your bed.' 
 
 4 Look how clear my waters are,' said Lesbia : 
 ' while look at yours, all dark and muddy.' 
 
 1 But in my sands are gold.' 
 
 ' And in my waters, fish.' 
 
 ' Your fish are but small. It is not till we 
 have joined that there are big fish in our waters.' 
 
 I laughed. 
 
 ' Look down the valley, the waters merge. 
 Look at that cape. Beyond that is the station 
 where I live, the last outpost of civilisation. 
 You remember that there the waters are quite 
 blended, and there the river's life begins ; so 
 it remains until it reaches the sea, one river 
 always, till the sea takes it.' 
 
 ' And then ? ' she asked, looking at me 
 wistfully. ' And then ? '
 
 12 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' And then ? ' I answered. ' All rivers flow 
 into the sea, yet is not the sea filled ; to the 
 place whence the rivers come they all return 
 again/ 
 
 She sighed. 
 
 * But it is a long way to the sea yet,' I said. 
 ' The river has its work to do before it ceases 
 and begins again.' 
 
 4 Its work. Does the river work ? ' 
 
 ' Naturally. Has it not lands to water as it 
 goes islands and water meadows ? Must 
 not it carry silt to fertilise its shores ? Has it 
 not wheels to turn ? Has it not steamers and 
 boats and rafts to bear ? Isn't that work ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' she said. 
 
 ' Lesbia,' said I, ' I know this river from its 
 beginning here a thousand miles unto the sea. 
 I know its every curve and bend and cape and 
 island. I know its villages and its villagers. I 
 have lived, here and there, up and down this 
 river, for many years. I have seen its water 
 dyed with blood, lit up by fires, and silver still 
 beneath the moon. I know it in all its moods, 
 therefore it is a friend of mine.' 
 
 4 A friend ! a river ? ' 
 
 c Yes,' I said. ' Again I will not try to 
 explain, because I could not. Will you let us 
 take our honeymoon upon this river before we 
 sail for home ? Then I will introduce you to 
 my friend and you will understand. You 
 won't regret it.' 
 
 ' Would you like it ? '
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 13 
 
 ' Yes,' I said. ' But it is for you to choose. 
 If you don't want, I will not press you.' 
 
 ' I do not care for steamers,' she replied. 
 
 ' Not on a steamer. Do you think a river 
 would let a noisy, fussy, self-willed thing like 
 a steamer into its intimacy ? ' 
 
 4 How then ? ' 
 
 ' That is my secret.' 
 
 ' More secrets ? ' 
 
 4 Yes, a week more of secrets.' 
 
 4 And after that ? ' 
 
 4 No one can keep a secret from his other 
 self,' I answered. 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 4 1 have fought upon this river. I have 
 worked upon it, and beside it. I have gone 
 to it in happiness and it has laughed with 
 me ; I have sought it when in trouble and it 
 has never failed me. It talks to me. I have 
 learned many things from it ; it never kept a 
 secret from me. Now I want that it should 
 share something with me in return.' 
 
 4 What ? ' 
 
 4 You, Lesbia, the best thing I have got. 
 It is the one return that I can make worthy 
 of the river.' 
 
 She smiled a faint glad smile and looked 
 down at the water. 
 
 c How long ? ' she asked at length. 
 
 4 A month, a moon.' 
 
 4 Won't we get tired of it by then ? ' 
 
 I shook my head.
 
 i 4 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 * Mayn't we get tired of each other all 
 alone together, so solitary ? ' 
 
 ' Lesbia,' I said, ' when you have found a 
 book, a book full of heart secrets, do you care 
 to first open it in public ? Do not you take 
 it to some quiet place where no one comes, 
 to read and think and read again. You are 
 such a book to me. I want a quiet place to 
 read you in.' 
 
 She smiled again that little enigmatic smile 
 tinged with a blush, and answered 
 
 4 But I I ? What am I to do ? Be read, 
 and that is all ? ' 
 
 ' You must read me, and read yourself, your 
 real self. There are so many things I want you 
 to read and understand. You must, you must.' 
 
 4 Whether I will or no ? ' 
 
 4 Whether you will or no. But you must 
 will. That is part of the undertaking, to be 
 read and read.' 
 
 4 Oh !' she said ; 'is that so? I did not know.' 
 
 4 Yes, it is so. Love lies in telling secrets. 
 Didn't you know ? ' 
 
 She shook her head. 4 I have no secrets.' 
 
 4 Oh yes ; you have secrets innumerable. 
 You may not know them, but they are there, 
 for me to waken, for us both to read.' 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 4 I have no secrets.' 
 
 4 Lesbia,' I said, 4 look up ! ' I took her 
 face between my hands and held it. 4 Lesbia, 
 I look into your eyes. They are as deep as
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 15 
 
 any sea, profound as is the heaven. I see 
 there shadows passing to and fro, dim, faint, 
 unrealised imaginings of things to come. You 
 may not know, but they are there. Those 
 are your secrets.' 
 
 4 1 do not know them.' 
 
 c No. But I will read them, for myself and 
 you, and from imaginings they will become 
 realities.' 
 
 She only stared into the sunrise. 
 
 ' And there is no place like the river. 
 Lesbia, will you come ? ' 
 
 ' I must,' she said. ' I suppose you brought 
 me here for that ? ' 
 
 ' That amongst other things.' 
 
 'Then it is settled. Shall we now go 
 back ? ' 
 
 ' Not yet,' I said. * There is something 
 more to see. Look over once again.' 
 
 She looked and gave a gasp of astonishment. 
 For all the gorge beneath was white, was full 
 of fleecy mists. They hid the river and the 
 forest like a rising sea. The sun gleamed on 
 them, but could not pierce them. 
 
 ' Where did they come from ? ' she de- 
 manded. 
 
 ' From nowhere. The first sunbeams draw 
 them from out the ground. Look, they are 
 rising ! ' 
 
 Slowly they rose, a great white sea that 
 flowed in billowed clouds between the moun- 
 tains. They surged up to the rock on which
 
 1 6 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 we stood, flowed about our feet and then en- 
 gulfed us. All the view had gone. We two 
 stood in completest solitude upon our rock. 
 We could not even see each other's faces 
 clearly, so thick the mist was round us. Up 
 above, the sun was paled into a wan white 
 globe amid the drifting wreaths. 
 
 e What a change ! ' she said. 
 
 ' Yes, a short while ago the sun was strong, 
 filling the world with light and heat. Now 
 look at it. What does it remind-you of? ' 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 * I saw the pallid corpse 
 Of the dead sun 
 
 Borne through the northern sky : 
 Blasts from Niffelheim 
 Lifted the sheeted mists 
 About him as he passed.' 
 
 I quoted. 
 
 She nodded. c Yes, the " sheeted mists." 
 They are just like that.' 
 
 The mist swirled past us in long wreaths 
 and coils and eddies, drawn upward by the 
 heat. Slowly the valley beneath cleared 
 again. Through the thinning mists we saw 
 the forest reappear, and then the river. At 
 last the mists rose above and left the world 
 below clear. The sun, having got them up 
 into his sky, very quickly ate them up, and all 
 the world was bright once more. 
 
 Then we remounted our ponies and rode back.
 
 CHAPTER II
 
 ' True marriage lieth not in form nor ceremony, in 
 charms recited by priests nor bonds framed by lawyers, 
 but like the Kingdom of Heaven it is within you.' 
 
 GANGLER.
 
 II 
 
 is more than four hours now 
 since we were married, and 
 yet I cannot bring myself to 
 realise what has happened, 
 that when the guests say 
 Mrs. Gallic they mean me, 
 and that I must answer ; that I no longer am 
 myself, an entity apart, but a half with some 
 one else. Moreover, the other half isn't here. 
 We were married at nine o'clock, and at 
 ten there was the wedding breakfast. At 
 eleven I retired to change and rest, and now 
 at two o'clock I am waiting in the verandah 
 for my for him. He went off to make the 
 final arrangements on the whatever it is, 
 that is to take us on our honeymoon. That 
 is another thing that troubles me. Every one 
 else in the station, no doubt, knows what this 
 conveyance is ; I alone don't know yet it is 
 for me. And they are not content with know- 
 ing and keeping silent ; they must hide their 
 knowledge under a pretence of curiosity and 
 ignorance that is simply exasperating. Only
 
 20 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 men would do such a thing. Men never 
 really seem to grow up in some things. They 
 are always children. They are talking now 
 behind my back. For all the station are in 
 the verandah also, two women and seven men. 
 The two women are sitting in chairs at the 
 end, but the men seem mostly to have followed 
 me here, where I came to look out for him. 
 I can hear them talking, and if possible I take 
 no notice, but sometimes they address them- 
 selves directly to me, and I have to answer. 
 That is young Lieutenant Dicker now. 
 
 * He 's late, Mrs. Gallic. Perhaps he is not 
 comin' back at all, forgotten all about it. 
 He 's an absent-minded beggar, your hus- 
 band. Left me out shootin' once just like 
 this. Quite forgot all about me, but he 
 did not forget to take the lunch coolie with 
 him.' 
 
 ' Shall I go and fetch him, Mrs. Gallio ? ' 
 asks Major Burns eagerly. 
 
 ' Oh, do be quiet,' I say. ' He is not late. 
 There 's lots of time.' 
 
 4 There are all sorts of stories,' that young 
 Dicker goes on, ' about the thing he has fitted 
 up for you to go down the river in. Won't 
 you tell us about it ? ' 
 
 1 No,' I say, c I won't' 
 
 ' I did hear/ says another voice, Mr. 
 Roberts's I think, ' that Gallio had bought a 
 flotilla steamer, taken out the engines and
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 21 
 
 boilers, and had it painted white and gold and 
 furnished from Maple.' 
 
 Silence from me. 
 
 4 1 don't believe that,' says Major Burns. 
 4 1 have heard a much more likely story. 
 Ballantyne told me a few days ago that, as he 
 came up on his mail steamer, he saw a queer 
 thing in the river just in front of him ; he 
 kept his eye on it, but when he came near, it 
 disappeared. He says if it hadn't been a 
 thousand miles from the sea, he could have 
 sworn it was a submarine.' 
 
 ' What a lovely idea,' says Dicker. 
 
 ' Nonsense ! ' says Mr. Bruce, ' no one 
 would go for a honeymoon on a submarine/ 
 
 ' Why not ? ' 
 
 * No view.' This from Roberts. 
 
 ' People don't care about views on honey- 
 moons,' says Major Burns. ' Mrs. Gallio 
 don't ; do you, Mrs. Gallio ? ' 
 
 More silence on my part. I could have 
 stamped, but I don't think I did. 
 
 ' Another story I heard,' says Dicker in 
 his child's voice, c is that the conveyance is 
 really only two lifebuoys. Gallio 's a famous 
 swimmer. Can you swim, Mrs. Gallio ? 
 It 's a long way down to Rangoon, but I 
 should think it would be rather jolly to 
 swim it. The water 's quite warm, and you 
 could fish as you went along.' 
 
 * Wait,' I say vindictively, turning round,
 
 22 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' till you are all married. I '11 come to all 
 your weddings and then I '11 tell your wives 
 about you.' 
 
 There is a dead silence of dismay, and I 
 turn again to look down the road. There is 
 he at last, driving up fast. They all see 
 him. 
 
 4 Here he comes,' they exclaim. 
 
 ' Don't he drive fast ? ' says the Dicker boy. 
 c That pony of his, Scamp, nates the trap, and 
 thinks if he only runs fast enough and clatters 
 loudly enough with his hoofs that he will get 
 away from it, leave it hanging on a rail or 
 something. He is fearfully disgusted when 
 he stops to find the beast of a thing has got 
 there as soon as he has. But he has hopes for 
 next time.' 
 
 I go to the steps and my husband gets 
 down and says 4 Lesbia, I am sorry I am late. 
 There was a great deal to do.' 
 
 ' You are not late at all,' I say, showing my 
 watch, which I have secretly put back ten 
 minutes. ' You are exact, as you always like 
 to be.' 
 
 If I hadn't felt furious towards those other 
 men before, I would now. I can see out of 
 the back of my head that they are exchanging 
 glances of awed admiration. Only young 
 Dicker takes out his watch and is about to 
 say something, but through some accident he 
 falls with a great crash out of the verandah
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 23 
 
 instead. The other men look out at him re- 
 provingly as he struggles amid the flower- 
 pots. 
 
 ' Has all your luggage gone down ? ' he 
 asks. ' And your ayah ? ' 
 
 'Yes, everything of value,' I answer ; 
 4 there is only me left.' 
 
 ' Then come along,' he says. ' Mrs. Stan- 
 ford, you will give us fifteen minutes' law, 
 please. Then we expect you all down on the 
 river to drink our health and see us off. You 
 will come ? ' 
 
 ' Of course we are coming,' everybody says 
 cheerfully. Then he gets into the trap. I 
 climb in beside him, and without a moment's 
 hesitation Scamp runs off with us. 
 
 We drive through the little station and 
 down the village street without a word. 
 Only I feel his shoulder touching mine some- 
 times as if to assure itself that I am there. I 
 don't push back, I just bear it. We turn 
 along the Strand Road and I see it. 
 
 ' Oh ! ' I say, ' is that it ? ' 
 
 He only nods. 
 
 ' A raft ! ' I exclaim. ' We are going down 
 on a raft ! But it will take years ! ' 
 
 c No, only a moon,' he answers. 
 
 By that time we have arrived, and Scamp 
 stops as if he knew the place. He jumps 
 down, and would lift me down, only that I 
 won't be lifted, and jump out. He pats the
 
 24 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 pony and says good-bye to it, and Scamp is led 
 away. Then we go down and on to the raft. 
 
 Certainly it is a wonderful raft. It is 
 made of rough logs that have been felled in 
 the mountains up above and brought down by 
 the streams into the river. There they are 
 caught and rafted into long rafts made of 
 many joints. Ours has seven, each of some 
 twenty logs tied together side by side. The 
 logs are about twenty feet long, so that each 
 joint is quite a comfortable size. The first joint 
 has nothing on it ; it consists only of the bare 
 logs and two big oars at the end. It is the 
 second joint that we go on to by a little gang- 
 way, and here a thick framework of bamboo 
 has been laid down to form a deck. 
 
 ' This is our forecastle,' he says. c Here we 
 will sit in the evenings and the early morning. 
 How do you like it ? ' 
 
 But I only nod. 
 
 4 Next is the salon.' He leads me over a 
 little bridge spanning the chasm between the 
 joints, and we enter a fair-sized room. Its 
 walls are of matting and its roof of thatch, 
 but it all looks clean and white. It is nicely 
 furnished too with camp furniture, tables, and 
 chairs, and even a sideboard. There are rugs 
 upon the floor and muslin curtains on the 
 windows. Over the doors are curtains. 
 
 ' This is our dining- and drawing-room,' 
 he explains. ' How do you like it ? '
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 25 
 
 I say that it is charming. And indeed it 
 is charming, so fresh and pretty. There are 
 even a few pictures on the walls and a book- 
 case with some books. 
 
 There are flowers on the table quantities 
 of flowers roses and orchids and others I do 
 not know. 
 
 ' Where did you get the flowers ? ' I ask. 
 
 ' Presents,' he answers. ' Many people 
 called to say good-bye, and all brought flowers. 
 It is their charming custom. The roses make 
 one think of home.' 
 
 When we have fully inspected the salon, 
 we go on. There is a door at the back and 
 another little bridge leading to a second build- 
 ing. We cross together. 
 
 At the door he hesitates a moment and 
 looks at me. 
 
 c Well ? ' I ask. ' What is this ? ' 
 
 He does not answer, but opens the door. 
 
 It is the bedroom. I knew of course it 
 must be the bedroom my bedroom, our bed- 
 room, but I did not realise it till I entered. 
 It is the same size as the salon, but it is 
 divided. There is a curtain on rings that 
 extends down the middle, making two com- 
 partments. He pushes the curtain, and we 
 enter the right-hand compartment. 
 
 It is really beautifully furnished. I don't 
 know how he got the things to this far corner 
 of the world. I begin to suspect that there
 
 26 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 was something in Mr. Roberts's suggestion of 
 Maple. There is a little wardrobe, a dressing- 
 table, a long mirror, all in delicate white 
 wood that matches absolutely with the mat- 
 ting walls. There is a carpet on the floor. 
 And there is a bed, the dearest little bed, 
 with white counterpane and filmy mosquito- 
 net tied with blue ribbons. In size my half 
 is not much bigger than a ship's cabin, but it 
 has a homely look, and I see that the ayah 
 has already put out my brushes and other 
 things. He must have told her, so that the 
 place should not look bare to me at first sight. 
 I do not need to tell him how pleased I am. 
 He can see it, and he blushes with pleasure at 
 my pleasure. 
 
 ' And you ? ' I ask. 
 
 He pulls the curtain aside. The other half 
 is his, but how different. No carpet, no 
 furniture, save a camp chair. His clothes 
 are hung up on hooks on the wall, for he has 
 no wardrobe. And his bed is just a plain 
 folding camp-cot, with an Austrian striped 
 blanket on it. Near the head of the bed is a 
 rack holding his gun and rifle, and there is a 
 row of boots. 
 
 ' Oh ! * I say, looking from him to his half. 
 
 'Plain, but useful,' he says 'like the 
 owner.' 
 
 ' But it looks so bare,' I say. 
 
 4 Well,' he says wistfully, ' if you want to
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 27 
 
 give me something pleasant to look at, the 
 curtain need not always be drawn.' 
 
 There is a little silence. 
 
 * What is beyond ? ' I ask at last. 
 
 4 The bathrooms are next. Then on the 
 next joint is the kitchen, then the servants, 
 then the crew, and last of all an empty joint 
 with oars, like at the bows.' 
 
 We go back into the salon, where his 
 servants Po Chon and Po Ka are waiting for 
 us. They are setting out glasses and decanters 
 and tea-things for the visitors to come. There 
 is also Spot, his fox-terrier, who has been 
 brought down by the servants, and who re- 
 claims his master with joy, but me somewhat 
 coldly. I suppose he doesn't understand as 
 yet, or perhaps he does and disapproves. His 
 manner is stand-off. 
 
 4 But where is Lady ? ' I inquire. c Isn't 
 she coming too ? ' 
 
 He shakes his head. ' There is her family,' 
 he answers, c four small blind creatures only a 
 week old. I thought they would be in your 
 way here, Lesbia, so I have left her behind. 
 I sneaked out of the bungalow just now when 
 she didn't know. She won't find out till I 
 have gone. Bateson will care for her. She 
 will miss me for a day or two, but her puppies 
 will console her.' 
 
 As if to contradict his words, there is a 
 scamper heard on the bank, a whining and
 
 28 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 pattering. Then Lady jumps on to the raft, 
 sniffs about and bursts into the room, rushes 
 up to her master and goes into an ecstasy 
 of joy. She jumps about and whines with 
 delight at having found him, and tries to lick 
 his hand. I laugh, while Po Chon and Po 
 Ka regard her with sympathy. Her master 
 catches hold of her and lifts her up. 
 
 ' Lady,' he says severely, ' this is most 
 scandalous.' 
 
 She droops her ears and lowers her tail. 
 Evidently she recognises that it is scandalous, 
 but doesn't intend to mind that. 
 
 ' You have abandoned your family,' con- 
 tinues her master, ' your young family, to 
 strangers, and preferred to come out on a 
 pleasure jaunt with me. I cannot be a party 
 to any such behaviour. Go back, madam. 
 They will be crying their tongues out for 
 you. Go back at once.' He puts her down. 
 
 Lady sees that matters are serious. She 
 glances round for a place of refuge and then 
 disappears into the bedroom and under his 
 bed. 
 
 When Po Ka goes to bring her out, she 
 bites him in the wrist, not viciously, for they 
 are great friends, but despairingly, as if saying, 
 c I don't want to hurt you, but you must leave 
 me alone.' So her master has to go and bring 
 her out himself. Then she is delivered into 
 the arms of a peon to be carried home, and
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 29 
 
 is borne off amid heartrending shrieks. All 
 the people look at her with sympathy. Spot 
 alone seems pleased. I am told that his family 
 bores him. That is the sex all over. How 
 men hate bother ! 
 
 A few minutes later the station all come 
 driving and riding down. I show them the 
 deck and the salon, and they are much pleased. 
 Mrs. Stanford says it is an ideal way to pass 
 a honeymoon, and every one praises it except 
 young Dicker. He adheres to a submarine 
 as his ideal. 
 
 The women have tea, but the men say they 
 want to drink our healths. I wonder why it 
 can't be done in tea ? And why do women 
 never drink each other's healths ? That is a 
 curious question which just occurs to me, and 
 it will be interesting to discuss it with him. 
 
 I seem to be discovering things I had not 
 thought of before. 
 
 However, they all drink our healths in 
 champagne and wish us good luck. 
 
 Young Dicker wants to make a speech, but 
 is gently yet firmly put outside. 
 
 The women kiss me. The men look as if 
 they would like to kiss me too, but daren't. 
 So they shake hands instead. 
 
 Then, as it is time for us to start, they 
 all go ashore and stand on the bank waiting to 
 see us off. 
 
 There is a pulling up of stakes, a loosening
 
 30 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 of ropes, and the raft begins to drift with the 
 current. 
 
 Then I see the use of the oars. The crew 
 pull at these oars, and the front of the raft is 
 worked gradually away from the bank. It is 
 hard and very slow work pulling the bows of 
 a raft sideways. The space between us and 
 the shore only widens very gradually. 
 
 But we are not off yet. There is a 
 commotion up the road. Some one is 
 running. 
 
 It is the peon who carried Lady back. 
 He is running down towards us shouting. 
 He is telling the people something, but they 
 take no notice and only laugh. Then I see 
 that he is pursuing a small white thing that 
 scampers in front of him. It must be Lady, 
 escaped. He calls to those in front to catch 
 or stop her, but instead they make a way for 
 her. I can see she has something in her 
 mouth which she carries very gingerly. 
 
 She reaches the shore, measures the foot or 
 two of water that already divides us from the 
 land, clears it with a jump and looks round, 
 makes up in her mind the proper thing to do, 
 runs up to me and deposits her puppy in my 
 lap. 'Just mind that for a minute,' she says. 
 Then in a perfect ecstasy of delight that she 
 has solved the problem, she goes and lies down 
 at her master's feet. 
 
 ' Lesbia,' he says. * Your sex will have its
 
 3 1 
 
 way. You see. Are we to have Lady and 
 her family with us ? ' 
 
 ' We must,' I say, stroking the queer, 
 squeaking little blind creature in my lap. 
 ' You can't send her back again. She is 
 determined to go with you, and as you 
 wouldn't take her alone she has brought one 
 puppy. Better send for the others.' 
 
 ' Very well,' he says, and gives orders, 
 
 We move so slowly that the peon has time 
 to go back to the house and, bringing down 
 the other puppies in their basket, overtake us 
 in a canoe and put them on board. 
 
 Lady receives them as a matter of course, 
 counts them, licks them, and then, quite satis- 
 fied, goes to sleep under a chair. 
 
 Our company is complete. The raft moves 
 on, quickening its march as it gets more into 
 the current. We wave a last good-bye to those 
 on shore. They cheer. 
 
 Then we pass round the bend. There are 
 the hills on either side, the forest, and the river. 
 There are ourselves alone.
 
 CHAPTER III
 
 'He has a flame in his heart and a mystery in his head, 
 for it appears that he is in love.' HAFIZ.
 
 Ill 
 
 O at last the ceremony and the 
 fuss were over. Lesbia was 
 mine, I hers, as far as rites 
 could make us so. Society 
 had given each to the other, 
 and our future lay in her 
 hands and in mine. It was now with us to 
 make reality out of a form, to find the sub- 
 stance hid beneath vague words, to change 
 two units into one. We gave ourselves unto 
 the river of our fate and let it bear us on. 
 
 We passed from civilisation into nature's 
 heart. The golden afternoon filled all the 
 river gorges with warm light. We seemed 
 to lie quite still on sleeping waters. It was 
 the hills that moved ; the capes, the rocks, 
 the forest that defiled on either side, opening 
 in front, closing in behind as we passed on. 
 c Lesbia,' I said. 
 Her eyes sought mine. 
 ' Are you content ? ' 
 
 Her fingers closed on mine and loosed 
 again.
 
 36 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' No one can see us,' I said. ' You can do 
 more than that.' 
 
 She looked about her. The salon hid us 
 from all behind. On either side was forest, 
 and sometimes long strips of rice-fields stretch- 
 ing up long ravines. 
 
 6 Oh no,' she said, shaking her head. c You 
 must behave in public.' 
 
 ' That 's an excuse,' I cried. 
 
 ' Excuse ? For what ? ' Her wide eyes 
 opened with a child's surprise, but I saw a 
 mock within their blue. 
 
 c You know, Lesbia,' I said, ' you are mine. 
 How long I 've waited hungry and thirsty 
 both. I want to take you in my arms.' 
 
 ' Oh no,' she said, and shook her head. 
 Aren't we quite comfortable as we are ? ' 
 
 I looked at her. She lay on her deck-chair 
 in listless ease, the soft curves of her form 
 showing beneath the light dress that she wore. 
 From her dainty feet, in absurd little pointed 
 shoes, up to the last curl of her hair, so fresh, 
 so sweet, and so mysterious. She was an 
 enigma wrapped in flesh, a riddle in a dress, 
 and mine the reading. Her cheeks were a 
 little flushed, there was a wrinkle in her fore- 
 head ; her eyes were bright and full of a soft 
 defiance. 
 
 c Lesbia,' I said ; c do you know why I 
 married you ? ' 
 
 She shook her head. c I was never good
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 37 
 
 at riddles. Was it because no other girl was 
 brave enough to take you ? ' 
 
 ' No ! ' I said indignantly. ' It was because 
 of your hair.' 
 
 ' Why my hair ? ' she asked. 
 
 4 1 like its colour, its changing colour. 
 Sometimes it is like gold, and sometimes it is 
 like fire. I like red hair. Of all red hair I 
 ever saw, I adore yours most. I married you 
 because I want to have red hair to stroke, to 
 twine about my fingers, to hold up against 
 the sun. I want it for my very own. It has 
 been my dream from childhood.' 
 
 6 Oh, but you can't,' she said. * It would 
 make me untidy. I would never let you do 
 that.' 
 
 1 Not even to gratify an aesthetic taste ? ' 
 
 c Not even for that,' she answered. 
 
 I sighed. ' Then there is your skin,' I con- 
 tinued. ' Do you know, Lesbia,' I said con- 
 fidentially, ' that in the evening when you 
 wear a low dress your shoulders are as white 
 as white. You have the most adorable 
 shoulder-blades. They are not a dead white 
 like marble or like wax, but a soft white. 
 There is a night moth that is white like that, 
 and when you touch its wings the white 
 comes of? like star-dust. It is really down, 
 just like a dove's, only so very small. Have 
 you feathers on your shoulders, and will they 
 come off ? '
 
 38 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 c I suppose,' she said sedately, ' that this is 
 really a roundabout way of asking if I use 
 powder ? ' 
 
 ' It isn't that at all,' I remonstrated. ' It is 
 that I am very fond of natural history and have 
 an inquiring mind. Didn't you know that ? ' 
 
 ' It is a cruel pursuit,' said Lesbia. 
 
 c On the contrary,' I urged, ' it is the out- 
 come of a kind and loving heart. It is 
 fraught with real benefits to mankind. It 
 elevates the student.' 
 
 ' I speak from the point of view of the 
 specimen,' retorted Lesbia. 
 
 ' That is a selfish point of view.' 
 
 ' Are not you selfish too ? ' she said. 
 
 6 The specimens like it,' I urged. 
 
 She shook her head. ' It is just a cruel 
 curiosity,' she said. 
 
 ' It comes from a true desire for knowledge. 
 I want to know.' 
 
 c Whether it comes off? ' 
 
 ' Exactly.' 
 
 She didn't answer, only moved her shoulders 
 suggestively under their muslin and looked 
 more defiant still. 
 
 The afternoon wore slowly on, its glamour 
 growing. The passion of the day grew 
 deeper as it drew towards its close. The 
 strength and effort of the noon had passed 
 into the glory of a deed accomplished, and 
 the breeze was still.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 39 
 
 The sunlight on the hills was warmer, 
 richer, and there were shadows in the vales. 
 
 There came into the blood a glow that 
 made the heart beat and the pulses throb. A 
 silence took us. 
 
 And yet at length within the silence there 
 grew a tension and a strain we could not 
 bear, a growing impulse that must find 
 expression. 
 
 ' Why don't you talk ? ' she asked. 
 
 I shook my head. ' I feel so stupid.' 
 
 4 Why are you stupid ? You have usually 
 so much to say.' 
 
 ' Because because ' 
 
 ' Because of what ? ' 
 
 ' Lesbia,' I said, ' long, long ago there was 
 a king who had a favourite page. His name 
 was Selim. He was the life and joy of all the 
 Court, because he laughed, because he talked, 
 because he was always merry. Then suddenly 
 he became dumb, and in a day or two he dis- 
 appeared.' 
 
 Lesbia opened her eyes. 
 
 ' The king sent to seek him, and at last the 
 vizier came with news. ' Selim is in the 
 desert. He sits and stares out to the far 
 horizon where the camels go. He neither 
 eats nor speaks.' ' What has come over him ? ' 
 the king inquired. ' Is my page ill ? ' The 
 vizier laughed. c He is not ill and yet. He 
 hath a mystery in his head, and in his heart a
 
 40 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 flame.' The king looked astonished. ' For 
 Selim is in love.' 
 
 A silence. 
 
 ' Lesbia, that was what the vizier said. 
 " Selim is in love." 
 
 She smiled ; then suddenly she raised to me 
 eyes humid with her thoughts, and cast them 
 down again. 
 
 We drifted on. In long, slow procession 
 passed islets and capes, pagodas bright with 
 gold, and carven monasteries, the huts of 
 fishermen, and far behind the hills. The 
 purple wine of evening filled the valleys to 
 their brim. 
 
 c Please talk,' she said suddenly, almost with 
 tears. ' Please talk, please laugh. I feel as 
 though my soul were drawing out from me 
 into the sunset. Will you not stop it ? ' 
 
 She placed her hand upon her heart. 
 
 I moved my chair up nearer. What could 
 I say but childish things ? When the heart 
 is full you dare not let it find expression in the 
 deepest words ; and therefore you must laugh, 
 as the sea does ; you must have ripples on the 
 surface, so that you yourself may not realise 
 what is below. 
 
 ' Lesbia,' I said, ' I want to learn a great 
 many more things.' 
 
 She shook her head. 'That's just like a 
 man. As if there were any use in learning 
 things.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 41 
 
 ' Nice things,' I said. 
 
 She glanced half-doubtfully at me. 
 
 I Things about you,' I said. 
 Lesbia kept silent. 
 
 'You should ask, " What sort of things ? " 
 I suggested. 
 
 But no. She only smiled. In vain is the 
 net spread in the sight of any bird. Instead 
 of that she made a base diversion. 
 
 4 You want perhaps to know,' she sug- 
 gested, c what there will be for dinner ! ' 
 
 ' Lesbia ! ' I cried, revolted ; ' the cook 
 and Po Chon will be responsible for dinner. 
 Your duties are not begun yet, only your 
 privileges.' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' said Lesbia, c I am glad of that. I 
 didn't know a specimen had any privileges.' 
 
 ' A specimen is all privileges,' I continued. 
 
 No answer. 
 
 ' Besides I am not hungry not for that kind 
 of food anyhow.' 
 
 ' Perhaps you want a drink,' she insinuated. 
 * I don't approve, but I won't object.'' 
 
 ' Lesbia,' I said, pulling my chair up close 
 to hers, ' I want to eat you. 9 
 
 ' Oh,' she returned calmly, ' I am not good 
 to eat. Besides I am raw. You wouldn't eat 
 me raw ? ' 
 
 I 1 would.' 
 
 I have always heard men never thought 
 of anything but eating,' she replied, ' but
 
 42 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 I didn't know it went so far as as canni- 
 balism.' 
 
 ' Oh yes,' I said ; ' quite as far as that, in 
 certain cases.' 
 
 ' Now with me it's different,' she continued. 
 4 1 am hungry too ; but it is because I didn't 
 eat any breakfast.' 
 
 1 Why not ? ' I asked. 
 
 c Because it was our wedding breakfast.' 
 
 ' All the more reason you should eat,' I 
 answered. c I did ; my last bachelor meal, of 
 course I ate.' 
 
 c I saw you,' she replied. ' With me it is 
 different. But I suppose that men never 
 really understand anything. I didn't eat 
 breakfast there, never mind why and so I 
 am hungry now. But I am not like you ; 
 my tastes are simple and vegetarian. I will 
 be satisfied now with cakes and tea.' 
 
 ' Very well,' I said submissively, * I will 
 tell Po Chon.' I rang the gong, and when 
 Po Chon came, I told him to bring tea. 
 ' Bring fruit,' I said, ' and cakes and jam.' 
 
 He brought two little tables and set them 
 out between us. He did it as he had always 
 done for me. Lesbia said nothing, but I 
 think later she will make changes. Poor Po 
 Chon, his easy days are gone. 
 
 She poured out tea. 
 
 ' Do you know,' I asked her, ' what you are 
 doing ? '
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 43 
 
 She raised her eyebrows. 'You are full of 
 riddles pouring out tea am I not ? ' 
 
 4 You are officiating,' I returned, ' at your 
 first family meal. You are presiding for the 
 first time at your own table. It marks an 
 epoch.' 
 
 4 True,' she said. c Does Po Chon always 
 give you powdered sugar to put in your tea ? ' 
 
 4 The sugar is for the fruit,' I explained. 
 4 1 don't take sugar in my tea, thanks.' 
 
 4 I do,' said Lesbia. 
 
 I rang the gong loudly and hastily. When 
 Po Chon came, the dreadful fact was dis- 
 covered that there was no lump-sugar. In 
 fact, I never had any. For coffee I prefer 
 brown sugar. Po Chon suggested telegraph- 
 ing from Katha, where we arrive to-morrow. 
 Lesbia made mental notes. But what she said 
 was, c It doesn't matter. It 's just the same 
 sugar really. It 's only a matter of form 
 having it in lumps.' 
 
 ' Only a matter of form, indeed,' I thought ; 
 4 and woman's life is made up of forms. Yet 
 she pretends to disregard it. What can be 
 the matter with Lesbia ? Yet she looks as 
 calm as calm.' However we had tea. 
 
 And the raft moved on. 
 
 The sun bent down towards its setting ; 
 shadows grew from out the hills and spread 
 across the earth. We passed a village now 
 and then and saw the signs of evening. Light
 
 44 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 films of smoke rose up from fires where 
 housewives cooked the suppers for the men. 
 From the fields cattle came slowly home ; 
 they raised a dust which turned to crimson 
 haze and hung in the still air. Men crossed 
 the fields, converged towards the gates, weary 
 with work, glad of the coming rest. On the 
 village front the girls came down to draw the 
 evening water. They waded into the shallows 
 and they watched us pass. We bent around a 
 cape and entered a long reach that seemed to 
 go straight to the sunset's heart. It was a 
 golden way that led up to a glory. All the 
 world throbbed with the passion of the sun 
 going unto his rest. His couch was hung 
 with curtains of rose-red, the bars were gold. 
 The passion died into a languor, and the sun 
 was gone. Yet his flush lingered in the sky, 
 and in the midst a star. 
 
 For long neither of us spoke, only we 
 watched. 
 
 Then as the dark was nearly come, the 
 raftsmen thought of mooring for the night. 
 With the long sweeps they moved the raft 
 towards the shore. There was a bank of sand 
 between us and the forest. 
 
 They landed with a rope tied to a stake, 
 and dug it deep into the sand, holding the 
 stake's end. The raft moved on, dragging the 
 stake like a great plough through the loose
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 45 
 
 sand. And so, by little and by little, our pro- 
 gress was arrested, and we lay close in beside 
 the bank. There they made us fast to posts 
 deep driven into the soil. 
 
 The raft had come to rest, but beside us 
 and beneath us the river still flowed on. It 
 lapped against our logs in a low song ; it 
 swayed and rocked us. 
 
 Above, the stars came out, the myriad eyes 
 that watch and see all things, and laugh and 
 then forget. For they look always forward 
 and never back. The past is passed, and the 
 future is to come. 
 
 Slowly the light faded utterly. The hills 
 were hidden in the night, the forest dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 Yet was not the river dark. It had a light 
 upon its face, that came I know not whence. 
 It may be some faintest phosphorescence of 
 its waters or the sheen of stars reflected there. 
 I do not know. It made the river like a 
 mystic way across the dark. 
 
 And from a village on the other side lights 
 twinkled redly and happily. They were the 
 lamps of homes.
 
 CHAPTER IV
 
 ' Desire in the beginning came upon her, which was the 
 first seed of thought.' Veda.
 
 IV 
 
 cabin looks quite cheerful 
 with the lamps Po Chon has 
 lit. He has even put fairy- 
 lamps upon the dinner-table 
 and decked it out with flowers. 
 Later on I will arrange the 
 flowers myself, but for to-night it does not 
 matter. It is a relief to pass for a while 
 within four walls out of the distances of the 
 night, to see familiar homely things instead of 
 the hills, to feel a roof above instead of stars. 
 This great nature that he cares for so much 
 is strange to me. I know town better than 
 country, streets than lanes, roofs than hills. 
 Even in the country at home, man and his 
 work is always the first thing evident. And 
 the distances one can see are short. In this 
 clear air I seem to see into infinity, and become 
 lost in these great vistas. So that my eye 
 seeks always the village, the cottage, or the 
 monastery first, and nature is to me but a 
 vague background to humanity. To him it 
 has a reality of its own, and a personality. 
 
 D
 
 50 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 He seems to feel as if there were in truth a 
 spirit in all things, in hills, in rivers, trees, and 
 flowers. But I feel comfort only in the sight 
 or the remembrance of a home. It brings me 
 back into myself. 
 
 ' My friend,' I say as we go in, ' there is a 
 homeliness about a room, a dinner-table, and 
 Po Chon, that your river lacks.' 
 
 c Yes, you are strangers yet,' he says. 
 
 < Who ? ' 
 
 'You and the river.' 
 
 I laugh. c You talk as if it lived, this river.' 
 
 He only smiles in answer. 
 
 ' Where do I sit ? ' I ask. But I need not 
 ask. Po Chon has settled that himself. He 
 has put a cushion in the chair he thinks I 
 ought to occupy. Who is to manage things, 
 I wonder, in future, Po Chon or myself ? I 
 think I will. 
 
 He does not talk. He is distrait. This 
 vexes me. It is stupid to be so at one's first 
 dinner. I wonder if this is his real self com- 
 ing out. I try to talk, to be gay, to laugh. 
 He only answers in monosyllables, and looks 
 at me. His look annoys me, but I have to 
 bear it because it shows he admires me. A 
 wife seems to have a good deal to put up 
 with, and I am already beginning to find it 
 out. I suppose it is because I am his wife 
 now that he won't take the trouble to enter- 
 tain me. Are these his family manners ? He
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 51 
 
 looks so gloomy that I could throw things at 
 him. 
 
 He will not eat. I, on the contrary, am 
 hungry and eat well. The soup is excellent. 
 I wonder how Anthony, his Madras cook, 
 manages. I will inquire later. How glad 
 I am that all the trouble of getting married is 
 over. The service tired me, but the wedding 
 breakfast tired me still more, and the saying 
 good-bye. It is horrid to be stared at and 
 joked at. Now we should be quietly settling 
 down into that friendship which is marriage. 
 Yet he is moody. I don't know why. 
 
 ' My friend,' I say, ' what is the matter ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing,' he answers. 
 
 e Are you not well ? ' 
 
 That seems to annoy him. A man hates 
 to be told he isn't well. 
 
 4 1 am quite well, thanks,' he says. 4 Why 
 do you ask ? ' 
 
 4 Because you don't seem quite your usual 
 self.' 
 
 4 I 'm not,' he answers. 
 
 4 Why not ? ' I ask. 
 
 He looked surprised at my question. ' My 
 usual self to date has been a bachelor,' he 
 answers, ' an entity in myself. To-day I am 
 to be more and more merged with some one 
 else in a compound corpuscle called marriage.' 
 
 4 Oh,' I say, ' that is already done. We 
 were married at ten o'clock. C'est un fait
 
 52 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 accompli, monsieur. And after all it is not 
 very alarming, and I do not notice that I have 
 changed much.' 
 
 He looks at me curiously. 
 
 4 Then in your opinion,' he asks, ' the act 
 of marriage is completed ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly,' I answer with wide open eyes. 
 ' The church service is complete in itself, isn't 
 it ?' 
 
 ' Oh, as far as a ceremony goes,' he says 
 carelessly. 
 
 I am bewildered. I do not know what he 
 means, but think he is only teasing me. He 
 seems upset about something. I dare say it 
 has been a troublesome day for him. 
 
 ' True,' I replied, ' it was very trying. But 
 it is all past now. It is done and finished. 
 Why bother about the past ? ' 
 
 ' Done and finished ? the past ? ' And he 
 opens his eyes. 
 
 ' Of course,' I say, and smile at him to try 
 and coax him into a good temper. Though 
 why he should require coaxing, I don't know. 
 
 But it is not any use. He just glooms. I 
 think it is the stupidest dinner I ever sat down 
 to. If I had known he would be like this, I 
 don't know if I should have married. But 
 he was never like this before. I suppose, now 
 we are married, he thinks he can take off his 
 mask and show himself in his true colours. 
 
 The river-fish and the fowl and the snipe
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 53 
 
 are as excellent as the soup. The only sweet, 
 however, is a custard pudding which I don't 
 like, as it is badly cooked. ' Doesn't Anthony 
 know about sweets ? ' I ask. ' All the begin- 
 ning of the dinner is good, but not the sweets.' 
 
 ' I don't eat sweets,' he replies. 
 
 'No, but I do,' I answer. 
 
 Evidently he leaves all the housekeeping to 
 Po Chon, for as far as his own thought goes, 
 he has considered me in every way. But Po 
 Chon has not realised that a new member 
 with tastes of her own has come into the 
 household. Hence the want of lump-sugar 
 and puddings. 
 
 He says something in Burmese to Po 
 Chon, and they have a long conversation. I 
 don't understand a word of it, of course. 
 This is my table, and I am the mistress of this 
 raft, yet I am an outsider. That annoys me. 
 I must put that right soon. I seem to be a 
 guest in my husband's house ; it should be 
 the other way about. The woman owns the 
 house, and the man is the stranger and the 
 guest. I wonder if I shall ever get him to 
 understand this. He has been master of his 
 house and servants so long that he won't like 
 giving them up. He won't want to give 
 them up. But of course he must. I won- 
 der, however, about Po Chon and Po Ka. 
 Will they take to a mistress instead of a master 
 after fourteen years of the latter ? I am
 
 54 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 beginning to make maxims for wives. ' Don't 
 marry a man who has old servants.' That is 
 quite a good maxim. 
 
 As he won't talk, I have to occupy myself 
 with reflections and with eating. I am sorry 
 when dinner is done. I even eat a second 
 pear to make the time last longer, though I 
 don't want it really. 
 
 When it is finished he says, c Suppose we 
 go outside ? ' 
 
 But I have for the present had enough of 
 that vague outside. I prefer the four walls 
 and the lights and the companionship of the 
 furniture. I am not afraid here. ' You can 
 smoke here,' I say to pacify him. I then 
 make myself comfortable in a cane-chair in 
 one corner of the room. I rather wish I had 
 some work to occupy my fingers. For he 
 won't talk. Instead of that, after Po Chon 
 has cleared away, he draws his chair quite 
 close to mine and strokes my hair. I can't 
 bear that. It makes me feel hot and cold 
 all over. ' Please don't,' I say. Then he 
 strokes my hand and arm, which is worse. 
 I suppose I am tired, for his touch burns me 
 and makes me very uncomfortable. 
 
 ' Please go and sit over the other side of the 
 room,' I ask him. ' We can talk quite well 
 across the table. I don't like being touched.' 
 
 ' Why not ? ' he asks. 
 
 ' Well, I am not accustomed to it. I don't
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 55 
 
 like being pawed about, and it isn't quite 
 polite.' 
 
 * But you are mine,' he says. 
 
 ' Indeed I 'm not,' I say indignantly ; ' I am 
 no one's property but my own. A wife is 
 not a thing.' 
 
 He stares at me apparently perplexed. 
 
 ' My friend,' I say pleadingly, ' I am tired. 
 You have had a number of kisses to-day. Let 
 me have a rest now until to-morrow at break- 
 fast. Let us talk a little and then go to bed. 
 We will meet quite fresh at breakfast, and I 
 will kiss you good-morning if you are good.' 
 
 He only stares at me. 
 
 I get up and make a chair comfortable for 
 him at the opposite corner to mine, putting a 
 cushion in it and a little table beside it. 
 ' There,' I say, ' sit down here and we will 
 have a chat across the room before we say 
 good-night.' 
 
 He doesn't answer anything. He gets up 
 and goes out abruptly and I am left alone. 
 
 I sit alone and wonder. At first I am 
 irritated. True husband-manners, I suppose. 
 Well, let him go. I am happier alone. 
 
 It is a very comfortable cabin and a cosy 
 chair. 
 
 But it is a little dull for one's wedding 
 night. I wonder what is the matter with 
 him to go away like that. He must be in an
 
 56 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 awful rage, for I hear him breaking things 
 outside. How like a man ! What have I 
 done ? Has he any right to be angry ? I 
 have more right. He treats me as if I were a 
 nice child, petting and fondling, and then when 
 I object, leaving me as if I were a naughty 
 child. How dare he ? I am quite grown 
 up now, over twenty, and I know a great deal 
 far more than he does. I don't mean about 
 stupid things like business or government, 
 but about life and human nature -at least 
 about ordinary human nature ; but husbands 
 don't seem to be made of ordinary human 
 nature. They are worse. 
 
 Oh I am lonely ! 
 
 Is it for him ? No, it can't be that. I 
 expect it is being on a raft. I am not accus- 
 tomed to rafts. That must be it. If it were 
 a house, I would not mind. I suppose he 
 expects me to follow him out. I won't. He 
 must learn that he can't have it all his own 
 way. If he likes to go out and be alone 
 with his river and his temper, I don't mind. 
 
 I don't mind. 
 
 I am quite happy here by myself. 
 And I won't go after him. After him, in- 
 deed ! 
 
 I feel very tired. It 's getting late. I have 
 a good mind to go to bed and leave him out
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 57 
 
 there. When we next meet, at breakfast, he 
 will have recovered his equanimity. It would 
 serve him right. 
 
 I have a very good mind. . . . 
 
 ii 
 
 When I left Lesbia and went outside, it was 
 so dark after the lamps inside that I could not 
 see. One of the small tables naturally took 
 advantage of this and got in my way, so that 
 I fell over it. I hurt myself a good deal, but 
 I hurt the table far more, I am glad to say. I 
 smashed it right up and threw the pieces into 
 the river. That was a relief. 
 
 I had always hated that table anyhow. 
 
 How could a man ever understand a girl ? 
 It wasn't so much what they were and what 
 they knew, as what they weren't and what they 
 didn't know. A man married, expecting to 
 find certain things in his wife. It seemed to 
 him part of the contract that he should find 
 them. Apparently he didn't. They weren't 
 there. 
 
 If they were to come there, he would have 
 to put them there himself. That seemed to 
 me unfair. 
 
 If a person undertook to play a game with 
 you, naturally you would expect that she knew 
 what the game was and had some inkling of
 
 58 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 the rules. Suppose you engaged a girl for a 
 dance, and, when you went to claim her, found 
 that she considered that a mutual writing of 
 names on programmes was the main thing, and 
 that for the rest, you went out for a walk, on 
 opposite sides of the street. 
 
 Suppose you engaged a peach or an apricot 
 to come to you and be eaten, but when she 
 came you found her fixed idea was that she 
 was to be placed under a glass case on a side- 
 board. It wasn't fair to bring up girls like 
 that, it wasn't fair to us. Society has no right 
 to deliberately and intentionally blind and per- 
 vert a girl in that way. Nature gave her 
 eyes. She could not have lived for twenty 
 years without seeing things and wondering 
 about them. Why did they tell her false- 
 hoods, try to kill in her all natural instinctive 
 knowledge ? 
 
 She had been brought up a nihilist. The 
 result is that I must have appeared odious to 
 her. It put me in a false light. I felt furious. 
 
 And do neither the mothers who keep them 
 ignorant up to the very end, nor the girls who 
 enter into a contract they do not understand 
 and have no intention of keeping, think of the 
 profound wickedness of what they do ? 
 
 Suppose Lesbia is like some other women, 
 and refuses to listen to reason and to instinct ? 
 What is to be done ? Like most men, to live 
 in daily intimacy with a woman who was not
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 59 
 
 my wife in fact would be for me a physical 
 impossibility. 
 
 Unless Lesbia's trust in me and her natural 
 sense and instinct rise superior to the stupid 
 ignorance in which she has been allowed to 
 enter into the marriage contract, both our lives 
 are ruined. We must separate as soon as possible. 
 And how many men's lives have not been so 
 ruined ! The world is full of them. 
 
 The trouble about cigars was that they never 
 did draw. That was three I had to throw away, 
 and my case was empty. There was a box in 
 the salon, but . . . there was a lion in the path. 
 
 The darkness of the night was soothing, and 
 its great spaces gave one rest. It is impos- 
 sible to be angry long in the face of nature 
 she who bears all things without complaint, 
 with dignity and courage. One feels so small 
 in face of her. And if we allow what seems 
 to us our superiority, our intellect, to be 
 clouded, we become contemptible. Nature 
 is never in a rage. She has her storms, but 
 even in them, perhaps even more in them, 
 she keeps her dignity. 
 
 Between four walls passion is pent and 
 waxes ; it echoes from them back to us ; we 
 can fill a room with rage. But outside, it 
 radiates away and passes into forgetfulness. 
 
 Besides, there are the stars that watch. I 
 became quite calm.
 
 60 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 I wondered what she was doing. I felt more 
 sorry for her than for myself even. Poor child ! 
 What was she thinking of? It was hard for 
 her. To live a life for twenty years, to form 
 a theory of life, and then to have it shattered. 
 
 Yet it had to be shattered, for my sake and 
 
 for hers. It was in the necessity of things 
 
 that it must be so. Happiness lay beyond. 
 
 And I had to do it. She would forgive me 
 
 after. 
 
 But now. What must I do ? My courage 
 had all gone. How ever could I go back into 
 the salon and begin ? I feared I might get 
 angry again, and I didn't want to do that. 
 
 I didn't want to go back into that room. 
 
 Of course I could have said I came for the 
 cigars. 
 
 But I was sure that she would guess it 
 wasn't true or be angry that it was. 
 
 1 Suppose I call her,' I thought. 
 
 ' But what if she doesn't come ? ' thought 
 answered. 
 
 ' Besides, I am the injured person ; she should 
 come without calling,' said I to thought. 
 
 I concluded I would stay there a while yet. 
 There was no hurry. 
 
 But it was getting late. 
 
 What of that ? I couldn't help its getting
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 61 
 
 late. It wasn't my fault. I had no control 
 over time. I could not stop its getting even 
 later if it wanted to. Anyhow, I was very 
 comfortable out there. 
 
 Only rather lonely. 
 
 in 
 
 I haven't heard him move for ever so long. 
 Perhaps he is asleep. Anyhow, I can't sit 
 here any longer. I am tired and shall go to 
 bed. But I will preserve my temper and my 
 manners even if he has lost his. I will go 
 just as far as the door and say c Good-night ' 
 to him. Then I will go to bed.
 
 CHAPTER V
 
 * One night, one night . . aye men have said it, maketh 
 tame a woman in a man's arms.' EURIPIDES. 
 
 ' And Zeus gave Psyche to Eros to be his wife and to 
 follow him for ever, for the Soul is ever one with Love.' 
 
 Greek Legend.
 
 darkness of the night had 
 lifted now ; there was a faint 
 radiance that came down and 
 filled all spaces. Dimly the 
 hills appeared that held the 
 river, and far off the moun- 
 tains were outlined against the starlit sky. 
 The voices of the night began to talk. The 
 river drew her waters, with a rustle and a stir 
 they lapped against the bank ; a night wind 
 whispered to the palms. Then there were 
 other voices, inarticulate, yet heard. Whence 
 come the voices of the night ? Who knows ? 
 Within all things there is a life that is akin 
 to that which is within us. The World 
 Father lives in all His world, and there is 
 nothing without Him. But who shall ex- 
 plain it or define ? The deeper things of 
 life are hidden things that will not come up 
 to no words. You feel, you know, but no 
 one ever tells. 
 
 Therefore the seers wrote legend and wrote 
 parable. The fool hears but the words, but 
 
 E
 
 66 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 he whose heart is opened hears the echo 
 underneath, the music and the song of truth. 
 
 Words are but flesh. Plain words might 
 be an outrage, sometimes they might be the 
 deepest of untruths. An outer likeness may 
 well hold an inner falsehood. True words 
 are those which stir the true emotion and the 
 heart. Truth is an inward thing ; it is part of 
 the Inward Light within the heart that makes 
 us glad. To say all and say nothing, depen- 
 dent on the hearer that is the perfect truth. 
 
 The river moved, swaying the raft in a long 
 rhythm, and stilled again. 
 
 A secret presence stole into my senses I 
 looked up. Lesbia was there. How she came 
 there, how long had waited, I did not know. 
 Perfectly silently she stood, touching my arm, 
 her dress a white film in the dark. 
 
 I rose and put my arms about her. She 
 made no resistance, and I lifted her and placed 
 her in the long cane-chair and knelt beside her. 
 For a moment she lay quite still, then as if 
 awaking to existence she half sat up and said : 
 
 ' I only came to say " Good-night." 
 
 'The night/ I said, 'is neither yours to 
 give nor mine to take. The night is ours, 
 yours and mine, Lesbia. It cannot be divided.' 
 
 ' I am so tired,' she complained, ' please let 
 me go.' 
 
 c You shall not go,' I said ; ' I will never let
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 67 
 
 you go. But you may rest. Lie still and be 
 content.' 
 
 I pressed her gently, she fell back. I laid 
 my arm beneath her head for cushion. 
 
 ' Look at the night,' I said. ' The stars are 
 eyes that watch and laugh. They always 
 laugh, for they know more than we do and 
 see farther.' 
 
 * My eyes are tired,' said Lesbia. 
 
 c Close them,' I said, ' and listen.' 
 
 I am all tired,' she answered ; ' I cannot talk. ' 
 
 4 You need not talk, I will not let you talk, 
 but you must listen.' 
 
 ' To what ? ' 
 
 'To me.' 
 
 4 What will you tell me ? ' Her eyes, wide 
 opened, looked straight up to mine. 
 
 ' A fairy tale.' 
 
 Her face was close to mine. I heard her 
 laugh. ' As if I were a child and you were 
 to tell me tales to make me sleep ? ' 
 
 c You are,' I said, ' a child.' 
 
 ' No, no,' she said, ' I am grown up.' 
 
 ' Those whom the gods love never grow up,' 
 I answered. c They keep their child's desire 
 for truth until they die.' 
 
 c I want to sleep,' she said. 
 
 ' My tale will make you wake,' I answered. 
 c It is so true, so true.' 
 
 ' Are fairy stories true ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing could be more true than they are.'
 
 68 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 4 I have heard them all.' 
 
 4 But never held the key. Now I will let you 
 into a new world where you have never come.' 
 
 4 Is that world beautiful ? ' 
 
 4 It is the world of fairy, the most beautiful 
 there is, and true.' 
 
 She closed her eyes, she moved a little 
 nearer me, relaxed in self-abandonment. 
 
 'Tell me,' she murmured. 
 
 4 Once upon a time,' I said, 4 long, long ago, 
 there was a Princess.' 
 
 4 Had she a name ? ' 
 
 4 I will tell you her name later. You must 
 not interrupt, nor question ; no, nor think, but 
 listen.' 
 
 She lay quite still in acquiescence. 
 
 4 She was all beautiful. I cannot tell you 
 how beautiful she was. Her face, her form were 
 perfect, like a dream of loveliness in snow.' 
 
 She made a movement of surprise. 4 In 
 snow ? ' 
 
 4 Hush ! Yes, in snow. She was cold as 
 snow. No blood moved in her veins, only cold 
 ichor ; in her eyes there was no fire, no warmth 
 came from her, for her heart was sealed.' 
 
 ' Who sealed it ? ' 
 
 4 Lesbia,' I said, 4 didn't I tell you not to ask 
 questions ? ' 
 
 4 A child asks questions. You say I am a 
 child. And your fairy tale interests me. Who 
 sealed her heart ? '
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 69 
 
 ' It was born sealed. Therefore she never 
 heard it nor felt it, nor knew she had a heart, 
 full of hot blood that some day would be loosed, 
 to course through all her veins and give her life.' 
 
 ' Didnt she know of this heart ? ' 
 
 * No,' I said. 
 
 ' Did no one tell her ? ' 
 
 c No one. They did not want her to know. 
 They were afraid that she might guess, or see. 
 Therefore they kept her in a garden quite en- 
 closed, and more, they bandaged her eyes to 
 make her blind, and told her if she took it off 
 that she would see the devil and be sure to end 
 in death.' 
 
 ' Why did they do that ? ' 
 
 ' I am not sure.' 
 
 ' Was it right to do so ? ' 
 
 ' I am a man and cannot tell. She was a 
 girl.' 
 
 ' Go on.' 
 
 c They did more than that. They told her 
 that the bandage made her see more clearly 
 than if her eyes were free. For they had 
 painted images upon the inside of her bandage 
 and told her they were real.' 
 
 Silence. 
 
 ' And she believed it. Then came a Prince. 
 He wooed the Princess and he won her. So 
 he took her with him out of her garden. 
 They came into the world and passed into a 
 forest. There they were quite alone.
 
 70 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 4 Take off your bandage,' said the Prince. 
 ' Look at the world and me.' 
 
 ' I am afraid,' she sighed ; ' the world is evil.' 
 
 ' It is God's world,' the Prince replied. c He 
 lives in it.' 
 
 ' They told me that God lived in Heaven, 
 far off, not here,' she answered. 
 
 ' They told you wrong ; open and you will 
 see.' 
 
 ' I will not look,' she said. c I fear the devil.' 
 
 'Your beauty is all cold,' he said, 'your 
 heart beats not.' 
 
 ' What is a heart ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' That which gives life,' he answered ; ' my 
 heart beats strongly and it longs for answer. 
 You have a heart as strong maybe as mine. 
 But it is sealed. Will you not let me loose 
 it?' 
 
 ' I am afraid,' she answered. 
 
 But the Prince replied. ' How can we live 
 together if I have sight and you are blind if 
 I am warm and you are cold ? ' 
 
 ' It is your fault,' she answered. ' You 
 should be like me. It is much safer.' 
 
 And the Prince cried : 4 Who cares for 
 safety ? The only safety is in death. But 
 danger that is love and life. Let me give 
 you Life and Light, Beloved ! ' 
 
 She shuddered and she would not. 
 
 ' I will bring light into your eyes. I will 
 break open the sealed fountain of your heart
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 71 
 
 and make it beat ; bring blushes to your clear 
 white cheeks and warmth into your bosom.' 
 
 ' But that is sin,' she sobbed. c I will keep 
 my whiteness and my purity. That is my 
 beauty ; that is what I value more than all 
 things. I would sooner die than lose it.' 
 She would have pushed her Prince away. 
 
 She would have pushed him far away, for 
 ever. 
 
 I felt Lesbia sigh a long-drawn tremulous 
 sigh near to a sob. 
 
 ' What did her Prince do, Lesbia ? ' 
 
 She did not answer. I thought I felt her 
 arm close round me, drawing me more near. 
 
 ' What should that Prince do ? ' 
 
 I put my lips close to her ear. ' He loves 
 her. What should that Prince do ? ' 
 
 Was it by chance or just some touch of my 
 imagination that her cheek for a moment 
 brushed against my lips ? 
 
 But no answer. 
 
 'Then I will tell you what he did. He 
 held the Princess in his arms all despite herself 
 and tore the bandage from her eyes.' 
 
 In the deep silence, I could hear far off a 
 stag that belled up to the night. 
 
 A silver light along the hills was herald of 
 the moon. 
 
 Her whisper was so low it hardly reached 
 my ears.
 
 72 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' Did she let him do it ? ' 
 
 4 She heard his voice and all despite herself 
 she let him do his will.' 
 
 4 Did it hurt her much ? ' 
 
 4 1 do not know, Lesbia, I do not know. 
 Perhaps it did.' 
 
 4 But if he loved her, why did he hurt her ? ' 
 
 4 Because he loved her.' 
 
 4 And she, why did she let him do it ? ' 
 4 Because she loved him and because, despite 
 herself, she trusted him.' 
 
 4 What did she see ? ' 
 
 ' She saw the Prince.' 
 
 ' And did she know him ? ' 
 
 ' Not at first. She thought he was the 
 devil. They had told her that the devil was 
 like that. She cried.' 
 
 4 How did she learn the truth ? ' 
 
 4 He held her firmly, so that she should not 
 go. Then when her eyes grew stronger, she 
 could see he was her husband.' 
 
 Through the still night I heard a sound. 
 It was a heart that beat. Whose heart I did 
 not know, her heart or mine, one heart. It 
 beat so loud it seemed articulate as a sob. 
 
 Her cheek against my cheek grew warm 
 and soft, and when I kissed her lips they did 
 not say me nay.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 73 
 
 At last she whispered : c What was the 
 name of the Princess ? ' 
 
 ' Her name was Eve, was Woman. She 
 was also called The Sleeping Beauty and 
 Galatea and many another name and You.' 
 
 ' And his name ? ' 
 
 ' Adam and the Prince, Pygmalion and 
 Paris and I.' 
 
 She thought and thought. 
 
 ' But your tale is not the same as the old 
 legend. It was Eve who gave man the fruit, 
 saying " eat." 
 
 ' So does she now and ever.' 
 
 c No, no ! It is not true.' 
 
 I laughed. c Yet it is true. You give, you 
 offer. The ripple of your hair, your cheeks, 
 your lips, the languor of your eyes, your every 
 movement is an urgent invitation.' 
 
 ' But not intentional.' 
 
 c More true for that. For it is the Love 
 eternal that calls, through finite you, will you 
 or nill you. It is the creative passion trem- 
 bling in your veins, that which has built and 
 builds the world, and will have its way despite 
 our ignorance and negations. Your eyes are 
 shut as yet. Its eyes are open, and it calls 
 in you. Your very fragrance intoxicates and 
 draws me as the clover's does the bee.' 
 
 ' I cannot help it,' she said pitifully. 
 
 ' No, fortunately. Therefore you must 
 submit to its consequences.'
 
 74 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 No answer. 
 
 4 Will you, sweetheart ? ' 
 
 A pause. I hardly knew if it were the 
 night wind or a ripple on the stream that 
 answered ' Yes.' 
 
 Then I felt on my lips a kiss, warm as a 
 sun-steeped rose there was a stir, a rustle 
 and I was alone. 
 
 The moon had risen. Over the hills there 
 hung a silver shield half-shadowed on one side. 
 
 She looked upon the world, wrapped in her 
 mystery ; she looked on hill, on field, on river, 
 and she looked on me. 
 
 The moon laughed down at me, but I I 
 laughed back at the moon. 
 
 ii 
 
 I hear the river move and talk beneath my 
 bed. It bubbles through the logs that form 
 the raft, and sings its slumber song. It falls, 
 it rises. Sometimes the raft swings to and 
 fro by some strange impulse from the waters 
 that has no explanation. 
 
 I hear strange night-birds cry far off, a sad 
 complaint that echoes like a moan. I hear 
 innumerable things I never heard before. My 
 senses seem so keen, they hurt. I hear my 
 heart beat, and I never heard it beat before. 
 
 I shiver and lie cramped upon my bed. 
 My flesh creeps and my skin is hot and cold.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 75 
 
 There seems to be a web of nerves newborn 
 that tingles everywhere within me, and I am 
 conscious of my whole self as I have never 
 been before. 
 
 My hands crisp and my feet are cold. 
 
 This must be fear. Yes, it is fear. Nothing 
 but fear could make me as I am. How ter- 
 rible it is to be afraid. Why does the world 
 hold things that make one fear ? Why is not 
 life just calm and quiet always ? Oh that I 
 were where I was yesternight ! 
 
 Yet is it fear ? 
 
 I did not know before that fear could be so 
 beautiful a thing. 
 
 How the raft creaks ! 
 
 Is it the raft ? 
 
 My ears are full of noises, and I cannot 
 hear quite clearly. Let me hold my breath 
 and listen. 
 
 It is the curtain rings that move. 
 
 Ah ! Heart of my heart. 
 
 in 
 
 Again I was without, watching the night. 
 My eyes were watching it, but in my desire I 
 was with Lesbia there within. Was she asleep, 
 or did she wake and think and think ? What 
 were her thoughts ?
 
 76 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 Did there come into them, as into mine, 
 visions of things unknown, in that far future 
 we had made our own this night ? Did any 
 echo come from out the void of that which 
 was to be ? 
 
 We had claimed our share in all the years 
 to come, when we ourselves had passed into 
 the sea. Our call had gone ; when would 
 the answer come, and who the answer ? 
 
 Did it sleep now upon the knees of God, to 
 waken for us later ? 
 
 Only the Future knew. 
 
 The moon from out her zenith sloped to- 
 wards the west, false dawn woke in the sky 
 and died ; and then the true dawn came. Out 
 of the darkness mountains showed themselves, 
 and the grey river grew once more into the 
 sight. 
 
 I stood upright and plunged into its depths. 
 The cool, fresh waters closed about me, giving 
 life. I rose up to the surface and I swam 
 against the current. I laughed. I tried to 
 leap out of the water like a fish for very joy. 
 I dived again, under the raft, and came up at 
 the other side. 
 
 Then the sun rose. 
 
 There never was a dawn like that in all the 
 world before. 
 
 As I crept back into my cabin, I drew the 
 curtain slightly, and I looked at Lesbia.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 77 
 
 She lay upon her side facing towards me. 
 Her hair upon the pillow made a warm halo, 
 and one arm was bare. Her form lay all 
 relaxed in utmost lassitude. She looked so 
 tired, so tired. She was as a great tropic lily 
 some one had plucked and brought into his 
 room, all for his pleasure, careless of its pain. 
 
 My heart went out to her in strong com- 
 passion. 
 
 I saw her eyelids lift a little, and she looked 
 at me. A mist as of night-tears still lay on 
 them. But within I saw the mockery had 
 come back. 
 
 She closed them quickly, and she sighed. 
 She sighed ? she laughed ? I don't know which. 
 
 I felt like a burglar who has robbed a 
 church. But after all sometimes a burglary 
 is good especially of a church. 
 
 I dropped the curtain. 
 
 Then I went to sleep, and slept as I never 
 slept before.
 
 CHAPTER VI
 
 ' Temples not made with hands.'
 
 VI 
 
 T is three o'clock, and we are 
 sitting in the verandah of 
 our salon watching the river. 
 We have sat here since noon 
 almost in silence, our chairs 
 quite close together. Some- 
 times he says a word, a phrase, and I reply, 
 or only smile, and then we fall back into the 
 silence which yet has beneath its surface a 
 close communion. 
 
 The river takes us on. First through a 
 long defile where the hills rise sheer out of 
 the water, where there are cliffs and precipices. 
 There is a grandeur here, a stillness and a 
 majesty beyond all words. It is as if the 
 river were passing through some secret hour 
 of life, that which makes thoughts that it will 
 take with it for ever. This is a real cathedral 
 where God lives, as He lives everywhere in 
 life, but not in mortuaries of a dead Christ. 
 There is a rocky islet at the end, whereon a 
 carven monastery stands, with shaven monks 
 for guardians. That is the defile's portal.
 
 82 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 And the gateway passed, the river flows into 
 a broad and sunlit valley, where there are 
 fields and flowers and villages. 
 
 I hear a sound and cannot tell what it may 
 be nor whence it comes. It is a rhythmic 
 beat, strong and yet hardly audible, as of a 
 drum far heard at night. It grows. 
 
 It seems to come from out the very water 
 at our feet, as if borne up from the depths, 
 escaping from the ripples as they break upon 
 the raft. 
 
 Yet the river is quite still and smooth, save 
 for the wavelets that a little breeze makes 
 dance upon the surface. I can see nothing to 
 account for it. 
 
 I look at him in question. 
 
 ' It is the steamer,' he replies, ' coming from 
 above. She is still in the defile and out of 
 sight the water brings the sound.' 
 
 'But it seems in the water.' 
 
 c Yes,' he answers, ' is it not strange ? It 
 seems to come out of the river depths, as if 
 some ghostly steamer travelled down below 
 there.' 
 
 ' Like that,' I say. 
 
 ' I have often heard sounds that seemed to 
 come out of the river, and the strangeness never 
 passes,' he says. ' Once it was even terrible. 
 It was long ago, and I was on a frontier where 
 there was always trouble, the only English- 
 man for three hundred miles. One morning
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 83 
 
 very early the sentries woke me and said that 
 they could hear firing. I went out and listened, 
 but could hear nothing. Then the subadar, 
 a worn veteran of many fights, suggested that 
 we should go and listen at the river. So we 
 went down all in the dark and laid down by 
 the river and listened.' 
 
 ' You cannot tell how strange it was. Out 
 of the very water came the sounds of war. 
 There was the bang of muskets that the wild 
 tribes use, and in reply the crack of rifle- 
 volleys. They were quite clear and loud. It 
 seemed as if under the darkling river the 
 devils were at grips, seeking to kill each other. 
 One looked to see the flashes through the 
 water. Yet it flowed peacefully, as if asleep.' 
 
 c What was it all ? ' I asked. 
 
 4 Fourteen miles farther down a post of 
 mine was being attacked. The river bore the 
 news.' 
 
 For some reason that I do not know I very 
 much dislike to hear him talk of his past life. 
 I think, perhaps, that I am jealous of that 
 life, because he lived before before yesterday. 
 I did not live. I can see now that what I 
 thought was life was but existence. Life is 
 love, and hate and fear, and hope and danger. 
 Life is emotion, and my life is but begun. It 
 has begun in him, with him, not as my life 
 alone, but as a part of his. Therefore I cannot 
 bear to think that he has lived before, has
 
 84 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 fought and feared and hoped perhaps has 
 loved. 
 
 Cannot he put it all away and begin to-day 
 in a new life that has no antecedents ? a life 
 with me alone ? I do not know. I must 
 think over it. Perhaps it is impossible, and 
 I must make the best of it. Meanwhile I 
 answer nothing, and he is silent. 
 
 And presently the steamer comes into view 
 behind us. It approaches fast, driving the 
 river up in a white crest before it and making 
 two great waves on either side like wings that 
 stretch in to the shore. It overtakes us, pass- 
 ing not far away. We can see the English 
 passengers on the upper saloon-deck forward 
 quite clearly. Two of them are our friends 
 of yesterday, Captain Bruce and Mr. Dicker. 
 They wave to us vigorously, and young Dicker 
 has managed to possess himself of the captain's 
 megaphone, which he holds to his mouth like 
 a huge drinking-horn. 
 
 ' Hurrah ! ' he calls out in a dreadful 
 trumpet voice. 
 
 ' Hurrah ! ' we wave back. 
 
 4 Are you all quite comfy ? ' he demands. 
 
 We wave an acquiescence. 
 
 ' Not quarrelled yet ? ' 
 
 We shake our heads. 
 
 ' It would have been cooler on a submarine,' 
 he roars ; then adds : c There 's such a jolly 
 row downstairs,' and chokes with laughter
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 85 
 
 that gurgles out of the megaphone like absurd 
 thunder. 
 
 Just then the captain seizes him and deprives 
 him of the megaphone and calls out : 
 
 1 say, Gallic ! ' 
 
 My husband waves. 
 
 ' There 's an old lady on our after deck 
 swears that one of your servants, Po Ka, has 
 eloped with her daughter.' 
 
 My husband jumps up, surprised. 
 
 ' I expect the girl 's aft there on your raft. 
 The old lady intends to board you at Katha 
 and reclaim her daughter. She 's furious so 
 look out.' 
 
 The steamer goes on out of earshot. I am 
 horrified. But he ? He, I am sorry to see, is 
 back in his chair laughing. He is bursting 
 with laughter, and the more reprovingly I 
 look at him the more he laughs. 
 
 That is just like a man ; not one of them 
 has any morals. I love him, yes. But he 
 wants a great deal of reforming. 
 
 ' I think it is a very sad thing,' I say. 
 c Did you know she was on board ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly not,' he answers. 
 
 ' Don't you know anything about it ? ' 
 
 ' I know exactly what you do.' 
 
 ' But Po Ka is your servant. You must do 
 something.' I want to make him realise his 
 responsibility and be serious. 
 
 ' Not at all,' he answers.
 
 86 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 I stare at him. ' What do you mean ? 
 Something must be done about it.' 
 
 ' Certainly,' he answers calmly. ' You are 
 mistress of this raft. It is you who are re- 
 sponsible. Such matters entirely appertain to 
 the mistress's side of the combination.' 
 
 That is just hateful of him. He is trying 
 to tease me. 
 
 ' I haven't taken over yet,' I say with dignity. 
 4 As you told me yesterday, I still only have 
 privileges, not duties.' 
 
 ' Well,' he answers, ' this is one of the 
 privileges.' 
 
 I do not see myself where the privilege 
 comes in. It seems to me a sad business, and 
 very unpleasant to have happened. I am not 
 accustomed to such cases, besides Po Ka is his 
 servant. I tell him so. 
 
 ' Oh,' he answers, c I am not thinking so 
 much of Po Ka. I am thinking of the girl 
 and her mother. Evidently the girl wants to 
 be with Po Ka ; equally, evidently, the mother 
 does not want her to be so. Where two 
 women are at loggerheads, only a woman can 
 intervene with success. It is purely your 
 business, Lesbia. Why, they would scratch 
 my eyes out between them.' 
 
 c I believe,' I say scathingly, * that you are 
 afraid.' 
 
 'You believe just about right,' he replies, 
 chuckling to himself.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 87 
 
 ' I thought men never admitted to be afraid 
 of anything,' I say. 
 
 'You have queer ideas of men, my dear,' he 
 answers, opening his eyes. c Wild tribes, in- 
 surrections, dangers by flood and field, leopards 
 and wild cats, I, like most men, am ready to 
 face in due season. But earthquakes, vol- 
 canoes, and a woman deprived either of her 
 daughter or her lover, I am not ashamed to be 
 afraid of. They aren't my line.' 
 
 ' And they are mine ? ' 
 
 ' Are they not, Lesbia mia ? ' he says coax- 
 ingly. c Have you not the woman's sympathy, 
 the woman's understanding, and the woman's 
 tact ? Think of that poor child there she 
 is, I expect, only a young girl behind us on 
 the raft, torn between her mother and her 
 husband. Who should not help her but 
 you ? ' 
 
 His altered tone affects me. He shows 
 real sympathy, and all his mirth is gone. It 
 seems quite different as he now puts it. 
 
 ' Then they are married ? ' I ask doubtfully. 
 
 For a moment I seem to see a gleam in his 
 eye as of his sarcasm back again. Then he 
 answers. 
 
 ' Naturally.' 
 
 I feel very much relieved. There is then 
 no real impropriety, though it is sad she should 
 have married without her mother's consent. 
 
 ' I did not know it was natural to get married
 
 88 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 before you ran away with a girl,' I say. ' I 
 feared it was the other way. But it makes 
 things much easier. What shall I do ? ' 
 
 ' Wait here,' he says. ' 1 will go aft and 
 see Po Ka and Po Chon, and hear their side. 
 Then I will send the girl to you in the salon 
 and you can talk to her.' 
 
 ' But who will interpret ? ' 
 
 ' Your ayah can interpret.' 
 
 ' Won't you come too ? ' I ask. I would 
 rather he be present. It is so strange to me 
 yet. Only yesterday I was a girl, and all 
 things were kept from me. Now I am sup- 
 posed to help to regulate the world. ' Won't 
 you be present too ? ' 
 
 He shakes his head. ' She would not talk 
 if I were present as she will to you. If things 
 are to be put straight, you must find out not 
 only the mere facts but the things that lie 
 beneath. You must estimate the forces we 
 have to deal with.' 
 
 I looked at him in surprise. ' What forces?' 
 
 ' My dear,' he answers, ' what forces move 
 the world ? There is but one love and its 
 shadow, hate. Does she love Po Ka most, or 
 does she love her mother ? Which is the 
 greater love ? Does Po Ka love her ? He 
 is, I know, capable of very sincere and perfect 
 love. Sometime I will tell you the story. 
 Has this girl won it ? What sort of a girl is 
 she ? Could she keep it ? '
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 89 
 
 c But,' I say, ' if they are married^ it is too 
 late to think of all that.' 
 
 He smiles. ' Never mind that now. Will 
 you do that ? You must do it now, for by 
 dark we shall be at Katha, and the mother be 
 on board.' 
 
 I do not want to. Oh I do not want to. 
 Yet I must. I say ' I will.' 
 
 He goes back to the salon and I am left 
 alone. I have not been alone, not since so 
 long ago. 
 
 ' So there were two of us last night.' 
 
 After half an hour he comes back. He 
 looks serious. 
 
 4 Lesbia,' he says, as he sits down, ' I am 
 afraid that we shall have trouble, all of us.' 
 
 ' Tell me about it.' 
 
 ' Let me tell you first about Po Ka. He 
 has been with me as you know about twelve 
 years. When I first took him he was only 
 nineteen, such a nice boy, and with a charm- 
 ing little wife he had married not long 
 before.' 
 
 4 Married already ? ' I ask. 
 
 ' Sometimes they marry early,' he replies. 
 c Po Ka and his wife were quite devoted to 
 each other. They lived just for each other. 
 Yet he was a good servant too. Well, about 
 six months later I went on tour. I knew
 
 9 o LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 that Po Ka's wife expected soon to have a 
 baby, and I thought the elder brother would 
 come out with me. I always left it to them 
 to decide who came. But no, it was Po Ka 
 who came. We made three marches into the 
 district, and then I camped some thirty-five 
 miles from headquarters. Four or five days 
 later, in the evening, a messenger came to Po 
 Ka to tell him his wife was very ill. He 
 came to me in great distress and I let him go 
 at once. He walked that five-and-thirty miles 
 during the night and came at dawn near to his 
 home. He met the boys leading the cattle 
 out, and one told him that his wife was dead. 
 He sat down where he was, quite dazed. 
 Villagers found him and took him to his 
 brother Po Chon, who cared for him. For 
 the best part of a year he was distraught. 
 He used to sit beside his brother's house 
 and stare all day into the distance, vacant 
 and senseless. If I spoke to him, he did not 
 answer. Then he recovered slowly. Such is 
 Po Ka.' 
 
 ' I think that he can love,' I say. 
 
 ' Now he has fallen in love again. The 
 girl is pretty, and Po Chon tells me that she 
 adores Po Ka. But she is the only child of 
 her mother, who is a widow, and her mother 
 would not give her to Po Ka because Po Ka 
 follows me and the daughter would be lost 
 to her. So the girl ran away and hid herself
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 91 
 
 in the servants' quarters yesterday before we 
 started. And she was only discovered just 
 before sunset.' 
 
 ' They should have told you then,' I say. 
 ' They should have brought her to you. They 
 are not married properly.' 
 
 He smiles and strokes my hand. ' Sweet- 
 heart,' he answers, ' that is the sort of answer 
 you might have given yesterday. To-day, 
 surely, you know more than that. Is there 
 a man in all the world who would give up a 
 girl who came to him like that ? For all 
 men's honour, I hope not one. And as for 
 marriage ' and he looks at me. 
 
 It makes me hot and cold, but yes, I under- 
 stand. For I have seen a little way into men's 
 hearts and women's, into my own. I only press 
 his hand in answer. 
 
 4 She waits in the salon for you,' he says. 
 4 Lesbia, be kind, be kind.' 
 
 I raise my eyes in mute reproach to his. I 
 know, I know. Then I rise up and go inside. 
 After the flood of light outside, I hardly see at 
 first, it is so dark within. 
 
 Then slowly out of the gloom a figure 
 gathers form, a girl's slight figure, with a girl's 
 round face. Her great black eyes are full of 
 tears and when she looks at me I see she is 
 afraid. 
 
 Afraid of me ! 
 
 Despite our different nationality, our
 
 92 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 different civilisation, I feel to her as I have 
 never felt to any woman before, as I could not 
 have felt even yesterday. We both have entered 
 into that universal womanhood that makes us 
 one.
 
 CHAPTER VII
 
 * What is nobler than a woman if she have purity?' 
 ' Purity is spotlessness of mind ; all else is noise.' 
 ' To her that is pure all that God has ordained for the 
 progress of the world is pure.' Kural.
 
 VII 
 
 ;O Lesbia went in to see the 
 runaway and I sat down and 
 waited. I heard their voices 
 coming through the wall, 
 Lesbia's, the ayah's interpret- 
 ing, the girl's. What did 
 they say each to the other, the one a product 
 of a civilisation made up of catchwords and 
 dead prejudices, a civilisation that has passed 
 its zenith, a girl laid over thick with artificiali- 
 ties, hardly conscious yet of the real woman 
 below ; the other born and brought up in the 
 simple freedom of the village, half-civilised, 
 for whom culture and art and education did 
 not exist ; therefore with clearer eyes may- 
 be to see the verities of life ; the East and 
 West what did they say ? 
 
 It seemed to me an age since yesterday. 
 Was it only yesterday I married with a light 
 heart, anticipating only pleasure and happiness. 
 The pleasure and happiness was come indeed 
 full measure, but with them many other things. 
 Marriage seemed easy, simple. In the old
 
 96 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 novels all the trouble comes before marriage. 
 When they are married ' they live happily 
 ever after.' Such is the fiction. Fact told 
 me it was not so. I found marriage complex, 
 full of unknown, undreamt-of dangers and 
 difficulties for us both. 
 
 We loved each other, true, but that love, 
 that strong attraction of sex unto sex, which 
 draws a man and woman first together, quite 
 despite themselves, is nature's way, her sure 
 and certain way, of getting intelligent children 
 for her future. Emotion, which is intelligence, 
 in children is born of a mutual strong emotion 
 in the parents. Nature selects in her own way 
 for her own purpose. 
 
 She cares for nothing in comparison with 
 that. Husband and wife may rise from sexual 
 love to spiritual love which is understanding, 
 may live in sympathy or misery, it is nothing 
 at all to her. Happiness in marriage is not 
 given by nature, who lays but the foundation ; 
 it must be built up by the man and woman, by 
 mutual constant effort at understanding. Theirs 
 is the fault, not nature's, if they cannot live 
 together in mutual happiness. 
 
 I knew this all in theory long ago. I 
 deemed the practice would be simple. I 
 thought that yesterday. To-day, though one 
 great danger had been passed, I saw innumer- 
 able rocks ahead already. How should one 
 steer ?
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 97 
 
 The basket with the puppies was in a corner 
 of the verandah. There Lady lay on guard, 
 that no one except those she approved came 
 near them. Myself, Po Chon, Po Ka these 
 were the favoured few. Lesbia was still re- 
 garded with strong doubt and everybody else 
 was growled at. 
 
 The father Spot was entirely forbid the 
 nursery. If he but approached to say ' Good- 
 morning,' bristles went up and teeth were 
 shown. Poor Spot, a milder-mannered father 
 never lived, but he was not allowed even to 
 see his family. 
 
 Lady stood up and yawned. She stretched 
 herself, wanted some exercise, a change, 
 wondered if Po Ka forgave her for her attitude 
 of yesterday. She looked about. Everything 
 seemed quite calm. She thought that she would 
 take a stroll down to the end of the raft. 
 
 First she came over to me and wagged her 
 tail and looked up questioningly. ' Will you 
 look after the family while I 'm away ? ' she asked. 
 
 I nodded. She licked my hand and trotted off. 
 
 Presently Spot appeared. He came into the 
 verandah, noticed that Lady was not there, and 
 thought the opportunity good to see this 
 vaunted family. So he went over to the 
 basket and peered in. He cocked his ears and 
 wrinkled up his face in consideration. Two 
 boys, two girls. Were the boys like him ? 
 Had they his fighting instinct ? Would they 
 
 G *
 
 98 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 be a credit to him when he took their educa- 
 tion in hand ? Perhaps he could tell better by 
 the smell, so he leant over and sniffed at them 
 one after the other then with a startled yap 
 he fled. For Lady had returned suddenly and 
 rushed upon him in a perfect hurricane of rage 
 at his invasion of the sacred place. 
 
 She was much agitated. c What has your 
 father been doing to you ? ' she whined, as she 
 turned them all over and examined them from 
 stem to stern. ' Has he frightened you, my 
 babes ? has he bitten you ? ' Then realising 
 slowly that no harm was done, her heat sub- 
 sided and repentance came. Why had she 
 lost her temper ? Why had she rushed and 
 snarled and snapped at him ? Wasn't he their 
 father after all, and a fond, indulgent father too ? 
 Yes she had been hasty. She glanced up to 
 the bows where Spot sat in silent dignity. 
 His fat round back was stiff with a mute re- 
 proach, with wounded dignity. She repented 
 freely and fully. She ran up to the bows. 
 Spot heard, for his ears went up, but he took 
 no notice. Then she set herself to calm the 
 storm. With her white teeth she combed 
 that fat indignant back. With ardent solici- 
 tude she smoothed away its stiffness and dis- 
 solved its anger. Visibly Spot unbent, and a 
 minute later they sat leaning against each other, 
 in friendliest companionship. That was a 
 happy marriage, Spot and Lady. He
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 99 
 
 championed her abroad, protecting her from 
 village dogs and other dangers, and in so doing 
 had reaped full many a scar and nearly met his 
 death. She petted him at home. They 
 quarrelled often, both being hot-tempered, but 
 the quarrels never lasted long. One or the 
 other repented and apologised, and the apology 
 was always accepted in the frankest spirit. 
 That is the secret of a happy marriage. 
 
 4 Does the Thakin want tea ? ' 
 
 It was Po Chon, his forehead wrinkled with 
 anxiety. 
 
 4 They are within.' I answered his unspoken 
 question. 4 I don't know what they are saying.' 
 
 He stared out into the distance. ' It is 
 women who bring all the trouble,' he said. 
 
 4 And all the pleasure.' 
 
 4 Yes,' he assented. * I don't know which 
 is the most.' 
 
 4 You cannot separate them,' I replied. 
 4 They go together and make life.' 
 
 He nodded. That philosophy appealed to 
 him, in fact was of his people. 
 
 4 Po Chon,' I said, 4 how long have we been 
 together ? ' 
 
 He counted in his mind. 4 Fourteen years.' 
 
 4 It is a long time,' I answered. 4 And 
 though we quarrel now and then we always 
 make it up.' 
 
 4 1 have an affection for the Thakin,' he said.
 
 ioo LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' And I for both of you,' I answered ; ' and 
 yesterday I never supposed but that we should 
 be together till I retired. Now to-day I have 
 my doubts.' 
 
 He looked at me comprehendingly and 
 nodded. It did not need any words to tell 
 him why. 
 
 ' Directly the Thakin told me he would be 
 married I reared. A Thakinma wishes to be 
 the director of the household.' 
 
 ' Is it not her right ? ' 
 
 ' It is her right, but it will be hard for us 
 and for the Thakin.' 
 
 ' And for her too.' 
 
 ' Why for the Thakinma ? ' 
 
 ' For her, because you, Po Chon and Po Ka, 
 have always counted me first. You will always 
 count me first, but that she will find hard 
 to bear. It will be hard for you, because it is 
 very hard for a man to serve a woman. Women 
 are hard. They have not consideration, as 
 a man has. They want their exact service. 
 There is never any give and take about women. 
 They always deal in the absolute. It will be 
 hard for me, because to see difficulties in my 
 household I cannot mend, to run the risk of 
 your leaving me will be hard.' 
 
 ' We will do what we can,' he said. 
 
 ' I am sure you will, and let us hope for the 
 best. Do not come to me for orders openly, 
 go to her. Do not bring tea without her
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 101 
 
 orders. Treat her as mistress. If you want 
 to come to me, come secretly, when she does 
 not know.' 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 ' And tell Po Ka.' 
 
 c Yes, I will tell Po Ka. And now the 
 Thakin's tea-time is past, and I know he 
 wants his tea. May I not bring it ? ' 
 
 I shook my head. ' Not till she rings.' 
 
 c And about Po Ka and the girl ? ' 
 
 ' I will tell you later. We will not reach 
 Katha till six.' 
 
 He went away. 
 
 And within the salon the talk went on. 
 Two women were trying to understand each 
 other through a third. 
 
 There was the rustle of a dress and Lesbia 
 came out. I looked at her and smiled. Her 
 countenance was troubled and her cheeks were 
 pale. 
 
 c My dear,' I said, 'you want your tea.' 
 
 c Have you had yours ? ' 
 
 ' And did you order it ? ' 
 
 She looked surprised. ' You don't want me 
 to order tea for you.' 
 
 ' I do. You are the mistress. If you don't 
 give me tea, how can I get it ? ' 
 
 She stared, and then a sudden flush came 
 over her. ' You are a goose,' she said, ruffling 
 my hair. Ring the gong.'
 
 102 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 I rung. When Po Chon came, he looked 
 at her, not me. ' What is the word ? ' she 
 asked me. 
 
 ' He knows English enough for that,' I 
 answered. 
 
 ' Bring tea,' she said. 
 
 He went away and presently returned with 
 tea. 
 
 Not till the tea was finished did I ask : 
 
 ' Well, did she tell you ? ' 
 
 Lesbia frowned. ' She told me, but I am 
 not sure I understood.' 
 
 ' What didn't you understand ? ' 
 
 She thought a moment. 
 
 c You said that they were married ? ' 
 
 ' Well ? ' 
 
 ' I asked her if they had gone through any 
 ceremony of marriage, and she said No.' 
 
 ' Marriage,' I answered, ' is not a ceremony, 
 but a fact.' 
 
 4 Out here, perhaps, where everything is 
 rude and rough.' 
 
 ' Everywhere in the world,' I answered. 
 ' The ceremony is but a form preliminary to 
 a fact. In itself it is nothing.' 
 
 ' Nothing ? ' She stared. 
 
 ' Nothing,' I answered. c It is an attempt 
 of churches to impose their yoke on people. 
 Do you suppose no one was ever married in 
 Europe till three hundred years ago, when the 
 churches first invented their ceremony ? Do
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 103 
 
 you suppose now it has any real value ? Sup- 
 pose you and I had separated yesterday, would 
 we have been husband and wife ? ' 
 
 c In law,' she urged. 
 
 ' Law, where it does not cover a fact, is 
 the worst of fictions. But not even in foolish 
 law would we have been completely married. 
 Marriage is a fact, and these people lay more 
 stress on fact than fiction. It is a fact that 
 Po Ka and the girl are married. Do you 
 doubt it ? ' 
 
 She shook her head and blushed. 
 
 1 1 did not understand,' she murmured. 
 
 ' Lesbia,' I said, ' try to look upon the facts 
 of life, to understand its truth. Marriage be- 
 tween a man and a woman is a fact and a 
 continuing relationship. He took her as his 
 wife and she him as husband ; they are one 
 flesh. That is a truth all the world over. 
 Love, which is God, has joined them. Cere- 
 monies and laws which deny a truth are wicked 
 and harmful. They may be useful as the outer 
 sign of an inward truth, they are never true 
 in themselves ; when they deny a truth they 
 are themselves a falsehood. In fact Po Ka 
 and the girl are married. In law out here, 
 among these people, they are also married ex- 
 cept for one detail. The girl is under eighteen, 
 and her mother's leave was not obtained. 
 Therefore her mother can claim back the girl 
 if she like. Otherwise, the marriage is valid.'
 
 104 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 e How can she claim her back ? ' said Lesbia. 
 ' Isn't she ruined now ? Would any one speak 
 to her after what has happened if she went 
 back ? ' 
 
 ' My dear,' I answered, ' these people are 
 not Pharisees. They are not whited sepul- 
 chres, but human beings. They would deplore 
 the accident, but they know human nature. 
 They would not cast stones. They do not 
 judge, they comprehend.' 
 
 4 They would accept her as before ? ' 
 
 ' Not quite, for she has had an accident. 
 But accidents are not sins ; they would not 
 blame her, but be sorry for her.' 
 
 ' And would another marry her ? ' 
 
 c If he was sure she had forgotten Po Ka, 
 and loved him. Why should he not ? ' 
 
 Lesbia sat stunned. 
 
 ' Marriage is a vow made before God,' she 
 murmured reverently. 
 
 ' Priests are not God,' I answered, ' although 
 they try to make you think so. Neither does 
 God live in a church.' 
 
 4 Where does He live ? ' 
 
 4 The Kingdom of Heaven,' I answered, ' is 
 within you.' 
 
 She shook her head. ' I do not understand.' 
 
 4 The God that makes us one is Love, Lesbia,' 
 I cried, ' and the God to whom you make pro- 
 mises is your conscience. Don't you see and 
 know that God lives in the world, in you, in
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 105 
 
 me, in everything ? The world is all the 
 garment of God. He does not live without. 
 He has no priests. He Himself lives in us if 
 we would only see Him.' 
 
 She put her face down between her hands. 
 So she sat silently, and then she rose and went 
 in to her bedroom. Poor child ! she was be- 
 wildered, bouleversee. I wondered had I done 
 right to open her eyes so quickly. I did not 
 follow. I know that there are times when 
 solitude is the only help, to be alone and still, 
 to lie and listen till the inward voice is heard. 
 
 The raft went on. The evening shadows 
 came upon the hills. And we drew near our 
 halting-place. 
 
 Below that farther point there lay the 
 station of Katha and the mother waiting for 
 the girl. 
 
 The raft moved on, and Lesbia did not come. 
 
 The point was rounded and we saw the 
 buildings of the station, the village clustered 
 just below, the steamer at her flat. I rang 
 the gong. And to Po Chon I gave this 
 order. 
 
 c Po Chon, when we come to anchor and 
 the mother comes, give the girl to her. But 
 say that at ten o'clock to-night they must 
 come back, she and the girl, and we will talk 
 the matter out. Do you understand ? '
 
 io6 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 He understood. 
 
 * What will be done ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' I do not know.' 
 
 ' Po Ka is in despair and the girl also. 
 They sit and hold each other's hands. 
 
 ' And the girl's mother is crying there upon 
 the shore. I see her. Well, we must see what 
 is the best. Meanwhile, do as I say.' 
 
 He went away, and the crew began to row 
 the raft in to the shore.
 
 CHAPTER VIII
 
 ' A woman in ten thousand have I not found.' 
 
 Ecclesiaites.
 
 VIII 
 
 JIP, hip, hurrah ! Hip, hip, 
 hurrah ! ' That is what I 
 hear from the bank. Some 
 one is cheering us. And as 
 soon as we are moored, I hear 
 them come on board and greet 
 my husband. There is a great talking on the 
 forward deck, and then he comes to me. 
 ' May I come in ? ' he asks. 
 c Come in,' I say. I am lying on my bed 
 trying to arrange my ideas, which seem in 
 chaos, all the new ones fighting with the old 
 ones, till I don't know where I stand. 
 He comes in beside me. 
 4 Tired, my dear ? ' he asks. 
 4 No,' I say doubtfully. ' Not tired exactly, 
 but confused.' 
 
 ' Well, you must get up and have a run 
 ashore to clear your little head ' ; and he 
 strokes my hair. c All the men have come 
 down to meet us, five of them, and want us to 
 drive round the station first, then go to the 
 club and then dine with them.'
 
 no LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' Oh dear,' I say, sitting up, ' must we 
 go?' 
 
 For indeed, indeed I don't want to go. I 
 want to keep quiet, to hide for a time yet. 
 I can't face a lot of men, all of whom know 
 we were married yesterday. If there was a 
 woman, I would not so much mind, as she 
 would stand by me, but there is none here I 
 know. And men are dreadful, with what 
 they call their humour, which is quite nice 
 at the right time, but at the wrong 
 
 He looks at me and laughs. ' Cheer up,' 
 he says. ' They are excellent fellows, all of 
 them, and will do you no harm. Why that 
 set face ? We are not going to storm a 
 battery or do any desperate deed. Probably 
 we shall survive it, Lesbia mia.' 
 
 He knows quite well. I see it in his face, 
 and he is mocking me. I could bite him. 
 Have men no sensitiveness in their coarse 
 natures ? 
 
 ' What is the matter ? ' he whispers in my 
 ear. 
 
 ' Oh never mind,' I say hastily. 4 1 have 
 got to dress. Can your friends wait ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly they can ! ' he says, ' but hurry 
 up,' and goes away. 
 
 When I am ready, I go to the door and 
 pause. I hear them talking, laughing, and 
 joking outside the salon. How can I face 
 them ? I did not know before how brave a
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND in 
 
 girl must be to get married. I feel as if I 
 would sooner sink through the raft than go on. 
 But the raft holds firm beneath my feet. It 
 is my knees that tremble. With a great effort, 
 I open the door and go out. 
 
 Immediately a tall, handsome man comes 
 forward, shakes hands, and makes a little 
 speech. 
 
 ' We have no English lady here,' he says, 
 ' and have not seen one for nearly a year. 
 We never saw a bride here before, and Gallio 
 is an old friend of ours. So for all these 
 reasons your visit is an event to us.' 
 
 I bow and smile, and he continues : 
 
 ' We want you to drive with us to the club 
 and afterwards dine with us, if you will do us 
 such a favour.' 
 
 I say that I shall be very glad, and indeed 
 there is a kindliness about him that takes my 
 fear away. Then the other men are introduced. 
 
 ' The club is a mile away,' he says, ' but I 
 have brought my dogcart, and will drive you 
 up if you will let me. Gallio, there 's a pony 
 here for you.' 
 
 We go ashore, and I get into the little dog- 
 cart with Mr. Tournon. My husband rides 
 with the other men, who make a sort of guard 
 of honour. Two ride in front to clear the 
 road for us, and the others ride behind. The 
 road is narrow, is metalled only in the centre, 
 and is about a mile long. It is, however, the
 
 I 12 
 
 only metalled road in a district of six thousand 
 square miles, Mr. Tournon tells me. 
 
 Our drive lies through the village and into 
 the civil station, and I enjoy it quite well ex- 
 cept when we have to stop occasionally for a 
 bullock-cart to get out of the way. Then 
 the pony takes the opportunity to do ballet 
 dancing on his hind legs, which I don't like. 
 
 ' You have no Englishwomen here,' I ask. 
 
 He shakes his head. 
 
 ' But why ? ' 
 
 1 Unhealthy,' he says briefly. c It used to 
 be called " the white man's grave." We 
 have a cemetery here full of the graves of 
 officers. ' It 's rather better now, but still 
 unhealthy.' 
 
 ' But,' I say, c aren't you married ? ' 
 
 He glances at me sideways. ' I suppose 
 Gallio told you.' 
 
 I shake my head. 'I guessed.' 
 
 c How did you guess ? ' His tone is cold. 
 
 ' You have a manner,' I answer vaguely, for 
 indeed I cannot formulate myself why I had 
 guessed. 'There is a difference.' 
 
 4 Yes,' he says briefly. 
 
 He says no more ; he does not speak about 
 his wife. He is silent with that silence which 
 is eloquent of things unsaid, that never can be 
 said. I feel uncomfortable, and am glad when 
 we arrive at the club. 
 
 It is just a little thatched building with two
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 113 
 
 rooms, and a card- and reading-room. It is 
 decorated with flowers, evidently in our honour. 
 
 4 I see that you are not dressed for lawn- 
 tennis. I do not know if you care for cards,' 
 says Mr. Tournon. ' Perhaps you would rather 
 sit and watch them playing lawn-tennis.' 
 
 My husband and three other men begin 
 a game. Mr. Tournon excuses himself for 
 a few minutes, and I am left with young 
 Mr. Logan to sit and watch the game. 
 
 ' Have you been here long ? ' I ask. 
 
 4 Two years,' he answers. 
 
 4 And the others ? ' 
 
 4 As long or longer.' 
 
 4 Are you not tired of it ? ' 
 
 4 No. We are a happy party here.' 
 
 4 Do not you quarrel ? ' 
 
 He laughs. 4 No ; or if we do, we suppress 
 it. Men learn not to quarrel, you know.' 
 
 How do they learn, I wonder. If five 
 women were shut up alone for two years 
 together, without men, would any of them be 
 alive, let alone on speaking terms with the 
 others at the end, I wonder ? 
 
 4 When do you learn, and how ? ' I ask. 
 
 He looks at me and grins. 4 At school, in 
 a regiment, or office, in work, in play, in the 
 club, in life. That is the when. As to the 
 how, common sense and the stick, if necessary, 
 does it.' 
 
 4 Perhaps,' I think, 4 that is why women 
 
 H
 
 ii4 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 never learn. But perhaps they aren't meant 
 to learn ; men are the cement of life, and 
 women the separating force.' 
 
 And again, say that five women, or fifty 
 women, were secluded from all men of their 
 kind and class, how terribly narrow they would 
 find life. They would become atrophied. 
 Yet these men here alone are not narrow. 
 The great currents of the world affect them 
 and move them, and they are conscious of a 
 community with the world life. But we, we 
 alone have no such community. The world 
 forces reach us through our men our fathers, 
 brothers, husbands, above all husbands are 
 broken for us by them, are softened and 
 adapted. A man touches life direct, but a 
 woman touches life through man, who is her 
 medium, her glove, her conductor. 
 
 So do new thoughts run through and 
 through me, born of a new emotion, of a 
 tremble and a movement of my whole self 
 that was not there but yesterday. 
 
 There is a longing come to me to touch 
 this world, and there is a new sense of com- 
 munity with it, through him, through him 
 who is part of me. 
 
 4 You have not told me what you are,' I say 
 to Mr. Logan. 
 
 c I am the engineer,' he says, ' but what do 
 you know of things like that ? That is a 
 man's question.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 115 
 
 ' Nothing,' I answer. ' I don't know why 
 I asked. You are not married ? ' 
 
 It seems to me just now that the one 
 question of importance in the world is 
 marriage. I did not know before what a 
 tremendous thing it was. And now that I 
 know, it takes the first place in my mind. 
 
 He laughs and shakes his head. c No, no, 
 and I do not think I ever shall be.' 
 
 4 Why not ? ' I ask, surprised and hurt. It 
 seemed from his tone as if he despised the 
 marriage state. 
 
 c I can't afford it, never shall be able to afford 
 it like many other men out here,' he answers. 
 
 I think of all the heaps of girls at home so 
 wanting husbands and am vexed. c That is 
 selfishness,' I say. 
 
 ' Perhaps,' he answers. c But all marriages 
 are not happy.' 
 
 c Are none of you married except Mr. 
 Tournon ? ' 
 
 He shakes his head. 
 
 ' Why is not Mrs. Tournon here ? If she 
 were, and you saw how happy a woman can 
 make herself even in a place like this, and 
 what a difference she effects, you would all 
 get married.' 
 
 He stares at me open-mouthed. Then 
 suddenly he bursts into a loud guffaw, which 
 he tries to stifle ineffectually, and finally gets 
 up and runs away.
 
 n6 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' What have I said ? ' I feel hot all over. 
 Has Mrs. Tournon bolted or what ? My 
 husband ought to have told me. I sit and 
 tremble with anger, and would like to cry. I 
 watch them mechanically as they drive the 
 ball backwards and forwards. 
 
 At last Mr. Tournon comes. ' What, all 
 alone ? ' he says, surprised. ' I am very sorry. 
 I told Logan to look after you.' 
 
 I do not know what to say, and presently 
 the game is over and the players come up. It 
 is getting too dark to play another set, and we 
 go up to the club-house. 
 
 There we sit for a while and talk, and then 
 we must drive back to the raft to dress for 
 dinner. My husband drives me. 
 
 ' Why didn't you tell me about Mr. Tour- 
 non ? ' I say indignantly as we go along. 
 
 c Tell you what ? ' he asks. 
 
 4 About Mrs. Tournon. What is the 
 mystery ? ' 
 
 For a minute he is silent. I 'm sorry you 
 found out,' he says at last. ' I did not want 
 you to know, at least at present. She is a devil.' 
 
 ' I suppose she has run away with some 
 one else.' 
 
 He shakes his head and smiles a little 
 grimly. The trouble is the other way,' he says. 
 
 ' I do not understand,' I say. * I thought 
 that all trouble in marriage came from that.' 
 
 He shakes his head.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 117 
 
 ' It is an unpleasant story,' is all he answers. 
 
 But that does not satisfy me. I want to 
 know indeed I want to know about this 
 new world into which I Ve come. Until 
 now I could know nothing. I was always 
 told 'it is not for girls to know such things.' 
 Now I am enfranchised and I may know, and 
 he must tell me, because now it is my world 
 too through him. But I keep silence till 
 we arrive and are c at home.' Then as we 
 are dressing, I say to him : 
 
 ' Please tell me. Have I not a right to 
 know now ? ' 
 
 He looks at me in puzzled fashion. ' I am 
 not sure,' he says, c how much I ought to tell 
 you. Is it not enough that in this unit, 
 which is We, one of us knows ? ' 
 
 I shake my head quite vigorously. ' I sup- 
 pose it is very improper ? ' I say. 
 
 He comes over to my side of the room and 
 sits beside me. ' The story is a long one, 
 even as I know it, and of course I do not 
 know it all,' he says. ' But it is like this. 
 Tournon is an able man, but like many very 
 able men he is very simple about women. 
 He cannot see, he takes your sex on trust. 
 He married as all of us marry, by some fate 
 that makes us. That fate was not kind to 
 him. He took for granted that the woman 
 he married would be to him as good wives 
 are to husbands. Of course, I only know
 
 n8 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 what the world knows. The secrets of that 
 marriage are secrets. But there was trouble 
 from the very day of marriage. She called 
 herself a new woman, vaunted her inde- 
 pendence, scoffed at the idea of a wife obeying 
 her husband in any matter.' 
 
 ' And why should she ? ' I ask. 
 
 4 My dear,' he answers, ' we are none of us 
 free. Men are in obedience to their govern- 
 ment, to the laws, to the rules of business, to 
 the unwritten yet most stringently enforced 
 codes of give-and-take among men. Women 
 know nothing of this. Women touch the 
 world of action not directly but through their 
 husbands, who are responsible for them, who 
 act for them and protect them. If in such 
 matters they will not obey their husbands, 
 they become either servants to some other 
 man or simply anarchists. And the husband 
 has to take the responsibility before the world, 
 because the world cannot deal with women 
 direct, but only through their men. 
 
 4 Was Mrs. Tournon anarchist ? ' 
 
 ' As far as Tournon was concerned, always. 
 She evidently deemed it a point of honour 
 never to listen to him.' 
 
 'Yet she had married him.' 
 
 ' She knew nothing of the world, nothing 
 of what marriage meant, and she would not 
 learn. She thought she knew everything, yet 
 knew nothing. She could learn nothing, for
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 119 
 
 all sympathy, which is understanding, is born 
 of emotion, which she could not feel. She 
 was a woman incapable of real love. She 
 was a " pure, good woman " in the cant of a 
 canting world, pure in her body because 
 almost emotionless, impure beyond conception 
 in her mind because she lacked that sympathy 
 and understanding that the love emotion alone 
 can give. She thought and said that the 
 world was evil. She went about the world 
 holding her spiritual nose to keep out evil 
 savours.' 
 
 I look up in his face and smile. 
 
 ' So she made Tournon's life a hell ; she 
 cared nothing for what he said, interfered in 
 matters she knew nothing of, sought advice 
 when she thought she needed it from any one 
 but her husband. She was intolerable. All 
 his friends dropped him. Stations to which 
 she came broke out into discord, and govern- 
 ment work cannot go on where there is dis- 
 cord. He was transferred and again transferred 
 because of her. Finally, he secretly asked to 
 be sent here, where women may not come, to 
 be free of her.' 
 
 ' Cannot he separate ? ' 
 
 c How can he separate ? The Church- 
 made laws of divorce recognise only excess or 
 error in love ; the utter want of capacity for 
 love, for real marriage, is not to them a fault. 
 For they have never tried to understand what
 
 i2o LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 love and marriage is. Yet of the abounding 
 misery of the world nine-tenths is due to want 
 of love, and not a tenth to excess of it.' 
 
 ' What will he do ? ' 
 
 ' Who knows ? He is a ruined man for 
 life, and nothing can help him. He will stay 
 here as long as he can. He is fairly at peace 
 here. If he leave to go on furlough, she will 
 rejoin him. She is the " perfect wife " in 
 her own estimation.' 
 
 ' He might love and take another woman,' 
 I suggest timidly, ' and so make his wife 
 divorce him.' 
 
 ' He would not do it,' he answers. ' Not 
 because of himself nor because he thought it 
 a sin, but because of that other woman whom 
 the world would damn. He could not live 
 with a woman he did not love ; he could not 
 bear to see a woman he loved cold shouldered 
 by the world. Besides, once bit, twice shy.' 
 
 The bitterness of his voice hurts me, and I 
 cry, ' And what of her ? of Mrs. Tournon ? 
 Do you never think of her, how steeped in 
 misery she must be. Men have so many 
 things, but marriage is a woman's only chance. 
 And if it fail ? ' 
 
 4 It is her own fault,' he says. 
 
 c No,' I say. ' Not her own. It is the 
 way she has been brought up and taught.' 
 
 He looks at me and strokes my cheek. 
 ' My dear, my dear,' he says, ' of course you
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 121 
 
 are right. She suffers, and through her the 
 husband, for sins of churches, conventions, 
 laws, societies, and foolish mothers. She is to 
 be pitied as much as he is. Only you see, the 
 evil comes through her, therefore she seems 
 the one to blame.' 
 
 'Poor woman,' I say, 'poor woman.' I 
 feel that I should like to cry. 
 
 He only pats my cheek and says, ' Come, 
 hurry up, or we shall keep them waiting.' 
 
 We change, and then we drive to Mr. 
 Tournon's house for dinner. 
 
 It is a very pleasant dinner. How nice men 
 can be to a woman when she is young and 
 pretty. They toast me and drink my health. 
 Afterwards they sing songs, and I sing too. 
 
 But above all, the feeling that I have for them 
 is pity. Men can do many things ; one thing 
 they cannot do is make a home. Yet they 
 want a home. After their work, their trouble, 
 and the dangers they go through, they want a 
 home where they can rest and can be petted. 
 They also need to learn, I think, that there is 
 a side of life that with all their knowledge 
 they know nothing of, a world where, with all 
 their masterfulness, they must give way. 
 
 As I look at them, I see such a number of 
 things that want amending. Their shirts are 
 not properly starched nor their ties well tied. 
 That comes of the want of the influence of 
 women. One man confided in me that he
 
 122 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 had not worn his evening clothes for two years 
 till to-night, and that when he put on his silk 
 socks he found his boy had mended them with 
 white cotton thread. What their bungalows 
 must be like, I fear to think. Men have no 
 ideas of cleanliness except in themselves. 
 
 I feel so sorry for these homeless men, 
 so nice, so half-civilised as it were. I would 
 like to mother all of them. 
 
 I tell this to my husband and he answers: 'A 
 woman's first idea when she sees a man she at all 
 likes is to assert her authority over him, to get 
 him down, to say innumerable "don'ts" to him.' 
 
 4 You need it so badly,' I retort. 
 
 ' It is your thirst for power,' he answers. 
 
 And when I think over the matter candidly 
 I see that maybe it is a little of both. 
 
 As we drive up to the raft, we see a 
 small, white blur upon the road. As we 
 arrive, the blur dissolves into two little dogs, 
 who jump and fawn upon their master with 
 yaps and cries. It is Spot and Lady. 
 
 'They are faithful little things,' he says 
 as he caresses them. ' When I go out, they 
 always wait for me upon the road. They 
 would wait all night, or many days and nights.' 
 
 They also deign to take some notice of me, 
 acknowledging me at last as belonging to the 
 family, and we all go on board together. 
 
 And now for our romance.
 
 CHAPTER IX
 
 ' But mother's love, like mother's milk, may sour.' 
 
 GANGLER.
 
 IX 
 
 E went into the salon and 
 sat down. Filled with clear 
 yellow light, it seemed a 
 cheerful little place, and 
 Lesbia's presence gave it a 
 grace and sweetness that 
 were new to me. 
 
 Presently they came in, the girl and mother 
 first, blinking at the bright light, nervous, 
 afraid of these sea strangers whom they did 
 not know. They passed to Lesbia's side and 
 sat upon the mats. 
 
 Then followed Po Chon and Po Ka, who 
 came and sat near me. Po Ka's eyes were 
 fixed upon the girl, but hers upon the floor. 
 
 There was a brief silence while we looked 
 from one to other. For here within these 
 narrow walls, made manifest in these poor 
 people, were the great passions of the world, 
 that made it and that keep it. First, there 
 was the mother of the girl, maternal love, 
 the preserver of the world that bears and 
 nourishes and cherishes. She was a woman,
 
 ia6 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 old beyond her years, worn with hard work, 
 stupid and almost ugly. Of her looks and 
 dress she was quite careless, for to her lovers 
 came no more. Her eyes as she looked on 
 her daughter were filled with love, but not a 
 high nor noble love. It was a selfish, jealous 
 passion that they showed, almost a hate some- 
 times. It was a love of the girl for her own 
 sake, not for the girl's, a love that would sacri- 
 fice the daughter to the mother, that looked 
 back and never forward. It was a mother's 
 love grown old and out of place, from an un- 
 selfishness become a selfishness, from a pre- 
 serving passion grown into a destroying 
 passion one that would blindly ruin its 
 child's future if it could. It was the degra- 
 dation of a once truth that would not recog- 
 nise its present falsehood. 
 
 The girl was pretty. She had round 
 cheeks, bright eyes, a soft and yielding form. 
 There was in her that grace of looks that 
 lifts a girl for a few years far up above her 
 parents. She has a ' possibility,' and they 
 have none. She is a promise, though it never 
 be fulfilled ; she has the nobility of a rising 
 flame, the mother is a dying ember. 
 
 Well ? ' I said. 
 
 The mother looked at me angrily, and then 
 caught hold of the girl's hand, as if to hold 
 her from me. But she answered nothing. 
 
 ' What is the matter ? ' I asked. ' Po Ka
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 127 
 
 loves your daughter and she loves him. Why 
 cannot you give her to him ? ' 
 
 4 He is a robber and a deceiver,' she 
 muttered. ' Never will I give my girl to 
 him ? ' 
 
 ' What has he robbed ? ' 
 
 4 Hasn't he robbed me of her ? Didn't he 
 come like a thief and make love to her and 
 steal her heart away ? ' The mother's voice 
 was hard and bitter. 
 
 4 So do all men,' I answered. 4 Did not your 
 husband once steal your heart and you ? ' 
 
 She glances at me sidewise. 
 
 4 And wasn't he right ? For indeed he 
 didn't steal, you gave. Is that not so ? Look 
 back.' 
 
 4 My parents gave their consent,' she 
 grumbled. 
 
 4 And you can give yours.' 
 
 4 My husband did not take me away from 
 them to a far country. He came and lived 
 with us.' 
 
 4 Ah,' I said to Lesbia, and I translated ; 
 4 that is the trouble.' 
 
 4 And isn't it natural,' said Lesbia, 4 to want 
 to keep her daughter and gain a son ? ' 
 
 4 Love thinks not of such things,' I answered ; 
 4 and love is lord, for he commands the future. 
 We can but obey, or else deny. What of your 
 mother, Lesbia ? ' 
 
 4 Poor mother,' and Lesbia's eyes grew soft.
 
 128 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' She let you come when I called.' 
 
 4 Poor mother.' 
 
 4 " Poor mother " maybe ; but " poorer chil- 
 dren " if their mothers will not let them go.' 
 
 4 It is the world's tragedy,' she said. 
 
 4 It is through the tears of men and women 
 that the world moves on,' I answered. 
 
 'You are so hard,' she said, * on women.' 
 
 4 Then do you speak,' I said. 4 I will inter- 
 pret. You are a woman ; speak to this woman. 
 
 She flushed. But Lesbia is brave and Les- 
 bia has sense. She spoke through me. I said : 
 
 * Look at this lady.' 
 
 The mother raised her eyes and stared at 
 Lesbia. She had never seen an Englishwoman 
 before. I saw her eyes grow larger and a look 
 of wonder come into her face. 
 
 4 She bids me talk to you,' I said. 4 She bids 
 me say she has a mother too, far, far away 
 beyond the sunset. Yet her mother gave her 
 to me.' 
 
 The woman stared. 4 Her mother has a 
 husband.' 
 
 4 No ; she is a widow as you are.' 
 
 4 But she has other children.' 
 
 4 No. She is alone.' 
 
 4 Then how could she do it ? How ? ' she 
 cried. * I cannot part with my daughter.' 
 
 4 The lady bids me say that her mother too 
 wept when she went ; but that her mother 
 would not sacrifice her daughter to herself.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 129 
 
 ' I don't,' the woman cried. c But the lady's 
 mother loved and trusted you. I don't trust 
 Po Ka.' 
 
 ' Why not.' 
 
 ' He is stranger.' 
 
 c To you, but not to me. He has been with 
 me for fourteen years. I know him. Will you 
 believe me what I tell you of him ? ' 
 
 She looked incredulously at me. 
 
 ' I will tell you a tale about him,' I con- 
 tinued ; and I told her of his first wife. ' So 
 he can love,' I said. 
 
 * First love,' she said. 
 
 ' He who has loved can love again,' I 
 answered. ' Some cannot love at all.' 
 
 ' How do I know he loves my daughter ? ' 
 
 ' Look at him.' 
 
 She looked across angrily at Po Ka. ' How 
 can I tell by looking ? ' she complained. ' Men 
 are all liars.' 
 
 ' I think not,' I said. ' And your daughter 
 loves Po Ka.' 
 
 ' No, no,' she cried. 
 
 ' Ask her.' 
 
 She saw the danger. ' I will not ask her. 
 She is bewitched and will not answer true.' 
 
 ' Yes, love is witchery, is it not ? ' 
 
 4 Oh ! oh ! ' she cried with anger, ' you are 
 all against me. But I will not let her go.'
 
 1 3 o LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ii 
 
 When I first see the mother, my feelings are 
 all against her. She is so common and so 
 dowdy beside her daughter. She is like a witch 
 claiming a beauty. But gradually as I watch 
 her my feelings change ; I understand. It is 
 her love that makes her so. Is she worn and 
 old, it is by working for the girl ; is she badly 
 clothed, it is to give her daughter a pretty dress ; 
 is she narrow and stupid, it is because her soul 
 is in the girl. Within her daughter is wrapped 
 up her whole interests and her life ; she lives 
 alone in her, that second self. And her pain is 
 as of one who feels her heart torn from out her 
 breast ; nothing is left her but despair and 
 death. 
 
 It is the eternal tragedy of women that they 
 give themselves utterly to their children, who 
 give themselves elsewhere, and leave their 
 mothers empty and purposeless until the end. 
 
 And yet, it must be so. 
 
 My husband talks. I listen, but do not 
 understand. Therefore I watch and I under- 
 stand. 
 
 How did this understanding come to me ? 
 But yesterday it was not there. I feel a-tingle 
 with new nerves that see, that hear, that feel 
 things that I dreamt not before. 
 
 How feels the mother ? I can guess, can feel. 
 When I left my mother but a month ago, I did
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 131 
 
 not know her heart, nor what I cost her. Now 
 I can understand a little what that mother feels. 
 For I myself may be a mother soon. 
 
 And Po Ka ? I have seen my husband 
 tremble to look at me ; I have felt the passion 
 in his arms while his heart beat hard against 
 my breast. I comprehend. 
 
 And the girl towards Po Ka ? I know, I 
 know. 
 
 There are no words to tell these things. You 
 might just as well try to tell music, to express 
 in words low symphonies, triumphal marches, 
 or the misereres of the dead. But in a heart 
 strung up, whose strings are tuned, they echo 
 their own music. 
 
 And as they talk I seem to see before me 
 rise visions of all the world, the innumer- 
 able mothers who have lost, must lose, their 
 daughters, who have been their very lives, of 
 men like robbers in the night, who steal girls' 
 hearts, of girls who open wide their arms to let 
 their hearts be rifled. Why are the glories of 
 the world so near its tragedies ? Death hangs 
 upon the heels of life. 
 
 ' What do they say ? ' I ask presently. 
 
 ' I think we are getting at it/ says my 
 husband. ' The real trouble partly is this, that 
 the girl is not marrying at home but going 
 away, perhaps for ever. That is a bitterness.' 
 
 'Truly,' I say. 
 
 4 But even that is not the worst. I think
 
 1 32 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 it 's this. The mother is getting old. She is 
 not very strong. She might break down, 
 and in her daughter's absence starve.' 
 
 c Is that so ? ' I ask. 
 
 ' She will not say, but I think that must be 
 it. The daughter is her bank, in which her 
 savings have all been placed. To lose her is 
 ruin. Otherwise, I think that she would bear 
 it ; other mothers do.' 
 
 ' What will you do ? ' 
 
 ' Make her an offer.' He turns from me 
 again and talks to them. 
 
 And as he talks I see all faces lighten. Po 
 Ka's grows bright, Po Chon looks relieved, 
 the girl gets radiant. And even the mother 
 loses her despair and seems, though gloomy, 
 acquiescent. 
 
 Then my husband goes into his room, comes 
 out with money, which he gives to the mother. 
 She counts it, puts it in her cloth, and they all 
 get up and go. 
 
 1 How is it settled ? ' I ask him. 
 
 'The girl goes with her mother to-night, 
 but returns to Po Ka at dawn, when we start 
 onward. The mother gives her consent, and 
 the marriage is confirmed.' 
 
 ' How did you manage it ? ' I asked. 
 
 c I found the difficulty, the real insuperable 
 grievance in the mother's mind. The girl 
 makes money, and the girl gone the mother 
 would have difficulty in living.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 133 
 
 ' How sordid ! ' I exclaim. 
 
 'My dear,* he says, 'it is not sordid to 
 complain if you lose half, perhaps later on all 
 your livelihood. It is but natural, and what is 
 natural is never sordid. The mother loves her 
 daughter, do not doubt it, but like other 
 mothers she would make herself bear that loss 
 if necessary for the girl's sake. But to be re- 
 duced to poverty as well as solitude that were 
 hard to bear, and would rankle in her mind 
 always. Remember if the girl married a man 
 in the same village they would help the mother 
 all her life, but Po Ka takes the girl away.' 
 
 ' What did you do ? ' 
 
 ' I gave her a sum down and arranged to 
 send her monthly a proportion of Po Ka's pay.' 
 
 ' Oh, it is so material ! ' I cry. 
 
 ' My dear, my dear,' he says, and takes me 
 in his arms, ' is not the world flesh as well as 
 spirit ? Is it not spirit manifest in flesh ? It 
 is not sordid to be duly careful of the flesh, for 
 the spirit lives in it.' 
 
 I do not understand, I only shake my head. 
 
 ' Sweetheart,' he says, ' your hair is sun- 
 shine and your eyes are heaven. They are 
 material things. So is this kiss. Do you 
 despise it therefore ? ' 
 
 I kiss him for my answer, and we go to 
 bed.
 
 CHAPTER X
 
 ' Nature is the living visible garment of God.' 
 
 GOETHE.
 
 X 
 
 ESBIA,' I said, ' get up.' 
 
 She half opened sleepy eyes 
 and shook her head. 
 
 ' Get up, get up,' I said, 
 but she in answer closed her 
 eyes again, and turned away 
 from me in playful petulance. 
 
 c Strong measures,' I said severely, c become 
 necessary for lazy girls.' 
 
 Evidently, however, this lazy girl was not 
 afraid of strong measures, for she only closed 
 her eyes the tighter and hugged the pillow to 
 her face. I thought I heard her murmur 
 something. 
 
 ' What did you say ? ' I asked. 
 No answer unless a tiny snore might be 
 interpreted as such. 
 
 ' Very well,' I said in as deep a tone as I 
 could find, suppressing my laughter. c Now 
 comes the time for action ! ' I put my arms 
 suddenly about her and lifted her into a sitting 
 position, caught with one hand the wet sponge 
 from the stand and rubbed her face.
 
 138 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 The effect was electrical. From being a 
 soft and yielding slip of fragrant flesh, she 
 became as evasive and elastic as an eel. Pull- 
 ing herself from me with a sudden twist she 
 caught her pillow with both hands and rained 
 upon me buffet after buffet. Taken by sur- 
 prise I had no defence at first. I just sat and 
 suffered. Then came a fearful struggle, with 
 sobs and sighs, and the loud complaint of fur- 
 niture. There were vicissitudes in that fight, 
 but at length victory, as it always does, inclined 
 towards the right. Though breathless and 
 hot, I held her tight, disarmed and helpless ; 
 yet still triumphant and shaking with laughter. 
 
 c Lesbia,' I gasped, c this is most unseemly.' 
 
 ' I warned you,' she panted, shaking her 
 hair from out her eyes. c I warned you.' 
 
 ' When did you warn me ? ' I demanded. 
 
 ' I said " Gare a vous." 
 
 ' Oh, that was what you mumbled ; I 
 didn't hear.' 
 
 ' I can't help that,' she answered. 
 
 ' I wanted you to get up,' I said, explaining. 
 
 ' And I didn't want. Am I not mistress of 
 myself ? ' 
 
 I shook my head. c Besides, my Lesbia, I 
 have a plan.' 
 
 This aroused her interest. She moved round, 
 seated herself on my knees, put her arm round 
 my neck, and asked, ' What plan ? ' with 
 curiosity.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 139 
 
 'That is my secret.' 
 
 ' I thought you said,' she whispered, ' that 
 love lay in telling secrets ? ' 
 
 'Therefore I must make secrets so that I 
 can tell them you,' I said. * I have a plan. 
 Do as I say and you will know my plan.' 
 
 Is the plan nice ? ' 
 
 4 It 's lovely.' 
 
 ' What must I do ? ' 
 
 c Put on your bathing dress, and over that a 
 cloak, and come.' 
 
 ' Is that all ? ' 
 
 At present.' 
 
 She laughed. It is soon done. Go out- 
 side and wait for me.' I went out to the fore- 
 castle. 
 
 Some ten years before I had built for me a 
 boat for sailing on the river. She was eighteen 
 feet in length, and not quite four feet in 
 breadth, light, and yet strong. I had rigged 
 her with a sprit-sail and a foresail, and I had 
 sailed or rowed her for many a hundred miles 
 upon the river. 
 
 She had accompanied us, moored aft, but 
 that morning I had brought her up to the fore- 
 castle, had put in her cushions and rugs, had 
 provisioned her for the day, and now, gay with 
 new paint, with sail shaking in the breeze and 
 pennant streaming, she awaited us. 
 
 ' How nice she looks ! ' said Lesbia, coming 
 out.
 
 140 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 c She is as good as she is pretty,' I replied. 
 ' I never had an accident in her, and this river 
 is called dangerous to sail in. Are you all 
 ready ? ' 
 
 She nodded and stepped into the boat. I 
 took my place beside her. Po Chon cast off 
 the moorings and we were free. 
 
 Where are we going ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' Anywhere,' I answered, drawing in the 
 sheet while the boat gathered way ; ' the river 
 and the day are ours. First we will sail away 
 ahead into our solitude ; then we will bathe ; 
 then we will do whatever you like.' 
 
 She clapped her hands. 
 
 The cool north breeze from the abode of 
 snow came down the river crisping its ripples ; 
 our sails filled out. With a rustle and a lap 
 the water slipped beside us. After the still- 
 ness and formlessness of the raft we seemed to 
 have come on board a thing of life and beauty. 
 We rushed fast down the river. 
 
 ' What is her name ? ' 
 
 ' What does that mean ? ' 
 
 ' It is a water-insect, one that runs along the 
 surface.' 
 
 c Yes, I know. Are you going to let me 
 steer ? ' 
 
 'I had not thought of it. Do you know 
 how ? ' 
 
 ' No. You can show me.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 141 
 
 4 1 think I '11 wait,' I answered. ' The breeze 
 is fresh, and I want to get on. When we 
 return, perhaps.' 
 
 She let her hand trail in the water, raised 
 it and let the jewel-drops fall back again ; she 
 laughed with all the abandon of a child. 
 
 ' Look out,' I said, c for a nice place to 
 bathe in.' 
 
 ' What sort of place ? ' 
 
 c A piece of water out of the main current, 
 with a sandy beach that we can land on.' 
 
 ' The sails,' she said, ' are in my way. I 
 think I '11 go into the front.' 
 
 ' It is generally called the bows,' I said. 
 4 All right, go up. 
 
 She rose and stumbled up the boat till she 
 came into the bows, then waved to me and 
 sat down and leant over. The boat didn't 
 trim so well, but Lesbia didn't care for that. 
 She liked to be alone for a little while and 
 watch and think. 
 
 For an hour we ran on. The raft was far 
 behind, quite out of sight ; there were forests 
 on each side. We were alone, as utterly alone 
 as if we had stepped out of the present into the 
 early ages of the world. Nature in all her 
 virgin beauty was round us, and above the blue. 
 
 ' Oh, oh ! ' she suddenly cried, and pointed. 
 ' What are these ? ' 
 
 They were a school of river-porpoises mak- 
 ing their way to higher waters, They leapt
 
 142 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 and gambolled as they passed. How all wild 
 things love playing. The wavelets laugh, the 
 fishes leap ; the flowers and leaves and grasses 
 dance and sway and tremble in the breeze ; the 
 birds soar up and drop, or chase each other 
 through the woods in hide-and-seek. 
 
 Two otters passed, swimming and diving 
 in their perfect poetry of motion. 
 
 Still we held on, until at last we came abreast 
 a little bay below an island. The water was 
 almost still and the sandy shore was smooth 
 and golden. I steered into the bay and dropped 
 the sails. 
 
 Now,' I said, ' come along. We '11 dive 
 from here and swim ashore.' 
 
 But the boat ? ' 
 
 ' She '11 be all right, she '11 hardly drift. I 
 will swim back again and get her.' 
 
 Lesbia dropped her cloak and stood up like 
 a statue clear against the light. We dived 
 together. There are few pleasures greater than 
 to feel cool waters close round you, when the 
 naiad holds you in her arms and kisses you all 
 over. Then we struck out for the shore. 
 Lesbia swam with vigour, springing to every 
 thrust of her white legs. In the race she nearly 
 beat me ; as it was we made a dead-heat. 
 
 * I like the diving best,' she said. ' Let us 
 swim back and climb into the boat and dive.' 
 
 So we swam back, but climbing into the 
 boat was not so easy. When you catch hold
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 143 
 
 of the gunwale to pull you up it gives, and 
 when you throw yourself upon it the edges 
 hurt. At last after an effort I got in, and 
 then I pulled in Lesbia. After that we dived 
 alternately, one staying in the boat to help the 
 diver back. I had no idea that Lesbia was so 
 strong. As her arms closed about me to pull me 
 up they were firm and hard beneath their tender 
 skin ; she felt like rubber gloved in white satin. 
 Oh, how we laughed and dived and splashed. 
 
 At last we sat down exhausted, Lesbia on 
 the seat, I on the gunwale, and dripped water. 
 
 4 Lesbia,' I said presently in a satisfied tone, 
 4 1 have solved one of my problems.' 
 
 4 What problem ? ' she asked curiously. 
 
 4 One of those problems in natural history 
 I told you of,' I answered. 
 
 1 Which one ? ' 
 
 4 1 told you I was anxious to know if the 
 white on your shoulder blades came off. I 
 have discovered it doesn't,' I said, gently 
 rubbing her shining skin where the bathing- 
 dress had left it to be admired. 
 
 She only sniffed. 
 
 4 It is a wonderful thing, the human skin,' I 
 said reflectively. * It fits so well, and yet is loose 
 and comfortable. It is comfortable, isn't it ? ' 
 
 4 Quite, thanks when it is left alone.' 
 
 4 It is good protection against the weather, 
 against the heat and cold. We should get on 
 badly without it. It keeps out intruders.'
 
 144 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' Not all,' said Lesbia suggestively. 
 
 ' It is thinner in some places than others. 
 I wonder why that is.' 
 
 No answer from Lesbia. 
 
 ' And it is ornamental. There are blue 
 veins that cross it here and there ; it is so 
 white, yet when you pinch it a beautiful pink 
 colour comes at once.' 
 
 I was so interested in my natural history 
 studies that I forgot that the specimen might 
 have feelings. But apparently she had, for 
 she gave a sudden jump that entirely upset 
 the balance of the boat. I wasn't prepared 
 and I went in backwards, so that naturally I 
 swallowed a great deal of water before I rose 
 to the top again. Then I saw Lesbia looking 
 over the boat and laughing till she choked. 
 
 ' Good-bye,' I said with injured dignity. 
 c You 've thrown me over, so I am off. You 
 can bring the boat ashore yourself.' Then I 
 struck out for land. 
 
 Lesbia is not a good boatwoman. When 
 she tried to raise the sail in order to sail ashore, 
 she only tangled herself up in the sheet to 
 such an extent that I thought I should have 
 to swim back and disentangle her. However, 
 she got free. Then she tried to row, but 
 using only one oar she made the Deebo turn 
 round and round until the poor water-insect 
 was so giddy it didn't know whether it was 
 travelling upon its keel or its gunwale. How-
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 145 
 
 ever, eventually they drifted ashore, but when 
 I approached Lesbia jumped out and fled. It 
 was in vain. I pursued, and quickly I caught 
 her, for I am a much faster runner than Lesbia. 
 
 * They sat them down upon the yellow sand 
 Between the sun and moon upon the shore, 
 And sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, 
 Of child and wife and slave ; but evermore 
 Most weary seemed the sea, weary the oar, 
 Weary the wandering fields of barren foam. 
 Then some one said, " Our island home 
 
 Is far beyond the sea, we will no longer roam." ' 
 
 Therefore we sought a place to rest in and 
 have lunch. It was a beautiful place we found, 
 a little dell wherein a stream came murmuring 
 to the river. Trees and great creepers made a 
 deep green gloom broken with flickering lights. 
 
 * Here are cool mosses deep, 
 
 And through the moss the ivies creep ; 
 
 And in the stream the long leaved flowers weep ; 
 
 And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.' 
 
 For we had come into 
 
 ' a land 
 
 In which it seemed always afternoon. 
 All round the coast the languid air did swoon 
 Breathing like one that hath a weary dream. 
 Full faced above the valley stood the moon, 
 And like a downward smoke the slender stream 
 Adown the cliff to fall and pause and fall did seem.' 
 
 In that nook we had entered into the inti- 
 macy of the woods. There were pigeons there, 
 who flew from tree to tree, seen only when 
 they moved, for when they rested their green 
 
 K
 
 146 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 plumage blended with the leaves. There were 
 imperial pigeons perched far up, whose moan 
 passed through the forest. A jungle cock in 
 all his war-paint, crimson and gold and black, 
 ran out and looked at us and crowed. Like 
 spurts of flame fire-finches darted past, and a 
 blue chameleon stealthily walked round his tree 
 and stared at us with great unwinking eyes. 
 
 So we had lunch. And afterwards we did 
 not talk, 
 
 * But propt on beds of amaranth and moly 
 How sweet (while warm airs lull us blowing lowly), 
 With half-dropt eyelid still 
 Beneath a heaven dark and holy ; 
 To watch the long, bright river drawing slowly 
 His waters from the purple hill ; 
 To hear the dewy echoes calling 
 From cave to cave through the thick-twined vine ; 
 To watch the emerald-coloured waters falling 
 Through many a woven acanthus wreath divine.' 
 
 Had he been here before us, or is it we who 
 have stepped into the land of fairy, where 
 the poets live ? 
 
 'Yes, that is it,' low murmured Lesbia in 
 my ear. ' And you will tell me fairy tales to 
 make me sleep.' 
 
 I took her in my arms ; she lay quite still 
 and murmured in my ear : 
 
 * How sweet it were ever to seem, 
 Falling asleep in a half dream ; 
 To dream and dream like yonder amber light, 
 That will not leave the myrrh bush on the height, 
 To hear each other's whispered speech.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 147 
 
 ' Tell me your tales of fairy land.' She closed 
 her eyes. I laid my lips close to her ear. 
 
 c Once upon a time,' I said, c long, long ago, 
 life was more rude than it is now ; there was 
 but little civilisation and no factories. Yet 
 men were happier than they are now, because 
 they saw the truth. They saw how the world 
 was, and they knew God. They knew that 
 God was not in some heaven, but in this 
 world, that He lived in the stars, the sun, in 
 all life there is ; that He walked in the waters 
 and the wind ; that all life, no matter what 
 nor where, was His, was Him. They knew 
 that God lived in the world, which was His 
 garment, that your soul and mine are particles 
 of Him. 
 
 They saw this, how, I know not, but they 
 saw and said it. They spoke in simple lan- 
 guage, for their words were few, and they used 
 imagery. They said there was spirit in the 
 sun, in clouds and winds, that there were 
 naiads in the streams, and fauns in all the 
 forests. That was their way of saying that 
 the world is all alive. They felt the life in 
 all things. All men saw this, because it's 
 true. Their fairy tales are true.' 
 
 She opened eyes of wonder on me as I spoke. 
 
 ' Do not you know and feel it 's true ? ' I 
 said. ' Look at 
 
 " the golden light 
 That will not leave the myrrh bush on the height "
 
 148 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 or hear the river sing its slumber-song. Are 
 these dead things that do that ? ' 
 
 'I know,' she said, C I know.' 
 
 ' And there were greater seers,' I said, ' who 
 said that all this life, that which lay in light, 
 in wind, in stream, in trees, in animals, and 
 man, was really one. Though it seemed many, 
 it was one, one God, who lived and made 
 the world, His world, lived in it as your soul 
 in you.' 
 
 4 Tell on,' she said. 
 
 'They knew too that this Soul, this God, 
 is Love, and that He never dies. He is all 
 Love there is. Every love we feel is part of 
 God. He is Immortal, and He works to make 
 His garment more befitting Him, more beauti- 
 ful for ever. Our souls are part of God, and 
 this world is our world for ever.' 
 
 ' Why did they ever forget so wonderful a 
 truth ? ' she said. 
 
 ' Priests tried to kill it, priests of all kinds.' 
 
 ' Is it all dead ? ' 
 
 ' No, no,' I said, ' truth never dies. It rises 
 ever anew, despite those who would slay it. 
 Look in this country. They have no priests, 
 and therefore they see this truth and they are 
 happy. Francis d'Assisi saw it, and many 
 others. It will rise again. Truth never dies. 
 It sleeps maybe a while and rises.' 
 
 ' Thank you,' she said, ' my husband,' and 
 she closed her eyes in happiest thought and
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 149 
 
 sleep. I felt her heart beat unto mine and her 
 warm glow come into me. 
 
 I did not sleep. Thoughts came and went 
 within my brain, thoughts of this truth so 
 obvious and so simple, thoughts of the foolish- 
 ness of men. Priests try to kill it, that they 
 may make themselves as God. Think of it, 
 think of it. 
 
 And scientific men try to kill it. Why, I 
 do not know, perhaps out of sheer blindness. 
 
 Yet if they saw their own science truly they 
 would know that this is true. They work 
 out a scheme of evolution in details more or 
 less true, and do not see that by the very fact 
 that they postulate the evolution of all things 
 they postulate a soul in all things. Evolution 
 is movement towards the accomplishment of a 
 purpose ; can energy do that ? Action and 
 reaction of energy are equal. The law of all 
 energy is to dissipate itself, to make an equili- 
 brium where there is neither heat nor cold 
 nor light nor dark nor anything at all. The 
 power that counterbalances this and concen- 
 trates energy again is life. Nothing but Life 
 does this. If, then, after immemorial time 
 the sun still shines, the water flows, the 
 breezes move, it is because in them is Life. 
 Nothing could be more certain than this 
 truth, that Life, in some way we do not 
 understand, permeates and inhabits all things, 
 has created all things and maintains them.
 
 1 50 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 Are scientific men but bats and moles that 
 they cannot see the inevitable conclusion of 
 their own premises ? Can they not see that 
 the legends and the fairy tales of the old 
 world that they denounce as falsehoods are the 
 truest of the true ? 
 
 Priests and scientific men, not science, are 
 both the same in this ; they cannot see the 
 truth that lies before them. They dare not, 
 they have closed their eyes. Priests banish 
 God, and scientific men deny Him. Yet God 
 lives in this world. He is the World Soul. 
 All things are but His garment, that ever 
 changing dress, that through death is ever 
 young. It changes, and is in itself nothing, 
 therefore the East has called it maya or 
 illusion, because of its want of permanence. 
 What lives is Life, that makes this garment 
 for itself to wear in fashions changing to- 
 wards a far-off, dreamed perfection. But the 
 Life is God, and God is Love unchangeable 
 for ever in this world. 
 
 The Greeks saw this as all early people did 
 before their eyes were blinded and they said 
 it beautifully. But no one now can read their 
 legends. Truth has departed from us, and 
 there is no truth within us to echo to that in 
 the legends. Yet consider this. In the be- 
 ginning the Titans, Oceanus, and Tithys, that 
 is, pure elemental forces, ruled the sea, but they
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 151 
 
 were conquered by Neptune and Amphitrite. 
 A soul had come into the sea and is there 
 still for all who look under the surface. 
 
 ' Great God, I 'd rather be 
 
 A Pagan, suckled in a creed outworn, 
 So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 
 
 Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn, 
 Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, 
 
 And hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.' 
 
 Well, he that hath eyes to see and ears to 
 hear, he still can see and hear.
 
 CHAPTER XI
 
 ' The stars of midnight shall be dear 
 To her, and she shall bend her car 
 In many a secret place, 
 Where rivulets have their wayward round ; 
 And beauty born of murmuring sound 
 Shall pass into her face.' 
 
 WORDSWORTH.
 
 XI 
 
 E wake at last, as it is time to 
 go back to the raft, but when 
 we come down to the river 
 the boat is gone. 
 
 I look at my husband, and he 
 looks at me ; dismay is in my face, in his a 
 mixture of surprise and amusement. Then he 
 looks up and down along the river. There is 
 the mark of her bows where she was beached 
 on the sand, but no sign whatever of the 
 Water-Insect herself. The river is perfectly 
 bare, no boat nor anything in sight. A 
 sense of the most profound desolation comes 
 over me. 
 
 He only gives a whistle. 
 
 ' What do you think has happened ? ' I 
 ask. ' Has some one stolen it ? ' 
 
 He shakes his head. ' No one would steal 
 it. The boat would be useless to any one 
 except me. No Burman could manage it. 
 Their boats are quite different. ' 
 
 c What, then, has happened ? '
 
 156 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' I can only suppose,' he says, looking 
 whimsically at me, c that she was so upset by 
 the way you treated her that she has lost her 
 head and bolted.' 
 
 4 Oh don't,' I say, catching his arm, ' don't 
 make fun of me. I am nearly crying as it is.' 
 
 For I am frightened. Never before have I 
 been lost. In England you couldn't get lost 
 if you tried. Never before have I been home- 
 less and seen no prospect of getting home. 
 The raft must be twenty miles ahead. It 
 passed when we were at lunch. And there is 
 no village in sight, nothing but hills and forest. 
 Where shall we have dinner and sleep ? 
 
 4 How did it happen ? ' I ask again. 
 
 4 1 think,' he says seriously, ' that there was 
 one of those sudden rises of the river of which 
 I know no explanation. It will rise or fall 
 sometimes a foot or so, just like a tide, and then 
 return to its former level. Perhaps these rises 
 are caused by earthquakes, of which there are 
 many here, which you do not notice, or there 
 may be some other explanation. I think the 
 river rose, floated the boat away, and fell again.' 
 
 4 And what are we to do ? ' 
 
 ' Well,' he says, ' let 's sit down and think 
 it out.' 
 
 We sit down upon the highest part of the 
 sand-bank, so that we can watch the river and 
 see anything that passes. But there is nothing, 
 only the early evening light on hill, on forest,
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 157 
 
 and on river. We might be the only people 
 in the world. 
 
 ' We are shipwrecked,' he says, ' only in a 
 totally new way. Our ship has not foundered, 
 only abandoned us ; we are on a river, not a sea, 
 and you are with me. I never heard of a man 
 being shipwrecked with his bride before. It is 
 a great improvement on the old method.' 
 
 ' Not for the bride,' I say. 
 
 ' Would you have me shipwrecked alone ? ' 
 he asks. 
 
 ' No, no,' I say, c if anything is to happen to 
 you, let it happen to me too, now and always.' 
 
 He pats my arm. ' Nothing more serious 
 than perhaps a night *a la belle etoile can happen 
 to either of us,' he answers. 
 
 ' What must we do ? ' 
 
 4 Well, we must do the proper thing,' he 
 says. ' When people are shipwrecked, there is 
 a certain orthodox routine that they must 
 follow. At least, all the best authorities do so, 
 and in such a strait we must not be unorthodox. 
 Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson 
 are the text-books on such matters. Let us 
 follow them.' 
 
 ' I have forgotten what they did.' 
 
 He wrinkles up his forehead to recall his 
 boyhood's memories. * First we must rejoice 
 at having escaped where so many were lost.' 
 
 ' No one is lost but us,' I say dolefully, * and 
 we haven't escaped yet.'
 
 158 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 4 No, so we had better omit that for the 
 present. The next is to reconnoitre our 
 neighbourhood.' 
 
 4 We have done that already : a sand-bank, 
 a river, and any quantity of forest is all 
 there is.' 
 
 4 Satisfactory so far. Lots of water to drink. 
 Our predecessors had difficulty about that. 
 Next we take an inventory of our possessions, 
 first of our clothes.' 
 
 4 A bathing-suit, a dressing-gown, a straw 
 hat, and sandals for each,' I say tragically. 
 ' Also two rugs.' 
 
 * Not a very dressy set-out, but enough. 
 Now for provisions.' 
 
 4 The remains of our lunch,' I say. 
 
 * Two cold snipe ; some fruit ; half a bottle 
 of wine and some biscuits : those for both of 
 us ; six cigars for me and one cigarette for you. 
 For implements two table-knives, two forks, 
 two spoons, some plates, two tumblers and a 
 corkscrew.' 
 
 ' Oh,' I say, * what use is a corkscrew with- 
 out bottles ? ' 
 
 4 Can't tell yet,' he answers. 4 Crusoe would 
 have found a use for it, therefore we must. 
 Is there no more ? ' 
 
 4 Nothing.' 
 
 He looks at me reproachfully. 4 Lesbia,' 
 he says, 4 you are not playing fair. You 
 are concealing and keeping for your own
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 159 
 
 use implements that should be put into the 
 common stock.' 
 
 ' I 'm not,' I say indignantly. 
 
 ' You are,' he affirms. ' You have some iron 
 wire that will do excellently for fish-hooks.' 
 
 For a moment I am puzzled ; then I say, 
 ' My hairpins ? ' 
 
 He nods. 
 
 4 You can't have them,' I say briefly ; ' they 
 are private property.' 
 
 He sighs resignedly. ' Then our inventory 
 is finished. It only remains now to make a 
 resolution.' 
 
 c What resolution ? ' 
 
 'To stay here till we are rescued.' 
 
 As there isn't anywhere to go, for I couldn't 
 walk through the forest, such a resolution seems 
 to me superfluous. However, he says it will 
 calm our minds to take it, so we do. Then 
 we carry it out. We sit and watch the river. 
 
 c What will become of the raft ? ' I ask. 
 
 ' I told Po Chon to go on to a certain village 
 about twenty-five miles below, and if we hadn't 
 rejoined by then to stop there till we did. He 
 will not know that we have lost the boat.' 
 
 ' What will become of the boat ? ' 
 
 ' Who knows ? It may strand anywhere or 
 go floating on.' 
 
 ' What will become of us ? ' 
 
 ' Some boat will pass and take us off", you 
 may be sure of that. I don't know why the
 
 160 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 river is so deserted just now. Generally there 
 are boats in sight all day.' 
 
 He seems so calm, so confident, so determined 
 to take it as a joke that I give in. I must 
 trust him, and I feel I can. But for better 
 company I sit close up to him, leaning against 
 him. He feels so strong, so calm. 
 
 c This is the way,' he says, ' that Spot and 
 Lady sit.' 
 
 So it is. I have often seen them in the 
 bows sitting together like this. And after all 
 there is a common nature runs through all of 
 us ; all life is in its essentials one. 
 
 The day draws on towards its ending. Skeins 
 of wild duck and geese pass down the river. 
 Egrets and cranes desert their fishing stands 
 and travel inland, long flights of parrots pass. 
 The day's work is done and everything goes 
 home but us. 
 
 The shadows rise and spread and still no boat. 
 
 At last a big one passes. But it is far away 
 by the other bank, and they do not hear or do 
 not heed our shouts. The crew are, he says, 
 no doubt at supper in the well of the boat, and 
 cannot hear nor see. It drifts along, and soon 
 is out of sight. The solitude becomes more 
 still and the dusk comes. 
 
 c Lesbia,' he says, ' it 's time for supper, then 
 to bed.' 
 
 ' There 's not much supper,' I say, 'and there 
 is no bed.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 161 
 
 ' The bed has to be made/ he answers ; ' I 
 will go and get the bedding. Will you stay 
 here ? ' 
 
 ' Where are you going ? ' I ask, alarmed. 
 
 ' Only to the forest. You will be all right 
 here. You aren't afraid.' 
 
 ' No-o,' I say, ' I am not afraid. But I 
 think I '11 come with you all the same.' 
 
 'Then come along.' 
 
 We go to the forest edge, and with a table- 
 knife he cuts dry grass and moss and ferns and 
 makes two big bundles. One he lifts on to 
 my head, the other he carries on his shoulder. 
 So laden, we return and find a sheltered hollow 
 in the sand. 
 
 'This is our bedroom,' he declares, 'and I 
 will be the housemaid and make the bed.' 
 
 He sets to work to dig out the dry sand and 
 make a trough. He does it with his hands 
 exactly as Spot digs a hole after a rat. It 
 makes me laugh to watch him. When it is 
 finished, he lines this with the grass and ferns, 
 the moss he places for a pillow. Then he 
 spreads one of our rugs upon the grass. 
 
 ' Behold your bed, madam,' he says, ' and 
 now for supper.' 
 
 We eat the remains of our lunch with'appe- 
 tite, drink the rest of the wine, and feel much 
 comforted. Then as a cool breeze begins to 
 pass it 's time for bed. 
 
 I go to bed first and he comes in beside me, 
 
 L
 
 1 62 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 We spread the other rug over us and pull down 
 more grass and dry, warm sand to cover us up. 
 We are as warm and cosy as can be, as close, 
 as close. The stars are watching us and laugh. 
 How big the stars are here, not like the tiny 
 diamond points of northern skies, but great 
 bright jewels hung low down in the immensity. 
 Orion, proud of his glorious belt, is on the 
 horizon, and overhead the Pleiades. I count 
 them and make thirteen. 
 
 ' Are you quite comfortable ? * 
 
 < Yes.' 
 
 ' And are you sleepy ? ' 
 ' I shall never be able to sleep,' I say, ' with 
 all these eyes upon me.' 
 
 < No ? ' 
 
 Two owls come past and cry ' Zee-gwet, 
 zee-gwet,' and flit away into the dark. A 
 sudden fear comes over me. My heart 
 grows cold ; my hold about my husband 
 tightens. 
 
 ' Listen,' I say, ' there 's something that 
 moves.' 
 
 He listens and shakes his head. c It is 
 the ripple on the beach. What did you 
 fear?' 
 
 'Tigers.' 
 
 4 They will not come,' he says. 
 
 ' You are sure ? ' 
 
 ' Quite sure.' 
 
 4 We are quite safe ? '
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 163 
 
 'As safe as on the raft.' 
 
 But still I do not feel inclined for sleep. 
 The great spaces of the night trouble me. I 
 want four walls to shut me in. I cannot even 
 shut my eyes. 
 
 ' Yes,' he says when I tell him, ' I was 
 like that. But now I am accustomed 
 to the night. I love the stars ; I have 
 slept out so often ; but never like this like 
 this.' 
 
 'Tell me another tale,' I say, 'to make me 
 sleep.' 
 
 ' Baby of mine,' he laughs. 
 
 But I insist, and at last he says : ' Have 
 you ever read the story of " The Sleeping 
 Beauty " ? ' 
 
 ' Of course I have,' I answer. ' As a child 
 I read it in a fairy book, and I have read 
 "The Day Dream."' 
 
 ' And understood it ? ' 
 
 ' What is there to understand ? It is a 
 fairy story, that is all.' 
 
 'It is a legend, true,' he says, ' of all the 
 world, of every woman that has ever lived or 
 will live.' 
 
 ' Then true of me ? ' 
 
 ' Most true of you,' he says. 
 
 I lie a moment thinking silently. 'Tell 
 me the tale,' I say. 
 
 He tells it me, dropping the words into my 
 ear like soft music.
 
 1 64 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' The charmed wood,' he says, ' is a girl's 
 heart, where all passions sleep, where no wind 
 ever moves, where understanding never comes. 
 To a girl's eyes the world is meaningless ; she 
 has not felt the purpose of the world nor 
 heard its music. Evil and good are words 
 but words and life and death. Nothing can 
 reach her shut in that enchanted wood. The 
 world is but a dream to her because she does 
 not understand.' 
 
 I nod. ' Yes, it is so,' I whisper. 
 
 ' Until into that wood, her heart, there 
 comes a Prince.' 
 
 1 A Prince,' I cry, * with joyful eyes 
 And fleeter footed than the fox.' 
 
 He laughs. ' You know the story now ? 
 Then tell it me.' 
 
 ' I know, I know,' I say. ' Yes, it is true. 
 The Prince comes in and takes her.' 
 
 ' Where ? ' 
 
 4 Into the world,' I answer. c She goes 
 with him wherever he leads her : 
 
 " And on her lover's arm she leant, 
 
 And round her waist she felt it fold, 
 And far across the hills they went 
 
 In that new world which is the old : 
 
 Across the hills and far away, 
 Beyond their utmost purple rim, 
 
 Beyond the night, across the day 
 
 Thro' all the world she followed him." '
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 165 
 
 I feel his arms close closer round me. 4 Go 
 on,' he says, ' and tell me what she sees.' 
 
 4 It is the same old world,' I say ; 4 the hills, 
 the woods, the people are the same. Yet the 
 world is new, because she sees into its heart ; 
 she loves, she knows, she understands. Her 
 heart beats now through his, with the world's 
 heart ; the love that made all things, that is 
 all things, eternal in the world, awakes within 
 her.' 
 
 c It is her,' he says, ' her real self.' 
 
 4 It is her soul,' I say. 
 
 4 It is in all the world,' he answers. 4 Sweet- 
 heart, look up to the stars. Are you now 
 afraid of them ? ' 
 
 I am not. They are eyes that laugh in 
 answer to my laugh, that love as I love too. 
 
 4 They are God's eyes,' I say. ' I love 
 them.' 
 
 4 Now look at me,' he says. 
 
 I look at him. 
 
 1 Your eyes too are God's eyes,' he says, 
 4 for love shines in them and all love is 
 God.' 
 
 I sleep and wake sometimes, feeling afraid 
 of the strangeness all about. 
 
 I move and touch him, and I see the stars 
 above. I sleep again. 
 
 In the early dawn I wake again and see the 
 pearly light growing upon the mountains far
 
 1 66 
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 above. I see the stars grow dim and sleep 
 again. 
 
 ' And o'er them many a sliding star 
 
 And many a merry wind was borne, 
 And streamed through many a golden bar 
 The twilight melted into morn.'
 
 CHAPTER XII
 
 ' I have fought my fight, I have lived my life, 
 
 I have drunk my share of wine : 
 From Trier to Coin there was never a knight 
 
 Led a merrier life than mine.' 
 
 KINGSLEY.
 
 XII 
 
 WAS aware through my closed 
 eyelids that the dawn was 
 come and that it was time to 
 get up, but I didn't feel in- 
 clined to move. For one 
 thing there was nothing to get 
 up for, no clothes to dress in, no tea to drink, 
 and then Lesbia was still asleep. 
 
 I had experience that she did not like to be 
 woke up too early. I had no idea that any one 
 could be so lazy as Lesbia, so ready to go to bed 
 early and get up late as she is. She liked put- 
 ting out the candle at both ends. I disapproved 
 of that, but my disapproval didn't affect her as it 
 should, and by experience I knew she made re- 
 prisals. I was beginning to have a great respect 
 for Lesbia. So I lay still. 
 
 Then I heard a sound, at first it was a very 
 faint and, distant sound, but growing gradually 
 nearer and clearer. It was a footstep coming 
 along the sand. 
 
 It approached, it stopped, and the clear 
 morning silence was broken by a laugh, a
 
 1 70 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 cheery, mellow, mirth-provoking chuckle that 
 rumbled within some capacious chest and woke 
 me up completely. 
 
 I opened my eyes, and there before me stood 
 a man. He was a big strong man, his attitude 
 was careless, his legs were well apart, one hand 
 held a gun, the other rested on his hip. His 
 face was round and ruddy, his eye was blue, 
 and on his lips there lay the ripple of a laugh 
 as of a happy, brave, and careless nature 
 bubbling to the surface. 
 
 He looked at me and I at him. 
 
 ' Hallo ! ' I said. 
 
 ' Hallo ! ' he answered. ' This is a surprise. 
 It 's Gallic.' 
 
 'Just so,' I said. c It 's me. That 's natural 
 enough, but what are you doing here ? ' 
 
 He looked at me and then at Lesbia asleep, 
 then back at me again. From me his glance 
 passed over the sand-bank and back. 
 
 ' Hum ! Natural, did you say ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' The most natural thing in life,' I answered, 
 4 that I am here. But you ! that is another 
 matter. Why, when I said " Good-bye " to 
 you last it was in Paris.' 
 
 ' True,' and he nodded. c We had dined in 
 a restaurant on the " Boul Mich " and after 
 dinner . . .' 
 
 'Then what do you mean,' I interposed 
 hastily, c by turning up like this without notice 
 on a sand-bank in the middle of Asia ? '
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 171 
 
 e Well/ he replied reflectively, ' it is like 
 this. I return from leave, I am posted to 
 Upper Burma, I take ten days' holiday at 
 Christmas-time for a shoot along the river. 
 I leave my camp before the dawn to seek for 
 wild geese and duck. I travel down the river 
 in a boat. I pass a sand-bank. It seems quite an 
 ordinary bank, no notice up nor anything to 
 distinguish it from other banks. But I see 
 upon that sand two objects.' 
 
 ' Objects ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' Objects,' he answered, ' of natural history. 
 Round objects, one dark, one golden-red. I 
 look at them but cannot make them out. 
 They say " It 's ghosts." I say " It 's geese, 
 two totally new geese, or perhaps pheasants, 
 one very fine in plumage." So I take my gun 
 and land to add them to my collection.' 
 
 c Most kind of you,' I said. 
 
 c Don't mention it. When I come near, 
 the objects resolve themselves into two heads 
 belonging apparently to human beings buried 
 in the sand. They seem to be perfectly alive.' 
 
 ' We 're quite alive,' I answered. One of 
 us was also kicking at intervals, but I didn't 
 mention that. 
 
 ' The short plumaged bird turns out to be 
 a man, an old friend of mine named Gallio. 
 The golden pheasant ' 
 
 ' Is Mrs. Gallio.' 
 
 He bowed in stately fashion. ' Accept my
 
 172 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 best congratulations. I did not know that 
 you were married.' 
 
 ' Since three days ago,' I answered. 
 
 I wondered why Lesbia kicked specially 
 hard just then. 
 
 ' And you have chosen this sand-bank to 
 spend your honeymoon on ? Most natural I 
 admit. Have you bought it, or only rented 
 it for a time ? ' 
 
 ' Neither,' I answered. 
 
 ' Merely annexed it. I see. I think you 
 might introduce me, Gallic.' 
 
 ' My wife is asleep,' I answered. ' You can 
 see that for yourself. It 's obvious.' 
 
 It certainly was obvious, on the surface. 
 Her eyes were closed, her face half hidden by 
 her arms, her lips half parted. But whether 
 the sleep extended far down into Lesbia I had 
 my doubts. It didn't seem to affect her legs, 
 for instance. 
 
 'You should put up a name-board,' he 
 suggested, 'to keep off intruders.' 
 
 ' It is not necessary,' I answered. ' We do 
 not own this bank. In fact, although we 
 may seem to you and even to ourselves to 
 be here established in this sand, we aren't. 
 Appearances are deceptive. We are really 
 nowhere.' 
 
 The Cavalier stared. ' What, nowhere ? 
 You are not anywhere at all.' 
 
 'Just so ; we are lost,' I explained.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 173 
 
 His surprise turned to a look of deepest 
 sympathy. ' What ! Lost ? ' 
 
 e Certainly. L-o-s-t lost, you know.' 
 
 ' But how lost ? Who lost you ? ' 
 
 ' We lost ourselves, or rather,' I corrected, 
 6 OUT boat lost us. We are two shipwrecked 
 mariners in fact. 
 
 He stared about over the sands. ' I see no 
 shipwreck/ 
 
 ' Well,' I said, ' never mind,' for I felt a 
 vigorous nudge. c I '11 tell you afterwards. 
 It 's our time for getting up. If you '11 go 
 back to your boat, we '11 soon come down and 
 join you. Perhaps you can give us tea.' 
 
 4 1 can,' he said. 
 
 'And a lift to somewhere.' 
 
 c With the greatest pleasure.' 
 
 c Then au revoir,' I said. 
 
 His laugh came back, he glanced from me 
 to sleeping Lesbia, took off his hat and made 
 a sweeping bow, then said : 
 
 ' I will await you. And I look forward to 
 make Mrs. Gallic's acquaintance.' Then he 
 marched away. 
 
 As soon as his broad back was turned, 
 Lesbia opened one eye, and cautiously recon- 
 noitred with it. Seeing that the coast was 
 clearing fast she opened the other, and then 
 said quickly : 
 
 ' Who 's that ? ' 
 
 ' An old friend of mine. He 's Irish.'
 
 174 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' He reminds me of some one. Who ? ' 
 
 'The Laughing Cavalier.' 
 
 Her face lit up. ' And so he is, just like. 
 How awful.' 
 
 It was quite evident that her second sentence 
 didn't follow the first. It was a consequent 
 without apparent precedent. I was aware that 
 Lesbia's mind worked like that sometimes, but 
 mine was not agile enough to follow, so I had 
 to ask : 
 
 ' In what way awful ? ' 
 
 ' For him to find us here.' 
 
 ' Not awful at all,' I answered. ' Where 
 would you have him find us ? If he found us 
 anywhere he was bound to find us here. He 
 couldn't discover us in a place where we were 
 not.' 
 
 But Lesbia only gave me a glance of pure 
 contempt. 
 
 ' Besides, he never discovered you at all. 
 You were pretending to be asleep,' I added. 
 
 I don't know what there was in this simple 
 and true remark to make Lesbia furious. I 
 can't think what she thought she gained by 
 pretending to be asleep when it was quite 
 obvious she wasn't. Here was another respect 
 in which Lesbia's mind was unfathomable to 
 me. I had some idea that Lesbia thought 
 there would have been something embarrassing 
 in the Cavalier's finding us in our sand-bed but 
 for her presence of mind in pretending to be
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 175 
 
 asleep. That saved the situation. Anyhow, 
 her eyes flashed fire, but she was silent. 
 
 4 Why did you kick so much ? ' I asked. 
 
 4 Why did you want to tell him we were 
 just married ? ' she replied. 
 
 4 Because it 's true,' I answered simply. 
 
 4 As if that were any reason,' she muttered 
 to herself. ' How like a man.' 
 
 All this time I was getting up, pulling out 
 grass and sand and rugs, and, finally, Lesbia. 
 It 's always a labour to get Lesbia out of bed. 
 But at last I got her loose and stood her up, 
 and then I looked at her. 
 
 ' Lesbia,' I said, 'you are untidy.' 
 
 She examined herself as best she could with- 
 out a glass, both back and front. She saw the 
 sand and leaves upon her cloak, she felt the 
 mosses in her hair. 
 
 And then she turned on me. 
 
 4 You are no better,' she said. 
 
 4 No ; but I think I bear it better,' I 
 answered mildly. * I can carry it off. You 
 can't. I am not so dependent on my appearance.' 
 
 She thought a minute. * Go down,' she 
 said, ' and borrow from your friend two towels, 
 some soap, a clothes-brush and a hair-brush, 
 and come back. I suppose he has such things, 
 even if he is an old Master and just descended 
 from a frame.' 
 
 4 1 expect he has,' I answered. 4 Anything 
 more ? '
 
 176 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' A looking-glass.' 
 
 ' Your vanity carries you away,' I remon- 
 strated. 
 
 c I won't go to the boat unless you bring 
 them,' she declared, and sat down determinedly 
 upon the sand. ' I 'd sooner stay here until I 
 die than go like this.' 
 
 So, as I didn't wish that Lesbia should die 
 for want of such trifles, I went down and 
 borrowed the things. When I came back, she 
 gave me orders. 
 
 ' Brush me,' she said. 
 
 I brushed her. 
 
 4 Now go and wet one towel and wash my 
 face and hands.' 
 
 I washed them. I liked washing them, 
 they were so pretty and so soft. 
 
 ' Now brush my hair.' 
 
 She sat down on a rug and turned her back 
 to me. When she let down her hair it fell 
 like molten gold about her shoulders and her 
 back. I brushed. It seemed to thrill my 
 every nerve as I stroked and straightened it. 
 
 ' Lesbia,' I said, 'my dream is now fulfilled.' 
 
 ' What dream ? ' 
 
 1 You remember I told you about red hair.' 
 But she only sniffed. 
 
 I could have brushed for days, but as soon 
 as all the leaves and moss were well brushed 
 out, and her hair was clean and bright, she 
 took it from me. With those secreted hair-
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 177 
 
 pins, that by all precedent should have been 
 fish-hooks long ago, she did it up again in most 
 mysterious fashion. ' Now I am ready,' she 
 said. 
 
 ' But I ? ' 
 
 She looked at me and laughed, gave me a 
 hasty brush ; then saying, * It doesn't matter 
 about you you are a man and say that you 
 can bear it I want my tea,' she marched 
 me off. 
 
 I wondered how she and the Cavalier would 
 meet and would get on. I would have liked 
 that every one of my old friends should be a 
 brother to her and she to them a sister. But 
 would she, could she and they ? 
 
 However, as regards the present, my fears 
 were soon set at rest. As soon as he saw us 
 coming, he came to meet us, but neither by 
 look nor word did he betray that he had seen 
 Lesbia before. 
 
 ' Indade,' he said, with a bow and smile, 
 ' this is an unexpected pleasure. Gallic I 
 know of old ; it would never surprise me if 
 I met him anywhere. But to meet a fairy 
 princess too here in the forest.' 
 
 Lesbia smiled. ' An unconventional and a 
 hungry fairy, I 'm afraid,' she said. 
 
 ' The better for that,' he answered, and led 
 the way with her down to the shore. 
 
 His second boat with servants had arrived, 
 M
 
 178 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 and on the shore a table had been set out. 
 A fire near by showed there was cooking 
 going on. 
 
 ' I know you 're hungry ; I should be/ he 
 said. c There 's little to eat on sand-banks. 
 Breakfast is ready.' So we sat down. 
 
 It was an excellent breakfast that he gave 
 us, and we enjoyed it. Lesbia, let me never 
 hear you scoff again at men's material appetites. 
 You ate and ate. The morning sun shone on 
 us, and the waters sang as they went past. The 
 ceiling of our breakfast-room was heaven, the 
 walls were mountains, and earth was the floor. 
 
 When she 'd finished, she said, c Thank you 
 for such a meal. And thank you again for 
 coming out of your frame.' 
 
 The Cavalier looked blank. I don't think 
 he knew his likeness. 
 
 ' I 've often admired you,' Lesbia continued. 
 4 I 've often wished I 'd lived in the times when 
 you did. I never guessed you 'd come to life 
 again and meet us on a sand-bank and give us 
 breakfast.' 
 
 c Eh ? ' he said, turning to me for help. 
 
 4 Don't look to me,' I answered. ' Fight 
 your own battles. I have to.' 
 
 ' You looked so proud,' she continued, ' in 
 your lace collar. Where is your collar gone, 
 and your hat ? Only your laugh remains.' 
 
 Faith,' he said, ' and it 's the laugh will 
 follow the collar soon. What have I done ? '
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 179 
 
 ' Tell him,' I said ; so she told him, and he 
 laughed ; then said in injured tones : 
 
 ' The thafe to take my portrait and I not 
 looking. Pwhat did ye say the snap-shot 
 artist was ? ' 
 
 * Franz Hals.' 
 
 ' Sure, then, I '11 not forget him in my 
 prayers. But tell me now, where do you want 
 to go ? ' 
 
 * To join our raft, where our home is.' 
 ' Oh ! Then you have a home ? ' 
 
 ' Of course we have,' said indignant Lesbia. 
 ' Did you think we lived always in bathing- 
 dress and dressing-gown on sand-banks, and 
 trusted to chance for food ? ' 
 
 ' I didn't know,' he answered simply. ' I 
 know nothing about fairies. I supposed they 
 didn't need such things. Where is the raft ? ' 
 
 ' Below here somewhere. Where are you 
 bound for ? ' 
 
 ' To shoot along the river, and to Sagaing 
 for Christmas.' 
 
 'Just where we 're going,' said Lesbia, 'and 
 Christmas is only two days off.' Then with 
 a glance at me : ' Perhaps if a cavalier of such 
 renown as Mr. Hals will accept it, we could offer 
 him some hospitality, as our way is the same as 
 his. A breakfast such as this needs a requital.' 
 
 And so it was arranged. He was to take 
 us down the river to our raft and pass the day 
 with us. Next day we probably would reach
 
 i8o LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 Sagaing. We started soon, and the boatmen 
 rowed us down the river. 
 
 6 Why, there is the raft ! ' cried Lesbia as 
 we turned a bluff. 
 
 And there it was, moored to the bank above 
 a village. It looked quite calm although it 
 had lost its master and its mistress. A thin 
 film of smoke above the kitchen showed that 
 lunch was on the cook. 
 
 ' Oh, isn't it nice,' she said, and clasped 
 her hands, ' to see our home again, a roof and 
 walls and floor, clean clothes, a chair, a bed.' 
 
 ' Spoiled child of an effete civilisation,' I said. 
 
 She only laughed. ' I never was lost before. 
 I never valued a home before,' she said, ' as I 
 do the raft.' 
 
 c Sure, there 's the Deebo too,' said Hals. 
 
 And so she was, moored to the raft as if she 
 had never wandered, never lost us, never lost her- 
 self. She showed no sign of consciousness that 
 she had acted in any other way than a right- 
 minded boat should act. In fact, the two dogs 
 were the only people that evinced any pleasure 
 at our return. Po Chon received us with an 
 air of injury. Dinner, he said, last night had 
 been spoiled by our non-appearance ; the same 
 with breakfast this morning ; but lunch would 
 be ready soon. 
 
 I looked at Lesbia. 
 
 ' Make it for three,' she said ; and Po Chon 
 nodded.
 
 CHAPTER XIII
 
 'Women have lovers, but men have friends.' 
 
 GANGLER.
 
 XIII 
 
 >AITH, and it wasn't without 
 some doubt that I accepted the 
 Gallios' invitation to spend the 
 day and dine with them. ' Pat- 
 rick, my boy,' says I to myself, 
 ' you '11 have to be very careful. 
 New-married folk upon their honeymoon are 
 as tender as poached eggs, and as full of them- 
 selves as the sea is full of salt. You '11 have 
 to walk as gingerly as if every toe of you was 
 a corn and hurting. It 's praising God you 
 ought to be that your parents made an Irish- 
 man of you, and, like all the Irish, tactful as a 
 cat/ 
 
 And sure it was so. They looked, they 
 talked, they lived to one another, at one 
 another. Each spoke to me that the other 
 might hear, and when I spoke he looked at 
 her and she at him, as if to ask, ' There, what 
 do you think of that ? ' 
 
 But they didn't leave me out neither. It 's 
 as nice as nice can be that both were to me. 
 It was, ' Mr. Hals, you '11 take that easy-chair
 
 1 84 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 and that cushion and make yourself at home. 
 It was, ' Franz, don't smoke these black che- 
 roots of yours. Here are some good havanas, 
 try them, and have a drink as well.' 
 
 For its showing off they were, each to the 
 other, how good a host or hostess he or she 
 could be. I was their first guest, and they 
 coddled me as if I had been their first baby. 
 I don't say I didn't like it. But it was vexing 
 too. For each was saying in every tone and 
 act and look, not only to each other, but to 
 me, ' Sure marriage is a happy state. It 's 
 heaven. Poor bachelor, he doesn't know. How 
 ignorant he is and how unhappy. Let 's open 
 his blind eyes.' 
 
 Each wanted to drive down my throat what 
 a jewel was the other. Well, and I am not 
 saying either was wrong, am I ? Gallio has 
 always been a friend of mine, and as to Mrs. 
 Gallio when I first saw her in her dressing- 
 gown I thought her fine, but when I saw her 
 afterwards in a white muslin frock, with her 
 glorious hair and deep-blue eyes, why, I just 
 worshipped her. ' If she 's as nice as she is 
 pretty, it 's Gallio that is the lucky man,' 
 thinks I. 
 
 It was after tea that Mrs. Gallio got me. 
 I saw she wanted me, to talk about her hus- 
 band to me, as she could not do before his face. 
 Gallio was busy in his boat with a carpenter 
 impressed from a village we had passed. The
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 185 
 
 Deebo had suffered some damage when on her 
 own, had been up to some larks, I guess, and 
 left part of her false keel behind her some- 
 where. So Mrs. Gallio talked to me while 
 Gallic worked. 
 
 ' There 's one thing I cannot understand,' 
 says she, ' and it puzzles me. Perhaps, Herr 
 Hals, you can explain it.' 
 
 ' Of course I can,' says I. 
 
 ' It 's about Po Chon,' says she. ' He is 
 my husband's very old servant, and devoted to 
 him.' 
 
 ' That 's true,' says I. ' I 've known Po Chon 
 for many years, and a real good fellow he is. 
 There 's nothing he would not do for Gallic.' 
 
 'Yet,' says she, 'when we don't return last 
 night he doesn't seem to mind. He is not 
 anxious. He does not send the villagers to 
 look for us, nor come himself. Yet he knew 
 some accident must have happened, because 
 the boat drifted down.' 
 
 ' Aye, aye ; that 's queer,' says I, reflecting. 
 ' He didn't seem upset at all when we arrived.' 
 
 ' Not in the least,' says she. ' It might have 
 been all according to arrangement. How 's 
 that ? ' 
 
 ' Faith, and I do not know,' says I. ' It 's 
 queer. But here comes Po Chon, I '11 ask him.' 
 
 ' Perhaps my husband wouldn't like,' says she. 
 
 ' What ! Gallio ? He won't mind. Look 
 here, Po Chon,' says I ; ' when the empty
 
 1 86 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 boat drifted back last night, what did you 
 think had happened.' 
 
 ' An accident,' says he. 
 
 ' What sort of accident ? ' 
 
 ' How should I know ? ' with a grunt. 
 
 4 Did you suppose that they were drowned ? ' 
 asks I. 
 
 He stared. ' Drowned ? And how could 
 my Thakin be drowned ? ' 
 
 There 's no word to express his contempt 
 and surliness at such a question. 
 
 ' What does he say ? ' asks Mrs. Gallic. 
 
 'He thinks us fools,' says I, 'for supposing 
 anything could happen to your husband.' 
 
 ' But why ? ' says she. ' Ask him why ? ' 
 
 ' It 's fourteen years,' says he, ' since I have 
 been with the Thakin, and all that time he 
 has been having accidents. Up there in the 
 wild country the savages used to try and shoot 
 him. He gets lost in the jungle ; he falls off 
 his horse ; he nearly gets drowned ; he gets 
 fever and everything there is. He loses all 
 his money. He gets his camp burned, and 
 he loses everything more than once. He is 
 always nearly being dead.' 
 
 ' And never is quite ? * asks I. 
 
 c No ! ' says Po Chon with scorn. 
 
 4 Why not ? ' 
 
 Po Chon has been clearing away the tea- 
 things and putting the furniture right. He talks 
 usually with his head down, as if shy or sulky,
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 187 
 
 in short, curt sentences. But at this question of 
 mine he looks up fully in my face astonished. 
 
 ' Because of what 's written on his face,' says 
 he. 
 
 ' My husband's face,' says Mrs. Gallic, clasp- 
 ing her hands, when I translate. t What is it 
 that 's written on his face? Please ask him.' 
 
 But Po Chon only grumbles to himself. 
 ' What 's written on my Thakin's face ? Why, 
 every one can see what 's written. When he 
 goes into even a stranger village, the people see 
 it. The very children see it. To ask what 's 
 written, indeed ! ' He finished his work in a 
 contemptuous silence, and then disappeared. 
 
 ' What does he mean ? ' says she. 
 
 ' These people think,' says I, ' that a man's 
 fate is more or less settled before he 's born at 
 all, at all. And it 's not so wrong they are 
 neither, Mrs. Gallic. Sure, it 's a duke an 
 Irish duke, of course I would have been 
 born had I the choice, and not son of a poor 
 army surgeon, and it 's clever I would have 
 been and good looking. So I wouldn't have had 
 to work. But I couldn't help myself, you see.' 
 
 ' It 's true,' she says, reflecting ; ' fate does 
 much, not all.' 
 
 ' That 's what they mean,' I says ; ' that a 
 man's birth and parents and temperament and 
 education pretty well settle his hash for him. 
 But with Gallio it 's something more they 
 mean, I think.'
 
 1 88 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' What more ? ' 
 
 I shook my head. ' Faith, and I do not 
 know. But I remember now that when we 
 were in the same station years ago, I have heard 
 the people talk of your husband as having 
 something strange in his face. I 've heard 
 them say, " Look at his face. It 's not the 
 same as the faces of other Thakins." 
 
 ' What did they mean ? ' 
 
 'They never explained.' 
 
 ' It 's something secret, something mysterious, 
 something mystical,' says she, excited. ' Some 
 magic of the East.' 
 
 'Oh no,' says I. 'There isn't any magic 
 here. But the people are sensitive to character. 
 They have a sympathy and understanding we 
 don't have. They seem to feel and recognise 
 the inwardness of a man in a way we never 
 do. And there is something unusual in your 
 husband's face.' 
 
 ' Of course there is,' says she, as proud of 
 Gallio's face as any peahen of her husband's 
 tail. ' That 's why I married him.' 
 
 Just then Po Chon came back. ' Ask him,' 
 says she, ' if anything is written in my face.* 
 
 But Po Chon wasn't to be drawn. 
 
 ' What should be written,' he grumbles, not 
 even glancing at Mrs. Gallic, ' except that 
 she should marry my Thakin ? ' 
 
 I feared at first to tell her, lest she should be 
 offended, but she was not. She was delighted
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 189 
 
 and clapped her hands. 'Of course,' says she. 
 ' I share what 's written in his face. It is for 
 both.' 
 
 ' Maybe,' says I. ' But Po Chon 's right in 
 another way, Mrs. Gallic. There never was 
 a man so constantly in trouble as your husband. 
 If there 's no trouble at hand, he goes to look 
 for it. He 's never quiet.' 
 
 She looks quite soberly at me. c Yes, so I 
 have found out. He says the beauty of life 
 is its danger,' and she sighed. 
 
 ' Sure, and that 's true,' says I. 
 
 ' Are all men like that ? ' she asks. 
 
 ' All men who are menj says I. ' The 
 trousered things that shriek always for peace 
 and safety regardless of all else, they are not 
 men.' 
 
 ' But I like peace,' says she. 
 
 ' That 's true for you,' says I. ' Women 
 like peace and stir up war, and men like war, 
 but strive for peace.' 
 
 'That is a paradox,' says she. 
 
 'Maybe, but it's true,' says I. 'All the 
 wars I have been in, and all the wars I ever 
 heard of, public or private, came from women or 
 woman-minded men. It was a woman, for in- 
 stance, who ruined the Burmese empire. When 
 men get back their own again, there 's peace.' 
 
 ' How all you men despise us women ! ' says 
 she, and turns on me reproachful eyes of blue. 
 
 ' Patrick,' says I to myself, ' I ought to kick
 
 190 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ye, aye and I will when I get ye by yerself, 
 ye fool of a man. Tact of a cat ye have ! 
 tact of a hippopotamus more like, blunder- 
 ing out a silly truth like that. Ate dirt, ye 
 omadhaun, and be ashamed of yerself.' 
 
 * Madam,' says I, * even if that be true, there 
 is a truer truth, that whether men make peace 
 or war, or live or die, it 's all for you. Faith, 
 and ye 're worth it.' 
 
 The blue eyes puckered up into the jolliest 
 laugh. ' Herr Hals,' says she, ' I recognise again 
 the Cavalier I Ve known so long. That 's just 
 what he would have said.' 
 
 c And done.' 
 
 c I believe that too,' says she. 
 
 4 1 suppose,' says she, ' that you were with 
 my husband on the frontier.' 
 
 ' I was,' says I. ' That 's where we got to 
 know each other. Faith, and ye see things 
 about a man there ye don't anywhere else.' 
 
 ' What kind of things ? ' says she. 
 
 ' What 's inside of him,' says I. c In peace 
 ye see just the man's outside, the varnish and 
 lacquer and painted designs upon his cuticle. 
 War wears these off, and ye see the man.' 
 
 * It makes me cross,' says she, ' sometimes, 
 to think how much my husband lived before 
 he knew of me. It seems unfair to me some- 
 how. He didn't have oughted to.' 
 
 4 But he couldn't help,' says I.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 191 
 
 4 So I forgive/ says she, ' and I want to hear. 
 Tell me a story of your life up there/ 
 
 ' I will,' says I, and thinks, and thinks, and 
 then I says : c Maybe he 's told you of Kale.' 
 
 She shakes her head. c He does not talk 
 of himself ; that 's why I ask you, Herr Hals.' 
 
 * Well, then, here goes,' says I. c Kale, I 
 must tell ye, was a town.' 
 
 ' Hold on,' says Gallic, coming suddenly 
 round the salon. ' Is it tellin' ye stories he 
 is, my dear? You aren't believing them.' 
 
 ' It 's about you,' says she ; ' sit down and 
 hear yourself described. I 'm going to be 
 told of that black past of yours.' 
 
 ' I '11 go away,' groans he. ' I never did 
 like scandal except about other people,' and 
 makes to move. 
 
 'Sit down,' says she, jumping up and catch- 
 ing him by the arm. c Go on,' says she to me, 
 * I have him fast.' She pulled him into a 
 chair next hers and held him all the time, strok- 
 ing his hand sometimes when she thought I 
 wasn't looking and of course I wasn't. 
 
 ' Well then,' says I, ' there was a town 
 called Kale, that was once a great city, nearly 
 a mile square, with high brick walls and a 
 moat, but was reduced to be a little village 
 camped in the middle of the ruined walls with 
 but a fence round it.' 
 
 ' How was that ? '. says she. 
 
 ' Don't know,' says I, * but so it was. * Kale
 
 192 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 is in a valley, and just beyond it rises the great 
 range of mountains that make the frontier. 
 Now, on these hills there live a small, black, 
 murderous set of bloodthirsty savages called 
 Chins/ 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 c Faith, you may smile, Mrs. Gallio, com- 
 fortably here on your raft, but it was no smil- 
 ing matter ten years ago. They came raiding 
 down, burning and murdering and kidnapping 
 till there was little of the valley left. Gallio 
 was there as Political.' 
 
 ' Where were you ? ' she asks. 
 
 ' Elsewhere,' says I, ' till I was sent up with 
 two other officers and a hundred men to help 
 Gallio.' 
 
 ' What was the matter with him ? ' asks she. 
 
 ' Not much with him* says I. 'But a 
 hundred miles of valley was in an awful state, 
 burning and being robbed and murdered at 
 nights. Gallio, with about a hundred and 
 thirty men was trying to prevent two thou- 
 sand savages from enjoying themselves, and 
 failing, naturally, and the savages sending word 
 they were going to kill him very soon.' 
 
 ' How awful ! ' says she, and clutches his arm. 
 
 ' So we went to help him because he was a 
 bit lonesome.' 
 
 ' He must have been awfully glad to see 
 you,' says she. 
 
 ' He was. He said he hadn't played a game
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 193 
 
 of whist for six months, and was out of baccy. 
 So we camped in an old monastery in Kale, 
 and had a high old time.' 
 
 ' What did you do ? ' she asks. 
 
 ' Do ? ' says I. ' There was lashings to do. 
 Mornings we would go out with fifty men or 
 so and climb the mountains to try and catch 
 the raiders ; evenings we played whist.' 
 
 4 Do you call what Young played whist ? ' 
 asks Gallio. 
 
 ' Young ! Sure, he would break any one's 
 heart at any game. We went to bed at nine 
 and got up at two.' 
 
 ' What for ? ' asks Mrs. Gallio. 
 
 ' To make a party with the savages if they 
 came. They sent down word that thousands 
 of them were coming to eat us up.' 
 
 ' That was brag,' says Mrs. Gallio. 
 
 ' No brag,' says I. c They meant it. So 
 we got up and fell in, and made ready for the 
 party in the dark. Faith, it was cold work I 
 tell you, waiting for the savages to burst on 
 us. Gallio used to make jokes.' 
 
 ' How could you ? ' she says, and stares at 
 him. 
 
 ' I didn't,' he says. ' Franz made the jokes. 
 I laughed.' 
 
 ' He kept us all alive, Mrs. Gallio. That 's 
 why I tell you the story. He laughed and 
 joked just as he does now on this raft. We 
 could not have stood it but for him.' 
 
 N
 
 i 9 4 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' What stuff ! ' says Gallic. ' Lesbia, he 's 
 really talking of himself.' 
 
 She looked from one to other of us. ' And 
 you knew that death might be close at hand ? 
 How could you ? ' 
 
 ' Would you have had us cry ? ' asks Gallic. 
 
 ' How could you joke with death so close ? ' 
 she says ; and then to me : ' Go on/ says she. 
 ' Did the savages ever come ? ' 
 
 ' They did,' says I. ' Three times they 
 came swarming down from the mountains at 
 night in thousands to destroy us.' 
 
 ' But,' she said, opening her eyes, ' they 
 didn't destroy you.' 
 
 ' If we hadn't been ready and waiting for 
 them, they would,' says I. ' But though we 
 kept as quiet as little mice, I suppose they 
 heard us move inside the fence and heard the 
 rattle of our arms. So they went away again. 
 We found their traces in the morning, and 
 pursued, but were too late.' 
 
 ' Then they were cowards,' says she. 
 
 ' Not so,' says I. ' They fought like devils 
 later on, when the column went up the hills. 
 They were brave men, though savage.' 
 
 ' Then why didn't they attack ? ' asks she. 
 4 Would they have won,' to Gallic, had they 
 attacked you when you were awake ? ' 
 
 ' Of course,' he says. c We had but a hun- 
 dred armed police, almost untrained, and not 
 very good. We should have stood no chance.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 195 
 
 ' Then why ? ' she asks ; ' then why ? ' 
 
 I only looked at her and drew her eyes to 
 
 Gallio's face and raised my eyebrows. Why ? 
 
 I often wondered at that myself. Why didn't 
 
 they wipe us out ? 
 
 Because it was written on our foreheads. 
 
 It was a pleasant day I spent with them, and 
 one that I will not forget. They were glad 
 to have me, just as a break and to show off 
 before me how happy they were. Perhaps 
 they thought to convert me to their ways. 
 But no ; in vain is the net spread in the eyes 
 of this old bird. Love is a pleasant thing, but 
 marriage not for Patrick, thank you. I 've 
 seen too much of it. I like love and peace, 
 aye, and war too, each in its place, but all three 
 mixed up together all the time no, I 'm not 
 taking any. Yet what is marriage but that ? 
 The very happiest marriage is that unhappy 
 marriages are hell. 
 
 Good luck to ye both ! 
 
 So after dinner I went back to my boat.
 
 CHAPTER XIV
 
 ' Now Beauty feared the Beast because of his rough outside.' 
 
 Fairy Tale.
 
 XIV 
 
 EFORE the dawn has come the 
 raft is moving. In the still 
 night I hear the raftsmen 
 call one to another. I feel the 
 raft is freed. The stream no 
 longer murmurs in the logs 
 beneath, chafing and restless, but bears us on. 
 For a few minutes there is the splash of oars 
 and then a deeper silence, as we drift adown 
 the river. 
 
 I see a pale grey light that oozes through 
 the window. I would sleep again, but cannot, 
 so I rise and look out of the window into a 
 world of pearl. There is faint light upon the 
 water and the fields ; the sky is full of silver 
 shimmer, and on the mountain peaks a promise 
 of the day. 
 
 There is a sense of peace and yet of loneli- 
 ness. I feel that I want something, some one. 
 I call, he does not answer. Shall I go in to 
 him ? Shall I ? And dare I ? 
 
 I tremble when I lift the curtain. He is 
 asleep.
 
 200 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 I go up to the bed and look at him. 
 
 Is this my husband ? 
 
 He looks old. I see that his hair is grey 
 upon his temples and his face is lined. His 
 throat and part of his chest are bare, and one 
 arm hangs out of the bed, the sleeve drawn 
 back. I do not like to see him so ; I draw 
 his coat together and pull down his sleeve. I 
 see that he is strong, not beautiful. His chest, 
 his arms are strong, rough, hairy, his face is 
 rugged. All that is not for me. 
 
 I think that he is ugly. Yet when he is 
 awake I find him handsome. I like to look at 
 him then, the light of his eyes, his pose, his 
 strength, his gestures, to hear the echo in his 
 voice. But that is all departed now. His body 
 is not for me. It is for the world. Those 
 arms of his are strong, as men's are, to fight 
 and to work. His hands are large, bony, and 
 muscular, not good to look at except to recog- 
 nise their strength and power. 
 
 His mental ability too, which shows in the 
 lines upon his face and breadth of his head, is 
 not for me. His knowledge and experience 
 do not attract me, they rather frighten me. 
 It is true that in a way he is built for me, 
 because I benefit materially by the qualities 
 which underlie his strength. They make the 
 world smooth and endurable for me to live in. 
 But they are not there to attract me, rather 
 to capture me and carry me off will I, nill I, as
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 201 
 
 he says all women are in marriage in one form 
 or another. 
 
 And indeed is it not true that we are always 
 captured into marriage ? We may look for- 
 ward to it, we may like the man, but the en- 
 gagement, the ceremony of marriage, above all 
 the marriage itself, are we not forced into them 
 by him ? I do not say that we are not willing 
 victims, that we do not like to be subdued and 
 forced lovingly and kindly, yet we are forced 
 for all that. And so, perhaps, this very ugliness 
 of the outer man to us is part of that great 
 scheme which makes men and women com- 
 plements and not rivals to each other in all 
 things physical and spiritual. 
 
 So physically, although he does not attract 
 me as I do him, yet he is made for me after all. 
 
 And I am all made for him, though in quite 
 another way, because I am beautiful. Has he 
 not told me so a hundred times ? My face, 
 my arms, my bosom, how he loves to look on 
 me, to touch, to kiss. I to him am beautiful, 
 but he is ugly in my eyes. He is made for 
 the world's work, not for my delight, as I for his. 
 
 He likes to see me sleeping, not I him. 
 
 I will go away. 
 
 But no, I will not go. I will sit down close 
 by and think it out. 
 
 I love him What do I love ? That body 
 on the bed ? Not so. It is his soul I love, 
 something that looks from out his waking eyes
 
 202 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 and echoes in his voice. It now is sleeping. 
 That which I love is sunk beneath the verge. 
 
 He loves me for my form ; I love him for 
 his soul. 
 
 Then like a flash there comes to me the 
 meaning of that old legend of Beauty and the 
 Beast, which he told me was eternal of Man 
 and Woman. At the time, I did not under- 
 stand now I see that it is true and what it 
 means. Man's love to woman is mainly 
 physical, woman's to man is mainly spiritual. 
 He loves her for her beauty, her weakness, her 
 purity, her tenderness : she loves him for the 
 strength, the understanding, the courage that 
 lies under his man's exterior, which repels her 
 till she sees beneath. I see, I see the legend now. 
 
 But which does that mean is the more 
 spiritual, I wonder she, because she discerns 
 and loves it in him, whereas his love for her is 
 more purely physical ; or he, because his spirit 
 makes his outward shape forgotten ? I wonder, 
 oh, I wonder. 
 
 What is the use of thought ? I want him 
 back. Out of that mystery which we call 
 sleep I will call him back to me. 
 
 I put my lips to his and watch. A faint 
 unconscious smile spreads on his face. His 
 long-drawn respiration stops ; his eyes arc 
 opening on mine, with wonder, with delight, 
 with love. 
 
 He catches hold of me and laughs.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 203 
 
 ' How dare you come into the lion's den ? ' 
 he asks. ' Now I will eat you.' 
 
 ' Eat me,' I answer. ' But first you must 
 tell me something.' 
 
 ' I will tell you anything.' 
 
 ' I want to know,' I say, ' I want to know ' 
 
 ' Daughter of Eve,' he cries. 
 
 ' I want to know a lot of things.' 
 
 ' What things ? ' 
 
 It is so hard to put it clearly. I sit and 
 think, and at last I say : 
 
 ' You have borne dreadful things, done 
 dreadful things, faced death yourself and given 
 it to others.' 
 
 He nods. 
 
 ' You do not mind that ? It does not hurt 
 you to remember ? ' 
 
 'No.' 
 
 ' If a woman had seen half, done half, what 
 you have, either she would have died with the 
 horror of it or her heart would have been 
 hardened to a stone.' 
 
 He looks at me and smiles. 
 
 ' But you are neither,' I continue. ' Your 
 heart is tender.' 
 
 ' That is one difference,' he says, ' between 
 a man and a woman. Trouble and misery and 
 fear temper us and do not break. Neither does 
 sin stain us. We rise above our deeds, above 
 our bodies.' 
 
 'We cannot.'
 
 204 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 c You are too tender/ and he laughs. 4 We 
 are the opposing forces of the world. You are 
 the dove of peace, and we the sword of war.' 
 And at the word his eyes light up again. 
 
 Then I am filled with jealousy and fear. I 
 catch hold of him. 
 
 4 And which do you love best ? the world- 
 war, or your wife ? ' 
 
 He looks at me reflectively. I see that he 
 is seeking for an answer. 
 
 4 You must tell me true ? ' I say. 
 
 4 I will,' he says, ' but I must think.' 
 
 And while he thinks I watch the sunrise, 
 which has grown from pink to crimson and 
 to gold. 
 
 4 Listen,' he says, ' and I will tell you what 
 wise men of old had to say about your question.' 
 
 ' Did they ask it ? ' I demand, surprised. 
 
 4 They asked all things, just as we do now.' 
 
 4 And found their answer ? ' 
 
 4 Yes, and they found answers better 
 answers than we find now.' 
 
 4 Tell me the answer.' 
 
 4 They saw life clearly and they saw it 'whole. 
 They did not separate one detail from another 
 the plants, the animals, and men and gods 
 but saw them all as one. One soul within 
 one universe, striving to manifest and to ex- 
 press itself. That soul was God. But Soul 
 consists of many things of Love, of Hate, of 
 War, of Peace, of Safety, of Danger, of Purity,
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 205 
 
 of Wisdom, and many more. All these work 
 in the world to make it, acting and counter- 
 acting. The sum is God, and each emotion 
 was a god. That strong desire to fight, which 
 is in all male life, to attack and to destroy, to 
 have courage, to bear danger and face death, 
 which is the most potent emotion towards the 
 progress of the world, they called Ares, or 
 Mars, or Thor. He is rough and hard out- 
 side, stained with his work, with dust, with 
 blood, but his soul is of tempered and shining 
 steel. That is the emotion that you fear in 
 me. Love is a goddess Venus, or Aphrodite, 
 or Vishnu. She is tender and loving and true. 
 She is the ever-beautiful, the ever-young, the 
 ever-clean, arising daily from her bath in the 
 sea waves. The world she cares not for, only 
 one man whom she would wish to hold within 
 her arms, nor ever let go free. That is the 
 emotion that there is in you.' 
 
 ' Yes, yes ! ' I say. ' Go on what is the 
 answer ? Which won ? ' 
 
 ' Oh,' he says, ' neither. Mars and Venus 
 were husband and wife. They saw that was 
 the answer.' And he laughs. 
 
 I stare at him and shake my head. It is so 
 difficult, and I so new to life, born but four days 
 ago. I cannot understand it yet. But I will 
 keep this myth within my head, and it will un- 
 fold itself sometime, as the legend of Beauty 
 and the Beast has done.
 
 206 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 'Thank you,' I say. ' I hear Po Chon and 
 cups and saucers. We must go out for our 
 little breakfast now.' 
 
 The tea finished, my husband goes away to 
 work at the Dee&o, and I am left alone. 
 
 We are in the middle of the river, drifting 
 down. Upon the west are low hills crowned 
 with pagodas, very barren hills, but on the other 
 bank there is a plain that stretches to the far- 
 off mountain barrier of the Shan plateau. 
 
 On either side are frequent villages that 
 stretch along close to the water, shadowed by 
 figs and tamarinds and palms. Long, slender 
 boats rock at their feet. All the world swims 
 in golden light, even the lucent shadows are 
 like crystal, clear and full of light. The love- 
 moan of innumerable doves comes from the 
 woods. 
 
 I look about for some one to talk to. Spot 
 and Lady are in the bows, propped up against 
 each other, watching for something to interest 
 them. I call to them, but they do not care 
 to hear. Very well then, I will inspect the 
 family. 
 
 The nursery is a box, kept in a dark corner of 
 the verandah by Lady's special request. I can't 
 see the puppies very well in there, so I bring 
 them out and lay them on the mat near my feet. 
 The light and air and warmth will do them 
 good.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 207 
 
 What funny little beasts they are ! Quite 
 blind as yet, though their eyes are half opened. 
 
 As I do this, Spot looks round. He seems 
 surprised when he sees what I am about, shrugs 
 his fat back as if to say, ' You '11 catch it 
 directly,' and turns away again. 
 
 A minute later Lady looks round. When 
 she sees her family out in the open, she gives a 
 start that unsettles even Spot. Then she darts 
 back, picks up the babies one by one in her 
 mouth and carries them back into the nursery, 
 growling all the time in strong expostulation. 
 When they are safe, she sits down on guard, 
 and whines. 
 
 ' Haven't you any sense ? ' she seems to say, 
 ' putting out blind babies in a strong light like 
 that. A nice mother you '11 make.' 
 
 I wonder what teaches her all this ? Instinct, 
 they call it. Shall I have instinct when the 
 time comes ? But instinct alone does not go 
 far. I must have more, for I must learn. I 
 sit and think and think. How sweet it is to 
 think, to open wide your heart and brain and 
 let the echoes of the world repeat themselves 
 therein. Thoughts are not born within us, but 
 they come to us, and when we are in tune with 
 all the world we hear them. 
 
 ' Tell me,' I asked, ' what is that light I see 
 far over there, beyond the islands, far inland. 
 I seem to see a spurt of fire sometimes,'
 
 208 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 'That is the centre of universe.' 
 
 ' And what is that ? ' 
 
 'The centre spire over the king's throne- 
 room in the palace. It is covered with leaf- 
 gold. You see the sun shining upon it.* 
 
 ' Where the Queen lived the Cavalier spoke 
 of?' 
 
 'Just so, who lost the kingdom/ 
 
 ' Are you not hard on women ? ' 
 
 ' When women rule, men and kingdoms and 
 civilisations are lost,' he answers. 
 
 4 Then what should women do ? ' 
 
 ' Women should reign, men govern.' 
 
 ' And I, am I to reign ? ' 
 
 ' You are/ he says. ' You reign. I am your 
 minister, and govern.' 
 
 ' Why should that be ? ' 
 
 4 Because women are the negative, the con- 
 serving force : men are the positive and act 
 restrained by women, but not guided.' 
 
 ' Oh, oh,' I say, and feel quite angry. 
 
 He laughs. ' Ma mie,' he says, 'let us not 
 quarrel yet. Sometimes I think the fight is 
 bound to come, but just now let us enjoy. 
 Look at the children bathing there ; are they 
 not beautiful ? When I first came to Upper 
 Burma women used to bathe like that.' 
 
 ' Quite nude ? ' I cry. 
 
 'Just so,' he says. 
 
 ' Weren't they ashamed ? ' 
 
 ' Not in the least, except if they were ugly.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 209 
 
 Shame lies in the beholder's eye. It lay in the 
 eye of Europeans, so the women now wear 
 clothes when bathing.' 
 
 ' Are you then worse than the Burmese 
 men ? ' 
 
 ' It 's a matter of custom,' he replies. 4 In 
 countries where women do not show their faces, 
 to show the face is immoral. We Europeans 
 do not feel so because we are accustomed to 
 women's faces. But we are not to anything 
 else. Women consist of heads and hands and, 
 perhaps, arms. We know, of course, that there 
 is more, but we pretend it is not so. There- 
 fore when they show that they have more than 
 that, it strikes us with a sense of the un- 
 accustomed. It awakens an immodesty of 
 thought, which is only immodest in that it has 
 not been properly ventilated and used. Secret 
 recesses of the mind and the emotions are full 
 of evil things, and the cure is sunlight and 
 fresh air. 
 
 ' Therefore, to one properly accustomed to see 
 women's figures, there is nothing immodest in 
 seeing them ; they only, if pretty, awaken a 
 sense of beauty and pleasure that the world 
 holds such pretty things. 
 
 ' And nude children, how beautiful they are. 
 I love to see the children bathing, don't you ? ' 
 
 I think I ought to. If I don't, it is because 
 of something wrong in me, not them, and I 
 will in time,
 
 210 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 In the red sunset we come to Sagaing. The 
 river narrows from its three miles width and 
 takes a bend to westward, compressed through 
 a rocky gateway. We pass the steamer ferry 
 and we come close to a shore green with fresh 
 grass shadowed by giant trees. A sand-bank 
 runs out, and here we moor. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Windham come down to meet us, and Mrs. 
 Windham drives me to their house. 
 
 How glad I am to be inside a house again. 
 I think I am a cat. I don't like wandering, 
 and I don't like camps. I like a stationary 
 home. I like four walls to shut me in. I like 
 the peace, the rest, the finiteness of things.
 
 CHAPTER XV
 
 ' Women walk through life looking backward, but men 
 forward.' GANGLER.
 
 XV 
 
 was with great interest and 
 curiosity I awaited the arrival 
 of' Mr. Gallic and his bride, 
 who had promised to spend 
 their Christmas with us. I 
 had known him for years 
 and liked him. He was a change from other 
 men, all of whom seem to us women the same, 
 or nearly so. He was quite different. He 
 had a marked personality, almost as a child has 
 as frank and joyous, as easily cast down, as 
 quick in recovering, as tender and confiding 
 and sometimes as rude. You could not count 
 on him as on other men, who are almost as 
 certain as machines. You never knew before- 
 hand what he would say or do except that 
 it would be the unexpected. Sometimes he 
 would be wrong, but he was quick to see his 
 mistakes, and acknowledge them truly and 
 bravely ; and would very often be most right 
 when you thought at first that he was wrong. 
 He was a man of impulse, of generous and 
 nearly always right impulse, of very strong
 
 214 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 emotions, of extraordinary knowledge, with an 
 abiding hatred to all convention of thought 
 and sometimes of act. 
 
 What would his wife be like, and how 
 would they get on ? 
 
 Well, when I saw her coming up the bank 
 from the raft to meet us, I saw that as far as 
 looks went he had done well. It wasn't the 
 actual shape of her face and figure that were 
 so striking as her colouring. A strong and 
 vivid light shone through her, that glowed in 
 the colouring of her hair, her clear complexion, 
 that showed itself in her quick motions, the 
 changeful receptiveness of her expression, in 
 the look of her deep-blue eyes. 
 
 Directly you saw her you loved her, you 
 wanted to kiss her, to talk to her, to hear her 
 talk. She was like her husband in the way 
 that she too seemed to have kept her child's 
 nature, though she were grown up. The 
 world seemed always new to her and good. 
 As I drove her to our house, she glanced 
 quickly this side and that to take things in, 
 to understand, and she asked questions. She 
 was as full of questions as a child. 
 
 ' Have you lived here long ? ' she asked as 
 we drove along the strand under the avenue of 
 trees. ' How beautiful it is, and with the 
 river always before you. My husband loves 
 the river. It seems alive to him, a symbol of 
 all life.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 215 
 
 4 And you ? ' I asked. 
 
 She shook her head gaily. ' I am like a 
 cat, I think,' she answered, laughing. ' I like 
 houses and civilisation and and things.' 
 
 4 But aren't you comfortable on the raft ? ' 
 
 * Quite comfortable, thanks. He got it up 
 so nicely. And we have had such fun. We 
 got shipwrecked. But I will tell you all after- 
 wards. What is this house we are passing ? ' 
 
 4 That is the house your husband lived in for 
 several years.' 
 
 4 Oh ! ' she said, pursing her mouth and 
 looking at the house curiously. 4 Wasn't he 
 rather lonely there ? ' 
 
 4 Without you ? Of course he must have 
 been.' 
 
 She glanced at me merrily. 4 1 always 
 think he must have been dreadfully lonely be- 
 fore we married. He likes being married so 
 much, you know.' 
 
 4 And you ? ' 
 
 4 Oh, me ? ' with rising inflection. 4 Well, I 
 what is that other house ? ' 
 
 4 That is the club.' 
 
 4 1 'm not sure I approve of clubs,' she said 
 consideringly. 4 And the next ? ' 
 
 4 This is our house,' I answered, as we drove 
 in, 4 and I hope you will have a happy Christ- 
 mas here.' 
 
 She looked at me gratefully in answer, and 
 when we had both got out she kissed me, just
 
 216 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 as a child would do, and said : ' How nice 
 you are ! * and laughed. Then my husband 
 and Mr. Gallio drove up, and we went in to tea. 
 
 They both of them kept us very much alive 
 the week that they were with us. They were 
 always wanting to do something new, always 
 had something new to say. He wanted her 
 to see the place he had lived so long in, and 
 she wished to see. 
 
 He took her out riding with him in the 
 morning, showing her the rides he took so 
 many times alone. He told her which was 
 his favourite ride, and why ; he showed her 
 the new road he had made along the cliffs 
 above, and she came back from these morning 
 rides aglow with pleasure. ' I feel that I have 
 got a little into his past life,' she said to me. 
 ' I have lifted a corner of the veil that hung 
 between me and his past.' 
 
 Then he took her to the court-house, 
 showed her where he used to sit and hear the 
 cases, his private room where he wrote and 
 worked. But in this she took less interest. 
 
 ' It belongs,' she said, ' to that part of my 
 husband which the world owns and wants. It 
 is of the judge, the magistrate, the official. 
 All that is nothing to me. When he comes 
 into my house, he leaves outside all that part 
 of himself. I could not understand it, and I 
 do not want to. I think that I am rather 
 afraid of it. I want to be protected from con-
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 217 
 
 tact with it. He must protect me. You 
 don't know of your husband's official life, do 
 you ? ' she asked me. 
 
 ' I don't/ I answered. ' It has nothing to 
 do with me.' 
 
 ' Yet don't you feel,' she said, ' that some- 
 how it isn't fair. Our husbands know all of 
 us, but we only know a part of them.' 
 
 ' I am glad of it,' I answered. ' It is that 
 half which we do not know which makes the 
 world safe for us. We are the kernel, they 
 the rind. The kernel sees but the inner lining 
 of the rind, its smoothness and firmness, and 
 its enveloping protective love. The hard, 
 rough outer coat is turned to the world, not us.' 
 
 Then she wanted to see the house that he 
 had lived in. ' I want to see it all inside and 
 out, without my husband.* 
 
 ' And why without me ? ' he asked. 
 
 She wrinkled up her forehead in perplexity. 
 C I don't know why,' she answered. 'But that 
 is what I want. I think I want to picture 
 you in the rooms. But I couldn't do it if you 
 were with me.' 
 
 ' All right,' he said. 
 
 So I asked Mr. Brookes, who is now in 
 Mr. Gallio's place, to ask us both to tea one 
 afternoon, and she saw the house. He showed 
 all the rooms, and the verandahs back and front, 
 and the garden and the stables. She did not 
 say anything all the while we were going
 
 2i8 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 round, she was only considering. At the end 
 she asked : ' Was it just like this when my 
 husband lived in it ? ' 
 
 ' Very much,' Mr. Brookes answered. ' The 
 furniture is nearly the same, and there is little 
 change.' 
 
 But when we were going back she said to 
 me : ' I am glad I saw it. A house like that 
 is not a home. It is an office pigeon-hole, 
 where an official is filed when off duty. How 
 glad he will be when I make him a home a 
 home? 
 
 ' I do not think,' I ventured to say, ' that 
 men care so much about homes as women do. 
 Their interest lies so much outside.' 
 
 She looked at me with a sudden drooping 
 of the corners of her mouth. 
 
 ' It is all I can give him all, and he gives 
 so much to me. And you say that he will 
 not care.' 
 
 I felt inclined to pet her like a child. ' You 
 give him yourself,' I said. 
 
 ' But I didn't make myself. I just am. I 
 want to do something, make something for him.' 
 
 ' My dear,' I said, ' you will find that in life 
 you cannot simply be. You will have to con- 
 tinually remake yourself to get along happily 
 in marriage. I have been married for twenty 
 years, and know.' 
 
 4 Then I am not satisfactory as I am ? ' 
 
 ' You are quite perfect as you are for now.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 219 
 
 But life is change and growth, especially 
 married life. It is growth together.' 
 
 ' I see,' she said reflectively. ' Thank you. 
 I see.' 
 
 Mr. Gallic I found the same as he had 
 always been, yet changed for me. He was 
 not really altered. I could see under the sur- 
 face he was the same that I had known before, 
 but he was more restrained. He used to say 
 all that he thought first one thing and then 
 another, as new views struck him. Now he 
 is more silent, more watchful over himself, as 
 if he were conscious he had stepped into a 
 world which was new and strange and not a 
 little difficult. I would notice him often 
 watching his wife with a wonder in his eyes, 
 as if he were trying to know and could not. 
 He wished to understand her. She was his 
 problem, a most delightful problem, which 
 was the more fascinating that it never would 
 be fully solved. Sometimes a sudden light 
 would illuminate his face as some comprehen- 
 sion came to him, and he would laugh. 
 
 I was glad for his sake. But for mine I 
 could not help regretting. I was his friend 
 no more in the old sense, his confidant. He 
 kept his secrets to himself. A married man 
 cannot have women friends, and he is mine no 
 more. 
 
 On Christmas night the station dined with
 
 220 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 us : we were twelve in all, with only four 
 women. The annual Christmas dinner is a 
 ceremony that we cannot omit, and yet I 
 think that it gives us more pain than pleasure. 
 For Christmas is the child's festival, and our 
 children are all at home. They are growing 
 up in ignorance of us, without their mothers, 
 to be strangers to us all their lives. Such is 
 the price we women pay for an empire that 
 to us is nothing. Our homes, our husbands, 
 and our children are our world. To things 
 beyond these confines we are indifferent. We 
 see with microscopic eyes. Our husbands' 
 eyes are fixed on the far beyond. The world 
 sometimes is nearer to them than their homes. 
 A man would sacrifice not only himself but 
 his wife and children to a world's dire need. 
 A woman would sacrifice a world to those she 
 loved. 
 
 Yet we did our best. We made speeches 
 and toasted absent friends, and after dinner we 
 played and sang. 
 
 Then in a dim corner of the verandah Mr. 
 Gallic came and sat by me. 
 
 4 Well ? ' I inquired. 
 
 ' Yes, it is well,' he answered. 
 
 ' That is just like you,' I answered. '"Well ? " 
 to most people means a question only. You 
 answer it in a truer sense.' 
 
 He only smiled, and we sat in silence for a 
 time.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 221 
 
 c What are we to talk about ? ' he asked. 
 ' We used to have much to say. Have we 
 now nothing ? ' 
 
 ' In the old days,' I answered, ' we talked 
 of men and women, of love and what it might 
 mean, of marriage. You were an inquirer 
 into truth and I told you what I could. You 
 used to speculate and form theories and philo- 
 sophies. Now we can talk no more.' 
 
 ' No,' he replied. ' In those days I could 
 express my thoughts quite freely because they 
 were vague and personal to no one. They 
 were but generalisations. Now it might not 
 be so. Even if unintentional, there might be 
 a personal reference.' 
 
 'Just so,' I said. 
 
 c But tell me this,' he continued. ' You 
 were married. Yet you could discuss such 
 things. Now I am married I cannot. How 
 is that ? ' 
 
 I shook my head. I had never thought of 
 that, but it is quite true. To a married man, 
 marriage and all connected with it is a secret 
 matter, never to be discussed. With a woman 
 it is not so. Are men more loyal to their 
 wives than women to their husbands, or why? 
 
 ' I don't know,' I said. ' What is your 
 explanation ? ' 
 
 ' I haven't got one. I am so newly married 
 that I do not at all understand it yet. It is 
 just another of those mysterious differences of
 
 222 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 sex. A woman will often discuss her husband, 
 kindly, of course : a man will never discuss 
 his wife. I remember now that a Moham- 
 medan will not even mention his wife's name 
 in public, won't put it on the census paper, 
 for instance.' 
 
 ' Yes, I can understand that,' I said. 
 
 ' But why, but why ? ' 
 
 ' Always at unsolved riddles ? ' 
 
 c I like to solve them. And perhaps it may 
 be that whereas a man is public property a 
 wife is private property.' 
 
 < Of her husband ? ' 
 
 ' Exactly so.' 
 
 I laughed. ' Well, we shall have to go 
 back to our table directly, but before we go 
 let me say how much I admire your wire. 
 She has the quality most essential for a happy 
 marriage a girl can have.' 
 
 ' And what is that ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' She is willing and glad to learn.' 
 
 When our guests were leaving us we went 
 out with them on to the river bank. The 
 moon was nearly full. All the world dreamed 
 in silver loveliness and peace. The Gallios 
 detached themselves from us and walked to- 
 gether along the road. He put his arm about 
 her and they passed into the shadows of the 
 trees. My husband came and stood by me. 
 
 ' Did you see ? ' I asked.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 223 
 
 ' The Gallios ? ' 
 
 ' Yes. What do you think ? Will they 
 be happy ? ' 
 
 ' How can one tell ? The honeymoon is not 
 waned as yet. Look at the sky.' And he 
 pointed up at the full moon. c What do you 
 think ? ' 
 
 4 1 do not know,' I answered. 4 They are 
 both such strong individualities neither will 
 give way. If they have a quarrel, I wonder 
 if they will ever make it up.' 
 
 4 The one in the wrong will give in.' 
 
 e But neither may be wrong. Both may be 
 right.' 
 
 ' How can that be ? ' 
 
 ' She may have her woman's view and he 
 his man's view. Each may try to make the 
 other see in the same way.' 
 
 c Then they must agree to differ. And after 
 all, isn't that what marriage is meant for, to 
 reconcile two truths, the male and female, so 
 that they live together in amity and peace.' 
 
 ' But will they learn that ? ' 
 
 ' We did.' 
 
 * After what suffering. Have you forgotten?' 
 
 He laughed. ' I have forgotten. We men 
 go through life looking forward, but you 
 women, I think, walk backwards, regarding 
 always the past, don't you ? ' 
 
 ' Perhaps,' I said. ' Are not both sides 
 worth seeing ? '
 
 224 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 But he only shook his head. 
 
 We did not wait. When the Gallios came 
 back I do not know. We went to bed. We 
 have been married twenty years and they a 
 week. 
 
 The day after Christmas my husband and 
 three other men, including Mr. Gallio, went 
 out for two days' deerstalking. They did 
 not take us with them because they were 
 going a long ride, and would have but a bare 
 rest-house to put up in. 
 
 ' Women require so much paraphernalia,' 
 my husband always says. ' They are so 
 dependent on their surroundings that one 
 woman is as much trouble to move as a 
 battalion of men. They want their home 
 moved with them. Like snails they cannot 
 go without their shells.' 
 
 So the men set off alone, and Mrs. Gallio 
 was left for me to look after. I am afraid I 
 did not do it very well. I am really too old 
 to be a companion to so young a woman, and 
 Mrs. Gallio abandoned my company for that 
 of Mrs. Sandys. 
 
 I am afraid I don't like Mrs. Sandys. She 
 knows either too much or too little I don't 
 know which. I think that unless a woman 
 can really understand things she had better 
 not know of them. It is not necessary for 
 women to know the world as it is for men.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 225 
 
 And Mrs. Sandys since she came out newly 
 married a year ago has made a great many 
 discoveries about men and women, which she 
 giggles and gloats over without understanding. 
 I am sure she has been opening Mrs. Gallio's 
 eyes, and I am vexed because Mrs. Gallio will 
 see things wrongly. 
 
 At the club in the evening Mrs. Sandys 
 takes off Mrs. Gallio and keeps her in private 
 conversation for an hour or more. Well, it 
 cannot be helped, but I shall be glad when 
 her husband comes back and assumes charge 
 again. For the girl, even in these two days, 
 has changed, has become thoughtful, less 
 happy, and sometimes a little irritable. 
 
 When the men come back we are all going 
 to shoot duck down the river.
 
 CHAPTER XVI
 
 ' These three made the world, and are in all the world, 
 and keep the world young : the Creator, the Preserver, the 
 Destroyer Brahma and Vishnu and Siva.'
 
 XVI 
 
 ;RS. GALLIC stood beside me 
 regarding the bullock-cart in 
 which we were to drive from 
 our camp to the lake where the 
 men were going to shoot. She 
 had never been in a bullock- 
 cart before, and she did not quite know if she 
 liked it. Her husband brought a chair and 
 held out his hand. 
 ' Get up,' he said. 
 
 But she hesitated. ' That bullock has a 
 wicked eye,' she complained. 
 
 ' No, no,' he answered. ' That is not 
 
 wickedness you see in his eye ; it is bonhomie.' 
 
 ' And he wags his tail about in a hasty way 
 
 instead of letting it hang down straight,' she 
 
 added. 
 
 4 Sign of a high-strung yet benignant dis- 
 position,' said Mr. Gallic. ' Well, Mrs. 
 Windham, will you get up first and show my 
 wife the way ? ' 
 
 So I climbed into the cart and sat down on 
 the thick straw put there to act as springs,
 
 2 3 o LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 and Mrs. Gallic got in beside me. I think 
 her husband likes her pretty nervousness ; it 
 gives him an opportunity to protect and care 
 for her. Really she is brave enough. 
 
 Then we set off, the men in front on ponies, 
 four women in carts behind. The ponies 
 tossed their heads and cantered, while our 
 bullocks trotted vigorously. 
 
 It was a glorious morning. The air was 
 cool and fresh, and the sun had hardly risen. 
 Our way lay through lanes bordered with 
 hedges. There were blue morning-glories in 
 masses on both sides, and the dew hung on 
 their petals. All the world sparkled with the 
 freshness of the day. 
 
 ' Have you ever been to a duck-shoot 
 before ? ' I asked. 
 
 She shook her head. c It is all new to me. 
 I want to see it very much. My husband 
 says I can go to his butt with him.' 
 
 I looked at her in seriousness. Should I 
 warn her or should I not ? For a few minutes 
 I said nothing, and then it seemed to me that 
 I had better speak. Happiness is so easily 
 wrecked by little things, and she was so young. 
 
 ' My dear, I wouldn't go,' I said. 
 
 She looked at me in surprise. ' Why not ? 
 Do you never go with Mr. Windham ? Isn't 
 it the proper thing to do ? ' 
 
 * I think that the men would sooner be 
 alone to shoot,' I said. ' It is their business,
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 231 
 
 and not ours. It is their nature to like killing 
 things, but not ours.' 
 
 ' No,' she admitted. 
 
 ' And,' I went on, ' men like to be alone 
 sometimes. They like to feel they are free.' 
 
 She nodded her head reflectively, thinking. 
 
 ' You would not want your husband, if you 
 were busy in household affairs.' 
 
 ' Oh, but this is sport,' she answered. 
 
 ' Men take their sport quite seriously. 
 Besides let him go free, my dear, sometimes, 
 let him go free/ 
 
 For a time she did not answer, sitting, her 
 hands folded in her lap, her eyes upon the 
 distance. Then suddenly her face lighted up 
 with a bright smile as she turned to me. 
 
 * Thank you,' she said. 
 
 We passed through little strips of forest, and 
 heard the jungle cocks and partridges crowing 
 their morning call. A hare ran past us in a 
 field, and far off we marked a deer. Then 
 through the trees we saw the shining levels of 
 the lake. 
 
 The men had got there first, and were wait- 
 ing for us at a farmer's house upon the bank, 
 and helped us down. A place had been made 
 for us to rest in and watch the distant shoot- 
 ing, and our servants were bringing breakfast 
 Our comfort was well provided for. 
 
 Then the men went down to their boats, 
 long, narrow canoes hollowed out of single
 
 232 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 logs poled by a Burmese boatman from behind, 
 and each went off to his appointed butt built 
 in the bushes and reeds about the lake or on 
 the islands. 
 
 We saw the long, lithe skiffs skim over the 
 water, putting up here and there an outlying 
 duck or making the divers disappear, and then 
 they were lost to sight. 
 
 So we sat there under the pandal and we 
 waited. 
 
 The lake was beautiful under the morning 
 light. It was not a great sheet of open water, 
 but more like a maze of broad and narrow 
 water lanes bounded by lily beds and banks of 
 high and feathered grass and bushes. Upon 
 the banks were forest trees, some with bright 
 scarlet blossoms that shone reflected in the 
 water like sub-aqueous flames. There was no 
 ripple on the lake, for the morning calm had 
 not yet passed and filmy mists still veiled its 
 farther inlets. But the air was full of golden 
 light, and the sky was blue as the ocean is. 
 
 It was a scene of peace and quiet, where 
 everything was glad. 
 
 Then suddenly there came a shot, another, 
 and many more, and the quietness was broken. 
 There arose a roar and rush as the innumerable 
 geese and duck and teal rose up from the in- 
 lets of the lake into the air. The sky was full 
 of startled birds flying hither and thither in 
 startled disorder, and we heard the guns from
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 233 
 
 all the butts. But presently the birds resolved 
 themselves into companies. The geese in two 
 wedges flew towards the river and the warm 
 sand-banks which they had only left an hour 
 before. The different kinds of duck, pochard 
 and pintail, gadwal and cone duck, the whist- 
 ling teal, the cotton teal, and others, assembled 
 together and in long skeins flew round the lake 
 seeking a quiet place. We saw the canoes 
 glide out from their hiding-place in the reeds 
 and retrieve the fallen, a hawk would strike at 
 a wounded bird, and then the lake fell back 
 into its quietude. In front of us a diver seated 
 on a dead branch above the water extended its 
 wings to dry in the sun, and the water-hens 
 swam to and fro. The guns had not disturbed 
 them ; they knew that they were safe. 
 
 A pied kingfisher came and hovered over the 
 water close by us ; with a splash he dropped 
 and disappeared, then rose again and flew away 
 with a tiny silver fish wriggling in his beak. 
 
 Every now and then a wedge of geese or duck 
 or teal would come back from their wanderings 
 or swoop down from the heavens above with 
 a tear of the riven air, and as they passed 
 some butt the gun would go off, and one or two 
 would fall. Then the rest would swerve or 
 would soar again upward. 
 
 How fast the wild-duck fly, and their curved 
 wings as they swoop down, how beautiful they 
 are. And how sadly they drop down, suddenly
 
 234 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 rendered lifeless, no better than the stones, less 
 beautiful than the weeds about them. 
 
 How horrible and terrible is death, that 
 change from a living thing to an inert and 
 huddled heap. 
 
 How can men like to deal it out ? 
 
 So all the brilliant morning hours the shoot 
 went on. When it was time for lunch, a 
 Burman policeman fired three shots in quick 
 succession from near our pandal to recall the 
 shooters, and in a few minutes we saw them 
 coming back. They were muddy and wet and 
 sunburnt and hot and happy. Their bags 
 were spread out upon the shore and we went 
 to look. But alas, alas ! Were these blood- 
 stained, draggled, and lustreless lumps of feathers 
 the same beautiful duck we had seen fly past ? 
 With their life had gone all their beauty. 
 Their once shining feathers were dull, their 
 wings hung like rags. We did not like to 
 look at them. 
 
 Then we had lunch and how the men ate ! 
 
 After lunch it was arranged that we should 
 go back to our camp while the men went off 
 to shoot snipe in the rice-fields beyond the lake. 
 They were getting up to go when I saw Mr. 
 Gallio speak to his wife. I didn't hear what 
 he said, but I saw her look up. She shook 
 her head ; he insisted, and she gave way. Then 
 she came over to me. 
 
 * Do you want to go back so soon ? ' she asked.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 235 
 
 4 Why not ? ' I said. ' The men will not 
 return here. They will go straight back from 
 the fields.' 
 
 4 But suppose,' she said, * suppose that there 
 was a man who said he didn't want to shoot 
 any more, just now, but would take us both ir^ 
 a boat on the lake, would you go ? ' 
 
 I held up a warning finger. 
 
 * I said I did not want to go in a boat,' she 
 answered, 'but he said I must.' 
 
 4 To that there is no reply,' I said. ' Did he 
 say I must go with you ? ' 
 
 1 Of course not, but you will ? ' 
 
 I laughed. She was yearning of course to 
 go, but she was afraid she might be doing 
 wrong. She remembered what I had told 
 her. So I said, 
 
 4 Very well, we '11 go.' 
 
 Mr. Gallic sat in the bows ; we sat close 
 together in the middle, and the boatman poled 
 us from the stern. The long canoe glided 
 along with a most pleasant motion, hardly 
 disturbing the water as we passed. We crossed 
 the broad expanse and came to the other side 
 where the islands were, and coasted round 
 them. There were long, open channels that 
 ran up inland between beds of water-lilies and 
 of reeds. Innumerable birds flitted or swam 
 about us, swallows and terns above, coots and 
 grebes in the water. And over the water- 
 lily pads the wagtails ran, dodging and
 
 236 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 darting here and there collecting an insect 
 luncheon. 
 
 Then we wanted to gather flowers. There 
 were water-lilies of many kinds, red and pink 
 and white, but the prettiest were light blue. 
 So the boatman pushed the boat into a mass 
 of them, and we began to pick. Then Mrs. 
 Gallic stopped, peered earnestly over the side 
 into a tangle of flowers under the bank, and 
 said, 'Hush ! look there.' 
 
 I looked, but I could see nothing. ' I see 
 a head,' she said, c and an eye, such a bright 
 eye,' and pointed with her finger. 
 
 Then I saw it myself. It was a little teal. 
 
 We pulled the boat towards it, hoping 
 to catch it, but just as she reached out it 
 dived. 
 
 A moment later it was up again in a little 
 open water, and Mr. Gallic said, ' It 's a 
 wounded teal.' 
 
 It dived again. But the poor little bird was 
 tired and faint. It could not keep under 
 water ; it could not fly. It could only flutter 
 along the surface and we soon caught it. 
 
 Mrs. Gallio clasped it with both her hands 
 and lifted it on to her lap. It kicked for a 
 minute and then lay helpless, exhausted, 
 panting, regarding her with a round, bright 
 eye of fear. 
 
 ' Best let me kill it,' said Mr. Gallio quietly. 
 ' It is wounded and will only die.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 237 
 
 But she indignantly refused, stroking its 
 plumage with one finger. All her mother 
 instinct was up in arms. c Indeed you shan't. 
 You did your killing this morning, now I will 
 do a little of my saving.' She felt it over 
 with care. 'It has a broken wing.' 
 
 So she and I gave it first aid. We bound 
 it gently but firmly in strips torn from Mr. 
 Gallio's handkerchief, so that it could not 
 move. Then we laid it in the basket amid 
 the cool water-plants where it would have 
 shade and solitude. 
 
 4 What are you going to do with it ? ' asked 
 Mr. Gallic. 
 
 ' Nurse it and heal it,' she answered. ' I 
 will get Captain Burn to set the wing this 
 evening. And you like to kill,' she said. 
 ' Why do you always want to kill ? ' 
 
 1 Because it is born in us,' he answered. 
 
 4 Death is such a dreadful thing,' she com- 
 plained. ' To see a bird, strong, beautiful, and 
 happy, crumple up and fall a lifeless mass of 
 draggled feathers, to see a hare roll over and 
 to hear his scream. How can you men bear 
 to do it? Don't you agree with me, Mrs. 
 Windham ? ' 
 
 ' Death is a dreadful thing,' I echoed. 4 It 
 is sad to think that, whether shot or not, 
 sooner or later all these birds must die, the 
 hares must die, and we we too.' 
 
 ' Yes, we we too,' she answered, and a
 
 238 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 look of fear came to her face. ' Why do all 
 things die ? Why is there death at all ? Why 
 can't we live for ever ? ' It seemed as if there 
 came a shadow in the golden light, a chill 
 within the warmth, a fear that marred the 
 glory of the day. 
 
 4 Why is there death ? ' asked Mrs. Gallic 
 of her husband. * Have you a fairy tale that 
 answers that ? ' 
 
 4 A fairy tale ? ' I asked, surprised. 
 
 4 He says that all the riddles of the world 
 were answered long ago in fairy tales/ said 
 Mrs. Gallic, ' and if the world now still asks 
 the same old questions, it is because they have 
 blinded themselves so that they can neither 
 interpret the fairy tales nor read the world so 
 as to write them afresh.' 
 
 I looked at Mr. Gallic and he nodded. 
 
 ' This too ? ' I asked ; ' this mystery of death, 
 why death should be and what it means is 
 this explained ? ' 
 
 4 It is,' he answered. 
 
 4 Tell us the fairy tale,' I begged. 
 
 He looked half doubtful. 
 
 4 Ask your husband to tell it us,' I said to 
 Mrs. Gallio. 
 
 She glanced and smiled at him, and he 
 laughed back. 
 
 ' Very well,' he said. 4 Only we must be 
 quiet.' 
 
 So at his order the boatman poled us to a
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 239 
 
 shadowed water-nook, where trees hung pen- 
 dent arms about us and the air was still. 
 
 ' I hope it is not sad/ I asked. 
 
 He shook his head. ' No fairy tales are sad.' 
 
 Why not ? ' 
 
 ' Because they are true,' he answered. ' The 
 unchanging truths that lie below the changing 
 forms of things are ever-beautiful and happy.' 
 
 ' Even of death ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' Especially of death,' he answered. 
 
 * Please begin,' I said. ' May we ask ques- 
 tions if we do not understand ? ' I asked of 
 Mrs. Gallio. 
 
 4 Yes, yes,' she said. ' You ask and I will 
 listen.' Then to her husband : ' Please begin.' 
 
 He came a little nearer us and sat upon the 
 gunwale, looking down. But his face was 
 rapt, as of one who sees into the inner sense of 
 things. He said : 
 
 ' Tithonus loved the Daw?i. y 
 
 ' Who was Tithonus ? ' 
 
 'Tithonus is every one that ever lived, or 
 will live, all men, all women. Tithonus is 
 you and I.' 
 
 ' Why did he love the Dawn ? ' 
 
 ' Do you not love the Dawn ? ' he answered. 
 ' She is the youth of things, when all is beauti- 
 ful and new ; she is our youth, when the world 
 to us is wonderful, lit with the growing light of 
 hope and promise. What does not seem to 
 lie before us in the dawn ? She is the youth
 
 240 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 of life, the fields in spring, the opening flowers, 
 the song of love-awakened birds. The Dawn 
 has roseate fingers, and all she touches is made 
 young. Do you not love the Dawn ? ' 
 
 He ceased, and thoughts born of his words 
 possessed my brain, my heart, my soul. At 
 last, ' Go on,' I said. 
 
 1 Tithonus was afraid of death Tithonus is 
 you and I.' 
 
 He ceased again and let the silence and the 
 fear born of the words tell their own tale. 
 
 ' He asked the Dawn to give him immortality 
 Tithonus is you and I.' 
 
 Even the water lapping on the boat was 
 stilled. In the deep, golden hush no other 
 sound was heard. His words possessed the 
 silence all alone. 
 
 ' She gave him what he asked. Tithonus could 
 not die. But he grew old and old and old so 
 would you and I.' 
 
 I hid my face within my hands. I think 
 that Mrs. Gallic cried down there in the 
 silence. The strain grew tenser. 
 
 4 The Dawn grows never old. Out of her bath 
 of darkness and of death she rises afresh each 
 morn. The Dawn is not afraid of death ; she 
 knows that Dawn is born anew from out the sunset 
 and dark. For life and death are one.' 
 
 +/ 
 
 * What happened to Tithonus ? ' 
 ' He grew so old he longed for death. Though 
 he had prayed for immortality and got his prayer
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 241 
 
 he wearied of it. He prayed the Dawn to give 
 him death and so eternal youth. He felt his 
 immortality lie on him like a curse. So would do 
 you and I were we immortal.' 
 
 ' Did she give it him ? ' 
 
 6 She could not give him death^ because he was 
 immortal. She changed him from a man into a 
 grasshopper. ' 
 
 ' Why that ? ' 
 
 ' Because he sings at Dawn. His is the voice 
 of Immortality that sings the hymn of Dawn. 
 Death is the gate of life, the only gate. That 
 is the hymn of Dawn.' 
 
 ' What is the hymn of Death ? ' asked 
 Mrs. Gallic. 
 
 'The same,' he answered. 'They are one.' 
 
 He ceased to speak. The chill and fear 
 had gone gladness filled the air, the light, 
 the world. I looked up and I smiled. 
 
 ' Go on,' I said. 
 
 ' There is no more,' he answered. ' What 
 more would you have ? Is it not enough ? ' 
 
 ' It is enough,' I answered. 
 
 In the evening we went back. The sun 
 had set in a great glory, and the day was done. 
 
 So ended our Christmas week. The Gallios 
 left next morning early on their raft. 
 
 I am glad they came. 
 
 And I hope I shall see them again, for I 
 want to know how that marriage will turn out. 
 
 Q
 
 242 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 It will be either very good or very bad. 
 Both are so strong, so passionate, and so true, 
 that neither could endure the half-marriage 
 which is the rule. Each will want all or 
 none. They must be one in soul, or they will 
 be separate. I can see that well enough. 
 
 Which will it be ?
 
 CHAPTER XVII
 
 'Do you measure the water by weight or the corn by 
 the number ? Do you hear with the eye or taste with 
 the finger? Can the jeweller judge of the granite or the 
 architect judge of the flower? Then neither can you judge 
 man by woman nor woman by man.' GANGLER.
 
 XVII 
 
 ESBIA,' I said, drawing my 
 chair a little nearer hers, 
 ' isn't it jolly to be alone 
 together again ? * 
 
 She looked at me a little 
 wistfully. ' Are you sure ? ' 
 she asked. 
 
 ' Quite sure,' I said. c Why not ? ' 
 ' I thought you were glad to be away with 
 other men again, to shoot, to play cards and 
 billiards, to talk your men's talk.' 
 
 4 Oh yes,' I answered. ' I like men. But 
 you I love.' 
 
 She shook her head. ' I begin to see that 
 I am only a part of your life,' she continued, 
 ' a minor part. You would live your life 
 much the same if I didn't come into it at all.' 
 'I should do my work just the same, if you 
 mean that,' I answered. 
 
 ' And that is the most important part of 
 life .? ' 
 
 ' It must be so,' I said. 
 
 ' So that a wife is only something to play
 
 246 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 with when work is done, some one to nurse 
 you if you are sick, to give you children.' 
 
 ' My wife is my heart,' I said. c My hands 
 work, my head thinks, but my heart is my life.' 
 
 She only smiled again. 
 
 * So that to men marriage is an incident, 
 but to women it is all existence.' 
 
 ' My dear, my dear,' I said ; ' I did not make 
 the world and men and women. We must take 
 life as it is, and ourselves as we are, and make 
 the best of them. What is the trouble ? ' 
 
 But she only shook her head. ' I have 
 been thinking,' she said. 
 
 ' What has made you think now ? ' 
 
 ' Before marriage,' she answered, ' I was a 
 girl and could not think. Those first days 
 coming down on the raft I was too bewildered 
 to think. Everything was so new, and events 
 so crowded. When we came to Sagaing I had 
 time to think, especially during those two days 
 you left me to go deerstalking.' 
 
 4 Should I not have gone ? Are you hurt I 
 went ? Lesbia, why didn't you tell me you 
 didn't want me to go ? ' 
 
 4 1 did not mind,' she said. ' It isn't that. 
 But I have been hearing things, and have been 
 thinking and still am thinking.' 
 
 ' Then give it up,' I said. * Surrender your- 
 self to pleasure once again. There is always 
 time to think, but not always to enjoy. Ah, 
 take the cash, Lesbia, let the debit go.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 247 
 
 She shook her head. ' I can't help thinking 
 now, and perhaps it is better to get it over.' 
 
 ' Get what over ? ' 
 
 'There are things I want to understand.' 
 
 ' Ask me and I will tell you.' 
 
 4 Presently,' she said. 
 
 4 Lesbia,' I said urgently, 4 don't brood 
 on things. Be open with me always. Tell 
 me what 's in your mind ; show me your 
 heart. Love lies in telling secrets, every secret 
 thing. Secrecy and love cannot live together.' 
 
 4 Presently,' she said, ' when I have arranged 
 in my mind what it is I want to know.' 
 
 4 When will that be ? ' 
 
 4 1 do not know.* 
 
 And more she would not say. 
 
 So we floated on. 
 
 The river was not so beautiful down here. 
 The mountains on either side had receded far 
 away. It was an undulating and a barren 
 land that we were travelling through. There 
 were fields of cotton and Indian corn and 
 jowar and other crops, but much of the land 
 was waste. Yet the light on it made it 
 beautiful still, and there were villages on the 
 banks. 
 
 At noon we stopped for a time at a village 
 I knew well, and no sooner had we stopped 
 than we were invaded. 
 
 Old friends of mine knew that I was 
 coming, and had come down to meet me.
 
 248 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 There were the headman and elders of the 
 village and the head constable of police and 
 their wives, and there were other women and 
 girls and children. Our little salon was full of 
 people and the forecastle also. 
 
 ' Who are these men ? ' asked Lesbia. 
 
 c Old friends of mine,' I answered. ' We 
 have done business together and talked together 
 and played together in the old days.* 
 
 ' And the women ? * 
 
 c They were girls when I knew them first, 
 and used to dance in the village ballet which 
 I got up. Now they are married.' 
 
 * And the girls ? ' 
 
 ' I knew them as children.' 
 
 c And the children ? ' 
 
 ' Their fathers and mothers were friends of 
 mine, and I have known them since they 
 were born.' 
 
 Lesbia felt shy and ill at ease. She evidently 
 thought that the visitors' first object was 
 to criticise her, which she resented. And I 
 don't think she likes children. Few women 
 do, except their own, while nearly all men 
 adore them. There is something much more 
 akin between a man's mind and a child's than 
 between a woman's and a child's. Women 
 are more secret, more artificial, I think, while 
 men and children are more frank and open. 
 And that is, I think, why a woman wants to 
 * mother ' both.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 249 
 
 They all brought flowers and fruit and laid 
 them at Lesbia's feet. 
 
 4 How nice of them ! ' she said. ' What 
 do they do it for ? ' 
 
 ' They are the eastern's visiting-cards,' I said. 
 
 Then we began to talk about old times and 
 friends. They told me who was married and 
 who had died. They discoursed of village affairs. 
 Then the children inspected Lady's family and 
 she allowed them. She did not growl nor show 
 her teeth, but was pleased and proud. Only 
 if one of them lifted up a puppy she whined 
 to say, ' Now do be careful, please.' 
 
 The invalid teal was also inspected in his 
 dark corner. He seemed quite comfortable 
 with his arm in splints. He had acquired 
 the name of Bai and was fed with slugs. The 
 women were highly pleased with this evidence 
 of Lesbia's tender heart, and one repeated a 
 rhyme : 
 
 Man gives, 
 Woman receives ; 
 Man earns, 
 Woman spends ; 
 Man wastes, 
 Woman saves. 
 Man acts, 
 Woman bears ; 
 Man creates, 
 Woman preserves ; 
 Man destroys, 
 
 And 
 
 Man's word is Yes, 
 But Woman's word is No.
 
 250 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 When I told Lesbia she laughed. ' I must 
 remember it,' she said. c It is a complete 
 code of marriage in a few words.' 
 
 I enjoyed the visit very much, but I think 
 Lesbia was relieved when they all went away 
 and we started again. Although she tries not 
 to show it, I am sure she doesn't like being 
 continually reminded that I lived before we 
 were married. It does not seem fair to her. 
 And anyhow she thinks I ought to begin a 
 new life now. 
 
 So after an hour we went on drifting down. 
 It was a glorious afternoon ; the air was a 
 bath of light and warmth and joy. But 
 Lesbia was unhappy. She wanted to* speak 
 and yet was afraid to speak. And I could 
 not help her. I could only wait with strong 
 foreboding. For a woman is not made to 
 know but to accept. Her relation to life is 
 not such as enables her to understand many 
 things. In the monad, which is a man and 
 woman, nature does not duplicate qualities. 
 What men have women have not, and the 
 reverse. We are complementary and neces- 
 sary to each, and never competitive. Yet she 
 is ever curious. 
 
 We had our tea on the forecastle while we 
 travelled under a high bank that shaded us. 
 We passed quite close to a herd of buffaloes 
 who were lying in the shallows. They looked 
 at us with frightened eyes, but would not
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 251 
 
 move their great ungainly bodies. Then we 
 drifted out into a long reach down which the 
 sun was setting. It was one of the most won- 
 derful displays I ever saw. There were thin 
 bars of cloud across the sunset, and as the sun 
 went behind them they glowed with intensest 
 gold, while the sky was like an emerald sea. 
 And when the sun had set all turned to a 
 crimson glow that throbbed with the passion 
 of the dying day. 
 
 Then along the fields the evening mist 
 unfolded like lawn veils that earth drew over 
 her to hide her sleep. 
 
 And Lesbia looked at it with troubled eyes. 
 
 So in the evening hush I drew close up to 
 her and said, ' Tell me now what is it ? ' 
 
 I took her hand and stroked it, but she 
 withdrew it. She found it hard to speak, but 
 at last she nerved herself and said : 
 
 4 1 want to know to know.' 
 
 4 Yes, what ? ' 
 
 She found it hard to say, but at last she 
 found a way. 
 
 4 A girl is the Sleeping Beauty till her 
 Prince comes.' 
 
 I nodded. 
 
 * Yes, it is true,' she said. ' I know. But 
 I want to know about a man.' 
 
 4 What about us ? ' 
 
 4 Who is it wakens you ? ' 
 
 4 We never are in the garden like you are.'
 
 252 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' But as boys.' 
 
 ' Well, of course. But we waken slowly.' 
 
 ' Through women ? * 
 
 * Partly so, and what we are told and feel.' 
 
 ' What women ? ' 
 
 I did not answer. 
 
 ' Was it to meet some of them that you 
 and the Cavalier went after your dinner in 
 the " Boul Mich " ? ' 
 
 ' Oh,' and I laughed, ' I thought you were 
 asleep.' 
 
 ' I heard you quite well, though I was 
 nearly asleep,' she said with dignity. ' Was it ? ' 
 
 ' Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't,' I answered. 
 
 'You are ashamed to answer,' she affirmed. 
 
 ' Not in the least,' I replied. 
 
 4 Then why don't you ? ' 
 
 ' Because you have no right to ask.' 
 
 ' No right ? Am I not your wife ? ' and 
 she flushed. Evidently she was getting angry. 
 
 'You were not my wife then.' 
 
 ' I don't think I would ever have been your 
 wife if I had realised,' she said gravely. 
 
 ' I can't help that,' I said cheerfully. ' I 
 didn't bring you up to enter into a contract 
 in ignorance of what you were doing. Don't 
 blame me. Blame yourself.' 
 
 ' We girls come to you innocent and pure, 
 but how do you come to us ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' I said ; ' is that the trouble ? ' 
 She nodded.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 253 
 
 ' Men are not women,' I answered. ' We 
 have to do the work of life in life. We 
 could not do it did we live in the garden of 
 Eden.' 
 
 'That is an excuse.' 
 
 c It is true,' I answered. 
 
 ' You are not ashamed of it ? ' she cried. 
 
 ' Most certainly not.' 
 
 ' Nor of the misery and sin it causes ? ' 
 
 ' There is no misery nor sin in what is 
 natural and inevitable. The sin lies in laws 
 and conventions which deny facts and so 
 create misery.' 
 
 c If you were ashamed,' she said slowly, ' I 
 would forgive. But if you are not, what am 
 I to do ? ' 
 
 ' Lesbia,' I said, c I cannot explain things, 
 for you would not understand. You must 
 take my word for it. Men are not like women. 
 What is good for you is not good for us.' 
 
 'That is only an excuse.' 
 
 ' It is no excuse, but a truth,' I said. ' I 
 am not in the habit of excusing myself.' 
 
 ' How much better women are then than 
 men,' she said. 
 
 c That is not true either,' I answered. 
 
 ' If we did as you do, what would you 
 think of us ? ' 
 
 'Each follows his or her nature.' 
 
 ' Then how much higher a woman's nature 
 is.'
 
 254 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' There is no higher nor lower in nature,' 
 I replied. ' Nature has her ways to her own 
 ends. If man is man and woman is woman, 
 there is a reason for both.' 
 
 Lesbia did not answer, but I could see that 
 she was flushed and angry. 
 
 ' Lesbia,' I said softly, ' forget it all, my 
 dear. Come and be happy once again.' 
 
 ' I will not,' she burst out. ' I think it is 
 dreadful. Now that I realise it I shall never 
 feel the same to you again.' 
 
 'Judge not that ye be not judged,' I said. 
 
 1 What do you mean ? ' And she faced me. 
 
 'The standards in women and men are 
 different,' I replied. ' We do not measure 
 you by our standards. You would fail.' 
 
 ' What standards ? ' 
 
 ' We men have standards,' I said, ' you 
 know nothing of. We are broad-minded, we 
 get on with other men, we do not judge 
 them. We are brave to meet danger and 
 overcome it, to go out into the world, and 
 we are truthful.' 
 
 ' And are not women ? ' 
 
 ' No,' I said ; ' compared with men, women 
 are narrow, are ignorant, are spiteful and petty, 
 are cowards, and are most untruthful.' 
 
 ' How dare you ? ' she cried. ' Do you 
 mean that we tell lies ? ' 
 
 ' Not necessarily that, but you will say 
 that a thing is true which you know nothing
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 255 
 
 of, whether it be really true or not. You 
 will repeat as true what is only hearsay, and 
 bad hearsay at that. You prefer to believe 
 evil of another rather than good. You will 
 bear false witness. In courts it is notorious 
 how untruthful women are. You are un- 
 scrupulous, and you don't know what honour 
 is. There is not a woman in a hundred who, 
 if she were suddenly to become a man, and 
 continued to act as a woman, would be 
 accepted in any club or service or company 
 of men at all.' 
 
 She jumped up before me, her face scarlet 
 with rage. 
 
 'Why did you marry a woman if you thought 
 they were like that ? ' she cried. 
 
 ' Men marry women because they are totally 
 unlike men. If women were like men, we 
 should never marry. Why should we ? ' 
 
 ' But if they are worse. If they are un- 
 truthful and ' she was becoming almost 
 
 speechless in her rage. 
 
 c I did not say women were so. Women 
 are women, and there it ends and we accept 
 it. I said that if women claimed to judge 
 men by women's standards then men would 
 rightly claim to judge women by men's standards, 
 and if so judged you would be all I said. But 
 we do not judge you by our standards. We do 
 not judge you at all. We know it is your nature 
 and accept it as such. There is no doubt some
 
 256 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 good reason for it. And we love you.' I rose 
 and stood beside her trying to comfort her, for 
 she was in tears. 
 
 4 You insult not only me but all my sex,' she 
 cried. 
 
 c And you ? Did not you insult mine ? ' 
 
 ' No,' she cried. 
 
 I was silent, looking at her. 
 
 1 If I did,' she said at last, ' you deserved it.' 
 I did not answer. 
 
 She was panting with rage, her bosom 
 heaved, her hands were tightened into fists. 
 She looked at me with eyes of passionate 
 reproach. And then she ran away into her 
 bedroom. 
 
 The night was almost come by now, and 
 presently the raftsmen went ashore with the 
 mooring ropes and drew us in. I sat and 
 smoked, and thought of Lesbia there within. 
 Had I been brutal and unkind ? When I 
 thought of her misery, I reproached myself. 
 Then the reaction came. If we are to be happy 
 in married life we must face it on equal terms. 
 How many men have I known who pre- 
 tended to humble themselves to save a scene, 
 who acted the hypocrite before their wives ? 
 They paid for it afterwards. They lost their 
 own respect and their wives' respect and never 
 regained either. How could they ? When 
 a man is ashamed of his sex, will he gain the
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 257 
 
 respect of the other ? Whatever I did I would 
 never pretend. 
 
 But, poor girl, poor girl ! 
 
 The dinner was silent. To save appearances 
 when Po Chon was in, she spoke a sentence 
 now and then in a choked voice. And when 
 dinner was over she worked at some needle- 
 work sitting in the salon. I sat outside, and 
 Spot and Lady came and licked my hand. 
 How quickly dogs understand when you are 
 in trouble. 
 
 I sat outside alone. And I remembered 
 that other night not long ago, that began as 
 this did in a quarrel and ended in happiness. 
 But a spiritual fight is more bitter, more hard, 
 than any physical fight. She came not near me. 
 
 So I sat out till the dawn came, with Lady 
 in my lap.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII
 
 ' Lo, the water is soft ; it gives to the touch, yet will you 
 mould the hardest steel sooner than it. Water is the most 
 stubborn of all things, for it cannot learn, but returns always 
 to its bed.' GANGLER.
 
 XVIII 
 
 >N all my life I never felt so 
 happy as I did a week ago, and 
 in all my life I never felt so 
 miserable as I do now. I did 
 not know any one could be 
 so unhappy as I am. There 
 seems nothing left to me. My old world, my 
 happy, careless girl-world, of which mother 
 was the centre, I left for him. I came into 
 his world and made of him my centre, and 
 now that has fallen into ruins. I loved him 
 now I hate him. He has hurt me more than 
 if he had beaten me with a stick ; my body 
 would recover from a bruise, but what will 
 heal my spirit ? 
 
 Oh dear ! Oh dear ! 
 
 I would like to flee away somewhere and 
 never see him again. It hurts me to see him, 
 to hear him. 
 
 To go in to dinner with him is a martyrdom. 
 
 Now all is silent save the gurgle of the river 
 
 in the logs. I neither see nor hear him yet 
 
 he is ever present with me. My closed eyes
 
 262 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 see him sitting outside and smoking, and pre- 
 sently I will hear him go to bed just there 
 beyond the curtain. 
 
 What am I to do ? 
 
 How can I live with him for years and 
 years ? I don't think that if I had realised that 
 men were like this I would ever have married. 
 How dared he ! Oh, how dared he say what 
 he did about us ! And it isn't true that women 
 are like that. At least I don't think it is all 
 true. We are not quite so bad. 
 
 How long the night is. It seems weeks 
 since I came to bed. And is he never going 
 to bed at all ? Does he despise me so much 
 that he doesn't want to be near me even with 
 a curtain between ? What a disappointment 
 marriage is. I wonder if he is as disappointed 
 as I am ? 
 
 What am I to do ? 
 
 I am sure it isn't good for him to be sitting 
 out there in the cold like that all night. He 
 must hate me very much. 
 
 I wish I didn't feel so hot. My head is 
 burning, and though I keep turning the pillow 
 over and over it isn't any use, as it is hot on 
 both sides now. 
 
 I wonder if he has left me, gone off in the 
 boat, perhaps, because he doesn't want any more 
 of me, because I am a woman and women are,
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 263 
 
 in his opinion all the things he said they 
 were. Very likely he has. It is just the sort 
 of thing he would do, he is so passionate. And 
 I shall find a letter with breakfast and money 
 to pay my passage home. I heard some sounds 
 an hour ago that was he going. 
 
 I sit up on my bed terrified. What shall I 
 do ? My heart beats. No ! I hear him move in 
 the salon and speak to Lady. What a relief! 
 
 How I do hate him ! 
 
 Was it manly to say what he did ? 
 
 In all my life I never did so much thinking 
 as this night. My head just spins out 
 thoughts on top of each other. But mainly 
 it is the same thought over and over again. 
 I am tired of it. I have quite settled what 
 to do in future. I am married to him, and 
 there are the convenances to be considered. I 
 won't have people pitying me or him and 
 saying 'another unhappy marriage.' I shall 
 nerve myself to behave to him in future with 
 cool courtesy. But oh ! what a mockery it 
 will be. 
 
 ii 
 
 I went to bed just at dawn as quietly as I 
 could, hoping that Lesbia was asleep and 
 would not hear me. But I heard from 
 beyond the curtain something between a 
 choke and a sniff, and knew she was awake.
 
 264 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 How I would have loved to go in and comfort 
 her. But it would only have made matters 
 worse. I expect she hates me and thinks 
 that I hate her. I love her more than ever, 
 dear little Pharisee. But is there anything 
 that causes us such pain to get rid of in after 
 life as the Pharisaism that is so carefully 
 driven into us as children ? 
 
 Well, I suppose I had better lie down in 
 bed, though I don't feel much inclined to 
 sleep, and in less than an hour Po Chon will 
 bring the tea. Even now I hear the rafts- 
 men preparing to unmoor. 
 
 in 
 
 It is after breakfast. 
 
 I am talking to Ma Mie, the girl who is Po 
 Ka's wife. I wanted some one to talk to, some 
 companion in the misfortune of marriage, so I 
 sent for her. 
 
 It was an awful breakfast stone cold. I 
 suppose really the dishes were hot, but 
 nothing seemed so. As to him, I could 
 hardly bear to look at him. He actually 
 behaved as if nothing had happened. I 
 supposed he would be ashamed to meet me, 
 but he wasn't. He came in just when break- 
 fast was on the table and said * Good-morning, 
 Lesbia ! ' but he did not kiss me at all. He 
 did not dare to offer to. He smiled and
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 265 
 
 talked just the same as usual, but I saw that 
 his smile I used to like so much is only a 
 hollow mockery covering a hardened heart. 
 If he had really felt sorry, he would not have 
 eaten that extra helping of curry. I couldn't. 
 Such are men, quite brazen. 
 
 So I send for Ma Mie, and I talk to her 
 with the help of my Madrassee ayah. She 
 looks bright and happy, very different to the 
 miserable little girl of that night of the 
 conference ten days ago. I suppose she is 
 really too ignorant to understand, and that is 
 why she is able to bear it so well. 
 
 ' How old are you ? ' I ask. 
 
 ' Seventeen,' she answers. 
 
 ' Isn't that very young to marry ? ' I ask. 
 
 She shakes her head, surprised. c Oh no. 
 It just depends. Some girls marry at sixteen, 
 some not till nineteen or even twenty some- 
 times. It depends.' 
 
 ' What does it depend on ? ' I ask. 
 
 ' On when she falls in love,' she answers, 
 looking at me with open eyes of wonder at 
 my question. 
 
 What an extraordinary idea to think that 
 the ability to fall in love shows a maturity 
 for marriage. ' But you may be wrong in 
 falling in love,' I answer. ' At so early an 
 age you can't know your own mind.' 
 
 ' It isn't your mind that falls in love,' she 
 answers.
 
 266 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 I begin to find it more difficult to talk to 
 her than I expected. She has such funny 
 ideas. 
 
 ' Hasn't a girl out here got a mind ? ' I ask. 
 
 c Oh yes,' she answers, ' but the use of the 
 mind is to make the best of love when it 
 comes. It can't alter it, or create it, or kill 
 it at least that is what the elders say.' 
 
 The use of the mind is to make the best of 
 things it can't control ! Poor girl. How 
 badly she has been brought up in this pagan 
 land. 
 
 4 So,' I say, ' when you have fallen in love 
 it 's best to marry ? ' 
 
 ' Generally,' she says ; ' of course there 
 are exceptions. Isn't that the way with the 
 Thakinmas ? ' she asks shyly. 
 
 ' No,' I answer. ' We subordinate love to 
 judgment.' 
 
 She simply stares and says nothing. It 
 makes me feel uncomfortable, so I go on. 
 4 We think it better not to marry till much 
 later. I am nearly twenty-one, and I am 
 considered very young to marry.' 
 
 ' It is different with us/ she says simply. 
 ' The elders say that a girl goes into a man's 
 life, and if she is to be happy there she must 
 go in young.' 
 
 4 Who are the elders,' I ask, ' priests ? ' 
 
 But the ayah can't translate this, because 
 she says that in Burma there are no priests.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 267 
 
 That accounts for the awful state of this 
 child's mind. I find it more difficult than I 
 expected talking to her. Outside I hear him 
 whistling. He is quite happy, though his 
 poor wife is miserable. What is a wife to 
 him ? He despises women. 
 
 * Your husband Po Ka was married before ? ' 
 I ask. ' Don't you mind ? ' 
 
 ' Why should I mind ? ' she answers. 
 
 There again. 
 
 ' Don't you mind about what your husband 
 did before ? ' 
 
 4 1 love him as he is. What have I got to 
 do with the past ? ' she asks. c The elders 
 say it is bad to look at the past, your own or 
 others. Make all you can of the present and 
 the future.' 
 
 I wonder why there are not more mission- 
 aries sent out to this poor benighted country. 
 I shall subscribe when I get home. 
 
 ' If he is a good husband to me, that is all 
 I want,' she continues. 
 
 ' Suppose he isn't ? ' 
 
 Her face lights up. ' I will make him so,' 
 she says. * We have a proverb, " Good wives 
 make good husbands." 
 
 ' And if you weren't a good wife ? ' 
 
 ' He could divorce me.' 
 
 4 Do you mean to say,' I ask aghast, ' that 
 he can divorce you for no reason ? ' 
 
 ' Not for no reason, but if we were very
 
 268 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 unhappy together he could divorce me, or I 
 could divorce him. But I will never want to 
 divorce him, and I will never let him want 
 to divorce me.' 
 
 This horrifies me. What a terrible degra- 
 dation of marriage to allow divorce for mere 
 unhappiness. Why there would be continual 
 divorces in England. 
 
 ' I suppose,' I ask the ayah, ' that divorce 
 is very common among these people.' 
 
 ' Oh no, ma'am,' she answers, ' it is not 
 common at all. A divorce is a great mis- 
 fortune, and both husband and wife study 
 each other very carefully, so that it very 
 seldom comes to that. Besides, the elders 
 will not grant a divorce unless they see the 
 case is hopeless.' 
 
 6 With us, 'I say, * marriage is a more beautiful 
 and sacred thing than that. When we marry, 
 it is for life and we cannot be separated.' 
 
 c Not even if you quarrel so that both are 
 always miserable ? ' asks Ma Mie. 
 
 c No. We just make the best of it.' 
 
 ' To make the best of it would be to end it, 
 I think,' says Ma Mie simply. 
 
 It horrifies me that people should have such 
 dreadfully materialistic ideas about marriage 
 and take it merely as a worldly association and 
 not as a sacrament ; so I say reverently, ' With 
 us marriage is more than an association. It is 
 a vow before God which cannot be broken.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 269 
 
 She looks at me questioningly. ' If your 
 God sees that with the best will in the world 
 you cannot keep your vow and that it would be 
 better for yourselves and for the children also 
 that you be divorced, does He never let you off ? ' 
 
 ' Never,' I say decisively. 
 
 ' I am glad we haven't got a God like that,' 
 she answered with a sigh of relief. 
 
 Evidently there is no good talking. Her 
 mind must have been warped as a child to have 
 such ideas. 
 
 ' So that,' continued Ma Mie, ' if you are 
 once married that settles it ? ' 
 
 'Just so,' I say. 
 
 ' The elders tell us,' she returned, ' that 
 marriage is a continual effort of both husband 
 and wife to understand the other, and that if on 
 either side this stops then real marriage ends. 
 I couldn't go on living with a man unless we 
 loved each other.' 
 
 4 Not if you were married ? ' I ask. 
 
 ' Unless we loved each other we wouldn't be 
 married. It would be only a pretence. I 
 would sooner die,' she says, flushing up, ' than 
 live on with a man and quarrel with him. It 
 would be awful, and so bad for the children.' 
 
 ' But,' I say, ' suppose you can't help it ? ' 
 
 ' The elders say,' she answered, ' that you can 
 help it. If you begin with love, then you can 
 make understanding come if you will, if both 
 sides try.'
 
 270 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' But if only one side try ? * 
 
 She looks at me and shakes her head. ' The 
 elders never told me about that/ 
 
 ' What do you think about it yourself? ' I ask. 
 
 4 1 am very young,' she answered, 'and do not 
 know much yet. But I think, I think ' 
 
 What do you think ? ' 
 
 She shook her head. ' I can't think yet. 
 But the elders say that the happiness of marriage 
 lies usually in the wife's power.' 
 
 Well, well, I think it is very sad. 
 
 Then Ma Mie and the ayah go away and I 
 am alone again. I take up my work and remain 
 in the salon. 
 
 Outside I hear him talking to Po Chon. 
 
 And I begin to wonder about him. Having 
 lived so long with these people, I dare say he has 
 become infected with their ideas. Perhaps he 
 doesn't fully realise that he is married for life 
 and will have to make the best of it as it is. I 
 dare say he is expecting me to try and understand 
 him and his man's ideas. I have no intention 
 of doing any such thing. I am an English- 
 woman and a Christian, and he can't divorce me 
 because I won't give in to him. My ideas are 
 right and I intend that they shall prevail. Men 
 are a very bad lot and it is wonderful that any 
 of us care to marry them. We generally regret 
 it, I am sure. The very least they can do is to 
 acknowledge our greater spirituality and give 
 way to us.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 271 
 
 However, it is done now, and I have to make 
 the best of it. I shall do that by being always 
 courteous and cool to him and keeping up 
 appearances. If he likes to confess his wicked- 
 ness, I will forgive him, but otherwise my 
 womanly dignity will bear me up. 
 
 Oh ! my heart feels as if it would break. 
 
 How am I to bear the rest of the day ? I 
 have a good mind to go and lie down. 
 
 No, that would look as if I were afraid of him. 
 I am not afraid of him at all. I shall just go 
 out and sit in the verandah and read a book. 
 There are a lot of books on the shelves ; I will 
 take one, it doesn't matter which. 
 
 IV 
 
 I was talking to Po Chon when Lesbia 
 suddenly came out. I don't know how she 
 managed it, but she made her skirts rustle like 
 a lot of feathers all stuck up. She was very slow 
 and deliberate in her movements, looked at the 
 view, remarked casually, to the surrounding 
 atmosphere, not to me, that the raft was a long 
 way from land, and sat down in her chair. Then 
 she opened her book and began to read. I 
 ventured a remark that we were approaching 
 the junction with another great river, the 
 Chindwin, but she only raised her eyebrows and
 
 272 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 said ' Indeed ! ' in a very distrait tone. She 
 was too deeply interested in her book to talk. 
 
 But she didn't read very fast. In ten minutes 
 she had not turned over a page. The book was 
 evidently very absorbing to contain so much in 
 one page, and so I got up on some pretence and 
 passed behind her so as to see the title. It was 
 Sir Oliver Lodge on The Theory of Electrons, 
 a book I had wrestled with and at whose hands 
 I had suffered defeat. 
 
 ' Have you got an amusing book ? ' I asked 
 casually, as I sat down again. 
 
 ' Very, thanks,' hardly looking up. 
 
 ' Merry little things, electrons, aren't they ! ' 
 I continued, ' and Sir Oliver Lodge writes about 
 them with a gay and sprightly humour.' 
 
 She started, gave a glance at the back of the 
 book to see the title, and then blushed furiously. 
 For a few moments she held her ground, then 
 finding the position untenable she got up stiffly. 
 But as she went she fired a parting shot : 
 
 ' I have always been very interested^ electrons, ' 
 she said with choked dignity, and disappeared. 
 
 At last the day has gone. I wonder how 
 many hours there were in it about a hundred 
 I should say. And it 's only one day. What a 
 long, long thing marriage is.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 273 
 
 I have come to bed early, but although I am 
 dead tired I can't sleep yet or rather, I don't 
 want to. 
 
 I wonder if he is ever going to bed at all. I 
 left him working at some law books. What 
 stupid things men amuse themselves with. 
 
 I wish he would come to bed. Perhaps he 
 would look in on the way. 
 
 If he would only ask me to forgive him, I 
 am quite ready to forgive, and all the wrong is 
 on his side. 
 
 Well, I can't keep awake any more. It 's 
 past eleven o'clock. If he wants to be forgiven, 
 he can wake me up. Even then, though I hate 
 being woke up, I will still forgive him. I will 
 be the perfect wife whatever he may be.
 
 CHAPTER XIX
 
 ' Those who roam to find the God that dwells within 
 them are like the shepherd who seeks for the sheep he has 
 under his arm.' Vemana.
 
 XIX 
 
 >ND so we drifted on day after 
 day. As we passed from 
 north to south, the air grew 
 warmer and damper. The 
 freshness and the brilliance of 
 the atmosphere in the upper 
 country were going fast, it was more languid 
 and more tedious. But the moral atmosphere 
 grew colder and greyer. It was a perpetual 
 English December. From Lesbia there radi- 
 ated all the day a cold politeness like winter 
 sunshine, fictitious and without warmth and 
 there were frosts at night. 
 
 We passed slowly down past many places I 
 knew : Sameikkon, where a broker lived, who 
 disappeared, was drowned, was buried, and rose 
 again ; Myingyan, where the famine was so 
 bad ; Pakokku, where the Chindwin, a great 
 river in itself, joins. 
 
 I knew very well that Lesbia expected me 
 to apologise. She thought that I had abused 
 women, or rather she chose to think so. I 
 had hoped that when her first anger was
 
 278 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 passed she would think soberly of what I had 
 said, and that I had not abused women at all. 
 I had said that they would make very bad 
 men, but that as women they were adorable. 
 I think that it is the weakness, physical and 
 mental, of women that appeals to us as our 
 strength does to them. But in reality women 
 are not weak, either physically or mentally. 
 We each have our own strength different from 
 that of the other. Thus men are strong mus- 
 cularly to do and dare, but they are weak to 
 bear. They cannot cheerfully bear pain or 
 discomfort as women can. We revolt and try 
 to mend matters, sometimes making them 
 worse ; women submit more cheerfully and 
 bravely to the inevitable. 
 
 And so it is with the brain. We see big and 
 far, and generalise. They see small, and deal 
 with each matter on its merits, without refer- 
 ence to its generalisations. They argue falsely 
 and absurdly when they try to generalise ; we 
 often do the same in individual matters, be- 
 cause no generalisation will exactly fit any 
 occurrence. 
 
 Therefore men cannot make a home, they see 
 too big ; and women cannot make a state, they 
 see too small. That is why nature, which is 
 God, unites them in marriage, so that one 
 sight complements the other sight, one brain 
 the other brain. When both recognise this, 
 all is well. The difficulty for each is to refrain
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 279 
 
 from trying to convert or tyrannise over the 
 other. I often catch myself unconsciously 
 doing so, and maybe I do so sometimes and 
 do not recognise it. We each want victory. 
 Really the trouble with Lesbia was not what 
 I had said at all, but that she had made a 
 desperate bid for victory and supremacy in 
 marriage. I suppose at one time or another 
 every woman does this. And woe to the man 
 who submits. Quern Deus vult perdere prius 
 in potestatem mulieris qualiscumque ponit. 
 
 And because I would not submit to it 
 Lesbia was sulking now. I suppose that 
 women are like that ; they cannot live and let 
 live as men do, they must either rule or obey. 
 And no doubt nature knew what she was about 
 when she made women like that. But what 
 was to be the end I could not see. 
 
 She was very industrious at some needle- 
 work, which was, I believe, to be a waistcoat 
 for me, and which she worked at because it 
 showed that she would allow nothing to affect 
 her duties as an admirable wife at a distance. 
 She consulted the cook and Po Chon about 
 the housekeeping, and took quite an interest 
 in the oil-wells. She had given up Sir Oliver 
 Lodge and his electrons, and was reading in- 
 stead a book of Loti's, not I think that she 
 cared for it, but because being married now 
 she had a right to read anything she liked, and 
 she wanted to demonstrate her liberty.
 
 280 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 In fact her life had become a perpetual 
 demonstration, a demonstration hostile to me. 
 And the overtures I made were received with 
 a cold east wind of surprise that nipped them 
 in their tender bud. 
 
 It would have been laughable if it hadn't 
 been so serious and so miserable. I couldn't 
 help but smile sometimes, yet when I did she 
 regarded me with pathetic horror, much as 
 she would a chief mourner who laughed at a 
 funeral. She herself had the air of a martyred 
 saint who endures with heavenly fortitude the 
 tortures of a brutal world. 
 
 When we came near the old city of Pagan, 
 I asked her if she would like to spend the day 
 there. 
 
 ' What is there to see ? ' she asked. 
 
 I said that there were the remains of an old 
 capital of many hundred years ago. 
 
 ' Houses and palaces ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' Mainly pagodas,' I replied. c Palaces were 
 built of wood, and houses of bamboo and 
 thatch, so that they quickly disappeared ; the 
 pagodas were built of brick and stone.' 
 
 ' What use is a pagoda ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' None. They are just waste.' 
 
 ' Of no use ? Are they not temples ? ' 
 
 ' No,' I said. ' A pagoda is a reproduction 
 in more or less fancy style of Buddha's tomb. 
 They put them up to his memory.' 
 
 ' A gruesome way of remembering,' she said.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 281 
 
 ' Not worse,' I said, ' than a crucifix or 
 cross.' 
 
 c Mors janua vitae,' she repeated. 
 
 ' True,' I replied, ' but it is the life we 
 should cultivate and remember, not the death.' 
 
 She sighed. 
 
 ' Well,' I said, c shall we spend a day at 
 Pagan ? ' 
 
 ' It is as you like,' answered the ' perfect 
 wife.* 
 
 ' No,' I said, ' that won't do. If you don't 
 want to stop, say so. I have been to Pagan 
 many times. I don't care to go again unless 
 it would give you pleasure. If it would do so, 
 it will give me pleasure too, if not, then not.' 
 
 This annoyed her. Her cue was to be sub- 
 missive in appearance, to accept everything, to 
 express no opinions or wishes, an attitude 
 which had the advantage that it left her free 
 to criticise everything, to make the worst of 
 everything, and then to silently throw the 
 blame on me for every failure. 
 
 I was either to acknowledge now and for 
 the future that I was a reprobate, that man- 
 kind was in essence bad and in every way in- 
 ferior to women, or she would make my 
 married life a misery. She knew and felt her 
 power, that in the home the woman is omni- 
 potent and the man cannot fight against her, 
 her own instincts forbid him and disable him, 
 and Lesbia intended to misuse that power.
 
 282 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 Women are like that always, I suppose, at first. 
 They are taught nothing ; great power comes 
 into their hands on marriage, and how should 
 they use it rightly ? It is not in human 
 nature that they should. She saw very well 
 how unhappy she made me, and she secretly 
 gloried in it, because it was evidence of her 
 power, and she could always comfort herself 
 by thinking that I alone was to blame. Even 
 her own suffering pleased her. In many 
 women there is a delight in being a martyr. 
 Their very suffering sanctifies the cause. The 
 more they suffer the better their cause must 
 be. So do they reason. 
 
 Well, well, I could only wait and hope and 
 do my best. 
 
 c Do you wish to stop or not ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' We had always arranged to stop,' she 
 answered, attempting now to throw the onus 
 on a previous plan. 
 
 ' No doubt. But we can alter that.' 
 
 So that did not do. She must find some- 
 thing or some one else to bear the weight. 
 
 ' If we don't go,' she said, ' people will 
 wonder. Pagan is a famous place.' 
 
 ' What does it matter ? ' I answered. ' We 
 can't regulate our lives by the wonder of other 
 people, but by what we want or don't want.' 
 
 Her temper was visibly rising. She had 
 determined never to express a wish or an 
 opinion again, but to suffer all things c gladly,'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 283 
 
 and to be driven from this intrenchment and 
 made to express a wish would mean defeat. 
 
 ' I really don't mind,' she said defiantly. 
 
 ' All right. That means you 'd sooner go 
 on. I '11 tell the raftsmen.' 
 
 But I had only just risen to go when Lesbia 
 said : 
 
 ' I think that Po Chon wants to stop.' 
 
 ' What for ? ' I asked. 
 
 'There are no fowls, nor eggs, nor fish,' 
 she said. 
 
 How ingenious Lesbia was. She was long- 
 ing to see Pagan, of which she had heard so 
 much, but she would sooner die than depart 
 from her determined attitude of passive meek- 
 ness. She would not express a desire or take 
 any responsibility. So it had to be put on Po 
 Chon. 
 
 ' Very well,' I said, ' to gratify Po Chon we 
 will stop the day at Pagan.' 
 
 We did, and had a pleasant time. The 
 modern village on the river is some way from 
 the ancient city, which lies on a barren plain. 
 The seasons must have greatly altered since 
 this city flourished, for now there is no drink- 
 ing-water even for a village there. Indeed 
 all over upper Burma there are many signs 
 of this change. The rainfall now of Pagan is 
 only twelve inches yearly, falling in a few 
 heavy showers ; there must have been thirty 
 or forty inches then at least.
 
 284 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 We drove out to the old city in a cart 
 drawn by trotting bullocks, and saw all the 
 chief pagodas. Lesbia ran about, and in the 
 excitement and pleasure forgot her grievances. 
 Her sunny nature burst out from beneath the 
 clouds in which she had enveloped it. 
 
 ' Look at the carved figures,' she cried. 
 ' What is it all ? What are those various 
 scenes one after another on these tablets ? ' 
 
 ' Scenes in the life of Gautama,' I said. 
 
 'Tell me the story.' 
 
 I told her, following the carved scenes 
 round the great pagoda. 
 
 ' Here he is a prince,' I said, c and here he 
 is married to Yathodaya, and here he becomes 
 aware that death is in the world and will some 
 day take the prince himself, and he is afraid.' 
 
 Lesbia looked serious. 
 
 ' Here he is leaving his palace and his wife, 
 renouncing all things in the search.' 
 
 ' It was not right to leave his wife,' cried 
 Lesbia. 
 
 ' No,' I said, ' but such are religions.' 
 
 ' What did he find ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' He found an answer to a negative in a 
 greater negative, to death in Death.' 
 
 'That is no answer.' 
 
 'No,' I said, 'but it is all religions have.' 
 
 So we went on and saw the whole of his 
 life and of his teaching. Doka aneitsa, anatta 
 sums it all.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 285 
 
 On the way back Lesbia began to recover 
 herself, or rather to conceal herself again. 
 Her laughter died, she became stiff and 
 cold. 
 
 And once on board the raft again the clouds 
 returned even worse than ever. I was not to 
 suppose because she ran about and enjoyed her- 
 self at Pagan that I was forgiven. Her very 
 enjoyment was simply to please me. She 
 would never forgive me, never, unless I begged 
 for it. Then as a good wife she would pardon 
 but not forget to put on clothes of superiority 
 as permanent attire. Meanwhile she had 
 relapsed into the 'patient Grizel.' 
 
 We were just in time for tea, and she was 
 most solicitous that the tea should be made 
 exactly as I like it I am rather particular as 
 to my tea and that everything should be per- 
 fect. She discussed with me the antiquities of 
 Pagan with an interest feigned to please me, 
 and very openly feigned. I was to be tamed 
 and subdued by kindness and attention like Bai. 
 Only that Bai had refused to be tamed and had 
 escaped that morning, ' horrid, ungrateful bird,' 
 preferring death to slavery. 
 
 After tea a lacquer-worker came on board. 
 
 ' Would you like to see some lacquer ? ' I 
 asked Lesbia. 
 
 She was interested in the work, and indeed 
 it is curious. 
 
 The ordinary lacquer-bowls and boxes are
 
 286 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 made on a foundation of plaited bamboo, but 
 the finest have a frame of horsehair. 
 
 The colours are red and green and black 
 and the designs are beautiful. When she had 
 admired, I said : 
 
 ' Which would you like ? ' 
 
 Her interest changed into indifference. 
 
 ' I don't think I want any,' she said. ' I 
 can't afford it.' 
 
 ' But I will give it you,' I answered. 
 
 ' Thank you/ she said, c but I do not 
 think it would be useful for any purpose. 
 Some other time, perhaps.' 
 
 c We shan't be at Pagan some other time,' I 
 objected. ' How would you like this box ? 
 It would do to put collars in.' 
 
 ' I have a collar-box, thanks all the same,' she 
 said with perfect courtesy, * and my dressing- 
 case is rather too full for another.' 
 
 So ! She would not accept a present from 
 me ; but I only laughed. 
 
 c Very well,' I said, ' I will buy it for my 
 own collars.' 
 
 Then the raft was unmoored and we went 
 on again for a couple of hours before the 
 dark. At dinner she asked if it was very 
 long before we would come to another station. 
 She inferred that she was dull, but did not 
 say so. And after dinner she wrote letters 
 home with ostentation. ' At least,' her atti- 
 tude declared, ' I have some friends who are
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 287 
 
 reasonable people, and marriage is not every- 
 thing to me.' 
 
 At night there was a frost. 
 
 So we went on with a golden sun outside 
 and a moral fog within. We passed the der- 
 ricks on the hills where they bore for oil. It 
 seems that whereas water-wells are in valleys, 
 oil-wells prefer the crests of hills. We passed 
 the mud volcanoes of Minbu. 
 
 I don't know how many days we took ; it 
 seemed a young eternity passed in an arctic 
 region of perpetual frost and snow. 
 
 It may really have been three days. 
 
 And there seemed every day less and less 
 chance of any change. Her attitude instead 
 of altering for the better grew worse. That 
 she was suffering I could see quite well, but 
 that did not soften her. Indeed it hardened 
 her, for at every pang she said to herself, c His 
 fault, his fault,' and visited on me her great 
 unhappiness. We grew farther and farther 
 apart each hour, each day, each night. She 
 had persuaded herself that she was utterly in 
 the right. 
 
 My heart fell lower and lower. I had often 
 wondered before, when I saw husband and wife 
 drifting apart as I have seen so often how 
 in the intimacy of marriage it could happen. 
 I saw now that it was that very intimacy that 
 caused it, because my constant presence was a 
 constant irritation to her, so that she never had
 
 288 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 time to think or reason calmly about the cause. 
 A sore had been established and my presence, 
 no matter what I did, rubbed the sore and 
 kept it open day and night. And now I 
 understood how marriages can become what 
 they so often are, a misery. Our only chance 
 seemed a separation and to begin afresh. But 
 that could not be done. 
 
 When we passed the fort of Minhla, where 
 the old frontier was and where the first fight 
 of the war occurred in 1885, the outside weather 
 began to change. A heavy bank of clouds 
 came down from the north-east, and I saw 
 that we were in for one of those rare winter 
 rains, which are heavy and are cold and uncom- 
 fortable in proportion to their unseasonable- 
 ness. Therefore, instead of stopping as usual 
 just before sunset, I thought it better to try and 
 make Thayetmyo that night, so that if the rain 
 became heavy and long we should have the 
 comfort and society of a station. 
 
 We drifted on and on down the leaden sur- 
 face of the river. In the west an angry light 
 behind the clouds was all we could see of the 
 sunset. Then a fitful wind began to blow, and 
 almost without warning the rain-storm swooped 
 on us from the left bank. 
 
 It shut us in within a small grey circle of 
 fast waning twilight. We could not see the 
 banks nor even fifty yards ahead. We seemed 
 alone out on an illimitable water-plain. Now
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 289 
 
 that we could not see the banks we seemed 
 quite stationary, yet we drifted we knew not 
 where. 
 
 And the roar of the rain beating upon the 
 river filled our ears. 
 
 Then suddenly there came another sound, 
 the rhythmic beat of paddles. It was a steamer 
 coming up. Soon we could see the flare of 
 searchlights that she had opened to seek her 
 way with through the drift and dark. She was 
 coming round the bend. And a moment later 
 she was upon us. She loomed up out of the 
 rain and gloom like a dark moving mass with 
 a brilliant eye in front. The eye fell upon us. 
 
 I leapt to the oars in the bow to try and 
 pull the raft away towards the bank, and 
 the crew came rushing forward to join me. 
 We pulled for all we were worth. We 
 heard the steamer give a frightened hoot from 
 her siren, her engines stopped. But it was no 
 use. I saw she was running us down. Then 
 I jumped up to go to Lesbia, slipped on the 
 round, wet logs, and heard a crash as the steamer 
 struck the raft. The logs divided and threw 
 me into the water, and by some instinct I dived 
 down. I went down and yet down to escape 
 her paddles till I could dive no more, and then 
 I rose. It seemed an age before I reached the 
 surface. 
 
 When I came up, I found myself alone. 
 All round me was grey water and above the 
 
 T
 
 290 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 night was shutting down. Through the rain 
 and mist I could see the glare of the steamer's 
 light apparently far off. I thought of Lesbia 
 where was she how could I help her save her ; 
 of Po Chon, Po Ka, the crew. All had dis- 
 appeared. I called and called, but there was no 
 answer. I could not swim towards her, for in 
 all this waste of water I did not know where 
 she was. Neither could I swim to land, for 
 I did not know where in the darkness the land 
 lay. I could only keep afloat. And at last I 
 found two logs still fastened together and climbed 
 up on them. They made but an uneasy seat, 
 and of course my legs were in the water ; but 
 it was better than swimming. 
 
 And so I went drifting down the river. I 
 grew colder and became quite numb. There 
 seemed no help for me. Well, if Lesbia were 
 drowned, what did it matter if I drowned too. 
 And if Lesbia were about to become a second 
 Mrs. Tournon, why should I care to escape ? 
 
 I did not care. Let what would come, come.
 
 CHAPTER XX
 
 * You may get oil by pressing sand ; you may find water 
 in the mirage; you may find a horn upon a hare; but 
 nothing this side of death will win over the mind of a 
 stubborn woman.' BHARTEE HARI.
 
 XX 
 
 H how miserable the last few 
 days have been. He does not 
 show the least repentance yet 
 for being a man. Yet I should 
 have thought all men would 
 have recognised how bad they 
 were and been ready to admit it. I would if 
 I were a man. I would have adored and 
 admired and imitated women. He, on the 
 contrary, despises us. I said to him just now, 
 ' I don't see why you should think women 
 are inferior to men in intellect. Look at the 
 famous women there have been.' And I 
 mentioned to him names of women notable in 
 literature and art and science and medicine. 
 I have seen these names in the papers. He 
 ought to have at once seen how wrong he 
 was and given in, but he didn't. What he 
 said was : ' There are exceptions to every 
 rule. The very scarcity of the exceptions 
 proves how general the rule is on the other 
 side.' ' Oh,' I answered, ' but that is only 
 because we women have no chance. Men
 
 294 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 won't allow us any because they are jealous 
 we might best them.' And again he only 
 laughed. That is his invariable answer when 
 he is beaten in argument. He laughs. 
 
 * Those women you mention,' he went on, 
 c are as much representative of the brain of 
 your sex as the bearded women are of its 
 appearance fortunately. Were they the rule 
 instead of the exception the world would soon 
 come to an end. Man doesn't marry his rival 
 but his complement.' 
 
 ' Well,' I answered, ' when we are properly 
 free and educated we shall be happier thus 
 and won't want to marry.' 
 
 ' Neither would men,' he answered, ' but 
 nature has decreed otherwise. She wants 
 babies, you see.' 
 
 That is the way he talks now. He is 
 dreadfully downright and rude, and it is no 
 use appealing to his reason, because he hasn't 
 any. He is all made up of prejudices. He 
 won't allow women any good qualities. He 
 can't see that, except physical strength, women 
 have all the good qualities and men have none. 
 If they succeed better than women, it is because 
 in a bad world bad qualities are most useful. 
 They are suited to a bad world, but we are 
 too good for this world and won't be really 
 appreciated till we get to heaven. 
 
 ' I wonder why you married a woman at 
 all ? ' I ask him presently.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 295 
 
 He looks at me and smiles, and says at last : 
 c I married for the same reason that men have 
 married from the beginning of the world.' 
 
 ' And what is that ? ' I ask stiffly. 
 
 ' There is a legend that tells it better than 
 I can,' he answers. 
 
 4 Then tell me the legend,' I say. 
 
 But he won't. He shakes his head. ' We 
 are not in the humour for legends,' he declares. 
 
 Later on I said to him : ' Men have always 
 taken advantage of women wherever they 
 could. Look at the marriage laws.' 
 
 c What is the matter with them ? ' he asks. 
 
 * How unjust they are to us.' 
 
 c Oh ! ' he answers, ' they are even worse 
 for us. All over the world, except in Burma, 
 marriage laws have been made by priests who 
 do not know anything about humanity. And 
 the principal supporters of priests are always 
 women. In Burma the laws are the outcome 
 of custom, and so though crude are reasonable 
 and just.' 
 
 c I never heard men complain of the marriage 
 laws before,' I say, astonished at his attitude. 
 
 4 Possibly not. We don't make such a fuss 
 about it as you do. But the marriage laws of 
 civilised states are in many ways cruelly unjust 
 to men.' 
 
 ' I never heard of such a thing before,' I 
 say. c In what way ? ' 
 
 ' In a hundred ways. A wife may, for in-
 
 296 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 stance, refuse to be a wife to a man and he 
 has no redress. He can't separate or divorce 
 her. If he seek elsewhere the necessity that 
 she denies him, she can divorce him or separate 
 from him, and, in any case, get the children 
 all for herself.' 
 
 ' Men don't care for children,' I say. 
 
 ' Fathers are as fond of their children, and 
 as necessary to their children as mothers,' he 
 retorts, ' but the law doesn't see this.' 
 
 I know he is all wrong, but it is no good 
 talking to him. Then he goes off to the 
 bows and begins fishing over the side, catching 
 horrible-looking creatures that I won't allow 
 to be cooked for our meals. However, he is 
 quite happy. He finds plenty to do. He talks 
 to the dogs and to Po Chon and Po Ka, and 
 takes little trips in the Deebo to try her new 
 keel, and reads stodgy-looking law-books 
 and whistles. That shows how callous he is 
 he whistles. He doesn't care at all that 
 marriage is a failure. No doubt he expected 
 it would be. 
 
 And he hasn't been taken out of his old life 
 as I have been out of mine. He has all his 
 old resources. I have none except to write to 
 friends, which I do every evening. Of course, 
 I don't tell them what a failure marriage is, 
 because I would never admit that to any one. 
 A good wife covers up her husband's defects. 
 
 And I am doing my best to be a good wife
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 297 
 
 to him. I subordinate myself to him in every- 
 thing. I will not obtrude myself but only 
 obey. That is what men want. He wanted to 
 land and see Pagan, for instance, but he didn't 
 want to say so. He pretended that the only 
 reason he had for going was if it would 
 please me. 
 
 * Do you want to go to Pagan ? ' he asked. 
 
 I said I didn't mind. That made him 
 furious, because he didn't want to say he 
 wished to go. So I had to find an excuse for 
 him. I said Po Chon wanted to stop. 
 
 When we came back, he wanted to buy me 
 some lacquer-work as a bribe, of course. 
 Men think that women can be either bribed 
 or browbeaten into surrendering their dearest 
 opinions. But I wouldn't take it, because I 
 don't want to cause him unnecessary expense. 
 And he wasn't even grateful. 
 
 Oh dear, oh dear ! I have to go to my bed- 
 room every now and then to cry. 
 
 But I wouldn't let him know I cried for 
 anything. 
 
 He would think he was winning. 
 
 He shan't. 
 
 The weather is changing too. This after- 
 noon it began clouding up very fast and a cold 
 wind is blowing. So I go into the salon. He 
 stays outside, of course. He is happier away 
 from me. 
 
 Never mind, I will work at his waistcoat,
 
 298 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 returning good for evil. I only hope it won't 
 burn him when he wears it. 
 
 How the rain pours. He ought to come 
 in. But if I went to tell him he would say 
 he wasn't a baby to be looked after like that. 
 Or rather, he would not say it, only think it, 
 which is worse. I am beginning to know 
 men now. If I had known beforehand what 
 men were like ! Why aren't girls told ? The 
 lies of books. ' They lived happy ever after- 
 wards.' Some day I will write a book. 
 
 There is a steamer coming up. I hear the 
 paddles. It is very dark. I can hardly see 
 to sew. 
 
 What is that awful shriek ? And that 
 ghastly light ? I jump up, my heart beating 
 like mad. It is the steamer's siren. And the 
 light is her searchlight. She is close upon us. 
 I am so terrified I cannot move. Where is 
 he ? What is he doing ? Will he leave me 
 to be drowned all alone ? 
 
 Then I give a scream, for a hand has caught 
 hold of my arm from behind. It is Po Chon. 
 He looks frightened to death and pulls at me 
 hard. ' La ba,' he growls. I know that means 
 c Come.' 
 
 Life suddenly comes back to my limbs, 
 and I tear out after him the back way to 
 where the Deebo is moored behind the bed-
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 299 
 
 room. We both jump in and he unties the 
 rope in a great hurry. Then I become aware 
 of the great black steamer coming out of the 
 rain right on to us. Po Chon gives the boat 
 a push which shoots it away. The steamer 
 strikes the raft forward of the salon. I see 
 the logs crumpling up. A great wave breaks 
 over the raft and nearly capsizes us. There 
 are shouts and screams. We are all going to 
 be drowned, and where is he ? Won't he 
 even come and be drowned with me ? I call 
 out for him, but he does not answer. Then I 
 grow giddy and faint and I fall down into the 
 bottom of the boat. 
 
 First I feel something hurting me as I lie, 
 then I feel very wet and cold, then I wonder 
 where I am and I open my eyes. 
 
 I am half lying in the boat, in the bows is 
 Po Chon, and there is nothing else but mist 
 and water. 
 
 There is no raft, no steamer, no land, nothing 
 at all but darkness and despair. My husband 
 must be drowned and everybody else too, and 
 I don't want to go on living any more. 
 
 There is nothing to do but cry.
 
 CHAPTER XXI
 
 ' New dawn is born out of the night alone.' 
 
 Greek Legend. 
 ' Mors janua vitae.'
 
 XXI 
 
 T the end of the raft there was 
 confusion. The boatman had 
 gone to the bows to row. 
 Po Chon had disappeared ; the 
 cook was saying, ' Swamy, 
 Swamy, Swamy ! ' and wring- 
 ing his hands, and Ma Mie had caught hold 
 of her husband and clung to him as to a life- 
 belt. Waves surged over the raft and nearly 
 washed them away. Then in a few minutes 
 the end of the raft drifted free again, and went 
 on down the river. 
 
 Po Ka put down his wife's arms from his neck 
 and said soothingly : ' There, there, all danger 
 is over now. See, the steamer has gone away.' 
 Ma Mie looked round at the mist and rain 
 that enveloped them and at the steamer that 
 had backed herself free at last and almost 
 disappeared. 
 
 ' Oh ! ' she said with a sob, c I thought we 
 should all be drowned.' 
 
 ' No, no,' said Po Ka, c everything is all right 
 and quite safe now.'
 
 3 o 4 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' But you aren't going away ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' Yes, I must go up and see what has happened 
 to the front part of the raft and the Thakin 
 and Po Chon,' he answered. 
 
 ' Nothing has happened to them,' she 
 asserted, unwilling to let him go. 
 
 'Well, I will go and see,' he answered. 'Go 
 inside now and sit down till I come back.' 
 
 Very reluctantly she did as she was told, and 
 Po Ka went forward. The kitchen was all 
 right, twisted a little, but not damaged, and Po 
 Ka went on to the bedroom joint. Neither 
 was there much amiss here. The flooring had 
 gone a little awry and the bedroom wall had 
 acquired a slant, but nothing was damaged. 
 
 When he came to the salon joint, it was 
 different. It had been nearly wrecked by the 
 paddle-box. Some of the logs had gone, others 
 were twisted this way and that, with big spaces 
 between, and the salon itself was ruined. One 
 wall had given way and the roof had fallen in. 
 Beyond that there was nothing. The two 
 forward joints had gone, leaving but a few 
 ragged ends of ropes trailing in the water. 
 
 Po Ka looked, and his heart sank. Where 
 were his brother, his master, his mistress ? 
 There was no sign of them at all. Even the 
 cook, who was in the kitchen, had seen nothing 
 of them. 
 
 'They must be drowned,' said the head 
 raftsman, who had come up with him.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 305 
 
 * No, no,* said Po Ka, shaking his head. 
 
 4 Then where are they ?' asked the raftsman. 
 
 'Perhaps they climbed on the steamer, per- 
 haps they are drifting down the river on logs,' 
 said Po Ka. 
 
 'They are drowned,' repeated the raftsman. 
 
 'They are not,' declared Po Ka angrily. 
 
 ' Well, what are we to do ? ' asked the man. 
 
 Po Ka looked out at the dim grey river and 
 the mist and rain. The steamer was gone. 
 No doubt her captain thought the raft only 
 an ordinary timber raft and that no one would 
 be hurt, so he steamed on up the river. There 
 was nothing now in sight. 
 
 ' We must get to shore as soon as possible,' 
 said Po Ka. 
 
 But that was not so easy. The steamer 
 when entangled with the raft had dragged her 
 out into the middle of the river. There was 
 no bank in sight, and with only the stern oars 
 available it would be hard to get her in. 
 
 They did their best, but the night had come 
 before they had moored below a village on the 
 farther bank. 
 
 Then Po Ka landed to tell the headman to 
 send a messenger to the nearest police station. 
 Thence it was telegraphed to Thayetmyo. 
 Before ten all the station knew that Gallic 
 and his wife were lost, were drowned perhaps 
 already, or were drifting down the river no one 
 knew where. 
 
 u
 
 306 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 Yet till the morning nothing could be done. 
 No help could be given. The Laughing 
 Cavalier with two others went down to the 
 steps where the launches lay and gazed across 
 the water. It flowed down silently, holding 
 its secret as it has held so many. In the dark 
 night the waters seemed illimitable, an emblem 
 of that life that comes we know not whence 
 and passes always to the sea. It was a Laugh- 
 ing Cavalier no more, but a very sad and 
 silent man who stood beside the river. Birth, 
 marriage, and death, sorrow and pleasure, hope 
 and fear, and peace and war, all yesterdays, 
 to-day, and all to-morrows, they are one. 
 
 He turned to the others. ' At dawn, I will 
 be off to look for them.' 
 
 ' We also,' was the answer.
 
 CHAPTER XXII
 
 'Faire naitre un desir, le nourrir, le developper, le grandir, 
 1'irriter, le satisfaire, c'est un poeme tout entier.' 
 
 BALZAC.
 
 ;EJABERS,' says I to myself 
 as I stopped at the gate and 
 looked in, ' it 's wrong we 
 were to be anxious about you 
 at all, at all. Just look at the 
 spalpeens, then ! ' 
 And indadethey seemed comfortable enough. 
 There was a big tamarind-tree before the 
 headman's house, and under it was a chibutra 
 of bamboo. And there, reclining quite at their 
 ease on coloured rugs, were the Gallios we were 
 all bemoaning as drowned. Both of them were 
 dressed in Burmese clothes a little too small 
 for them ; both had bare feet and legs, and Mrs. 
 Gallio's hair was all down her back. But they 
 didn't seem to mind about that and were col- 
 loguing together as thick as thieves and laughing 
 all the time. Twolittle naked Burmese children 
 were regarding them with awe and admiration 
 from a distance, and in a corner of the compound 
 I could see Po Chon busy in an improvised 
 kitchen. The clear morning sunshine broke 
 and flickered through the leaves overhead and
 
 310 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 a great purple creeper made a background like 
 a royal curtain. 
 
 ' And there 's a hundred miles of river search- 
 ing for you and bewailing you,' thinks I to 
 myself. But we did ought to have known 
 better about Gallic at all events. 
 
 Just then Mrs. Gallic got up and, putting 
 her feet into a pair of Burmese sandals, started 
 limpingofftoPoChon'skitchen,andI walkedin. 
 
 * Hallo/ says I to Gallic. 
 
 ' Hallo,' says he, staring at me. ' I 'm blessed 
 if it isn't Franz again. Look here, Franz. 
 Can't a fellow get ship wrecked any where with- 
 out you turning up immediately after ? ' And 
 he laughed. ' Not but what I 'm glad to see 
 you, old fellow,' he continued, making room 
 on the chibutra. ' Come and sit down and 
 for humanity's sake give me a decent cigar. 
 It 's nearly dead I am, smoking these white 
 Burmese cigars and trying to get a taste out 
 of them.' 
 
 ' Gallic,' says I reprovingly, ' d' you know 
 that thousands of square miles of country are 
 deploring your loss and looking for you ? ' 
 
 4 No,' says he, lighting the cigar ; ' how did 
 all thesesquare miles know any thing about me ?' 
 
 ' Why,' says I, ' when Po Ka got ashore after 
 dark he sent news to the nearest police station, 
 and they telegraphed far and wide that you 
 and Mrs. Gallic and Po Chon were drowned. 
 The news reached me at Thayetmyo about
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 311 
 
 ten o'clock, and at dawn three launches started 
 to find you.' 
 
 ' Are you one ? ' he asks. * How did you 
 know we were here ? ' 
 
 ' I am,' says I. ' As I came along I saw 
 the Deebo rocking there below, so I landed 
 to inquire. What do you mean by it, anyhow ? 
 And how did you get here ? Why aren't you 
 drowned ? ' 
 
 ' I don't know,' says he. ' I just went drift- 
 ing down on a log till the rain cleared off and 
 I could see. Then I got ashore at a village 
 below here. Early this morning they brought 
 me news that the raft was all right on the 
 other bank and that my wife and Po Chon 
 had landed here out of a boat, so I came up 
 and found them. Looks nice in Burmese kit, 
 don't she, Franz ? ' 
 
 Well, and she did. She seemed just like 
 a schoolgirl with her hair down like that. 
 ' What 's she doing there ? ' I asked. 
 
 4 Oh, I forgot,' says he. ' She 's cooking 
 breakfast and you '11 have to help to eat it, 
 Franz. Lucky you came, eh ? ' 
 
 Then Mrs. Gallio left her kitchen and came 
 towards us. When she saw me she stopped 
 and looked confused. 
 
 'Come along, Lesbia,' said Gallio. 'It's 
 only Franz Hals, you know. He 's accustomed 
 to your fancy dress ' ; and Mrs. Gallio pulled 
 herself together and came up. ' It 's becoming
 
 3 12 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 a habit of Franz to find people who have been 
 shipwrecked/ says he. ' You should be careful, 
 or it may grow on you,' says he to me. 
 
 ' I hope,' says Mrs. Gallio, ' that you will 
 let it grow on you, Mr. Hals, and that when- 
 ever we are shipwrecked you will always find 
 us/ 
 
 ' Anyhow, it's not such a bad habit as getting 
 shipwrecked,' says I. ' You won't keep on 
 doing it, will you ? ' 
 
 But Gallio only laughed. 'That's as may 
 be,' says he. ' It isn't a bad habit at all. It 's 
 a very good habit. I am very glad I was 
 shipwrecked, aren't you, Lesbia ? ' 
 
 And to my surprise she looks at him and 
 laughs and blushes and nods. Faith, and I 
 stared at her, then I looked at her, then I looked 
 away. For I think that she had tears in her 
 blue eyes and Gallio also. I wondered what 
 it meant. 
 
 Then Gallio says : ' What time 's breakfast, 
 Lesbia ? Franz says he 's hungry.' 
 
 ' Oh,' she says, and looks at me, ' are you 
 wanting breakfast ? ' 
 
 'Of course he is,' says Gallio. 'Hunger 
 and thirst are chronic with Franz. You would 
 not grudge him food.' 
 
 ' No-o,' she says, ' but there isn't much for 
 breakfast, Mr. Hals, only what we could get 
 in the village, and no proper pans or anything 
 to cook with, and no proper cook.'
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 313 
 
 4 That 's herself,' laughs Gallic. ' She is the 
 improper cook.' 
 
 4 It doesn't matter for me if it isn't very good, 
 because I don't eat much,' she continues, 4 nor 
 yet for him, because he's bound by law and 
 custom to eat what his wife cooks, and like it 
 too, but you ! ' 
 
 4 Yes, you're a free man,' says Gallic. 
 
 4 1 'm not going away,' I says. * It '11 be a 
 grand breakfast for sure, and I won't want law 
 or custom to make me like it. I Ve only got 
 cold bully-beef in the launch and do you 
 remember it on the frontier, Gallic ? ' 
 
 4 Lord ! ' says he, turning up his nose, 4 we 
 lived on it for months.' 
 
 4 Very well,' says she resignedly, 4 you are 
 warned, and as it's ready I'll tell Po Chon.' 
 
 So she calls to Po Chon, and presently he 
 brings it on two red-lacquered trays, and a jolly 
 good breakfast it was, though how she and Po 
 Chon cooked it beats me. There was river- 
 fish roasted on sticks, a baked partridge and 
 a great heap of white rice with egg curry in a 
 bowl. We ate it all with our fingers because 
 we had no forks or spoons and only one knife, 
 but that difficulty didn't stop us. We finished 
 everything there was. 
 
 * A better breakfast,' says I, washing my 
 fingers in a bowl Po Chon brought along, ' I 
 never ate.' 
 
 4 Honest Injun ? ' she asks, looking at me.
 
 314 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 ' On the faith of an Irishman,' says I. c It 
 tasted fine.' 
 
 ' And you '11 promise that it won't make you 
 ill,' says she anxiously, ' eating so much just to 
 please me.' 
 
 ' 111 ? ' says I, while Gallic roars with laughter. 
 ' 111 ? I never was ill in all my life.' 
 
 'Well, then,' says she, 4 we'll just have an 
 hour's rest before we go down to the launch 
 and you take us back to civilisation, and my 
 husband shall tell us a fairy tale.' 
 
 ' Franz won't care for fairy tales,' says Gallic. 
 
 4 Oh yes, he will,' says she, 4 your kind of 
 fairy tale. D' you know,' says she to me, 
 ' that my husband says that all the real legends 
 and myths and fairy tales are true.' 
 
 ' Indade,' says I, ' and how does he make 
 that out ? ' 
 
 ' He says they are allegories of life,' says 
 she, ' made by great seers before the world's 
 eyes were blinded. He says they are true, 
 as true now as when they were composed ; 
 that all the tales of Zeus and the other gods 
 are true.' 
 
 ' Indade,' says I. ' Well, maybe he 's 
 right. Those old Greeks were no fools, 
 Mrs. Gallic, and they did not talk without a 
 reason. Has he found the reason ? ' 
 
 ' He says he has,' says she. ' He 's told 
 me many, and all of them are true, as I can 
 see when he explains them. Whenever we
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 315 
 
 get to a difficulty, he tells me that people 
 thousands of years ago found the same trouble 
 and also found the answer. Then he tells 
 me a tale, and I see it 's true.' 
 
 ' Go on,' says I. 
 
 4 Which do you want ? ' asks he. 
 
 'You know,' she answers, and she looks 
 at him. * You know. Yesterday, upon the 
 raft ' and she stops and smiles at him. 
 
 ' Oh, that ? ' say she. 
 
 'Yes, that.' 
 
 ' Very well,' says he. ' Here goes.' 
 
 4 Once upon a time there was a marriage- 
 feast up there in Olympus, where the gods 
 live, and all the gods and goddesses were 
 there but one.' 
 
 ' Which was that ? ' asks she. 
 
 ' Discord,' says he. ' They didn't want 
 her at the feast, so they didn't invite her. 
 She was angry, naturally, and determined on 
 revenge, so when they were all enjoying 
 themselves at table she came suddenly in and 
 threw a golden apple on to the board and 
 fled. The gods picked up the apple and 
 found it was inscribed, ' For the most fair,' so 
 the goddesses Hera and Pallas and Aphrodite 
 each claimed it. Zeus would not decide 
 between them, but referred them to Paris, 
 the herdsman of Mount Ida, who would judge.' 
 
 ' Who was Paris and why to him ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' Paris is Franz, and me, and every man
 
 3 i6 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 that ever lived, or will live,' answered Gallic, 
 ' and it is for him to decide what is fairest 
 in his eyes.' 
 
 ' Aha,' thinks I to myself, 'that 's news to me 
 that I am Paris,' and I listens more carefully. 
 
 c The goddesses came to Paris one by one. 
 " Give me the apple," Hera commanded, "for 
 I am Power and Wealth, which shall be 
 yours," but Paris held his hand. 
 
 ' " Give me the apple," Pallas said, " for I 
 am Wisdom, and you shall be wise." 
 
 '" Give me the apple," Aphrodite whispered, 
 "for I am Love, and I will give you Love." 
 
 Gallic stopped and laughed. 
 
 'Go on,' says Mrs. Gallic, 'which did he 
 choose ? ' 
 
 ' Paris,' said Gallio to me, ' what did we 
 do ? Which did we choose ? Which will 
 we always choose ? Do we want as our 
 wives' dowries wealth and power, do we 
 want wisdom, or do we choose love ? ' He 
 laughed, and Mrs. Gallio looked at me. 
 
 'In faith,' says I, 'Aphrodite's my girl. 
 Wealth and power and wisdom we can win 
 ourselves or do without, but only a wife can 
 give us love.' 
 
 'You hear what Paris says,' and Gallio 
 looked at her. 
 
 She thought I didn't see, but I saw well 
 enough that she put her hand on his and 
 pressed it. I pretended to be looking at the
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 317 
 
 two little naked Cupids who were always 
 gazing at Mrs. Gallio. 
 
 'Besides,' said Gallio in a reflective tone, 
 ' if you choose Aphrodite, the others may be 
 added to you.' 
 
 'That 's a new gloss,' says I, ' and I 'm sure 
 my old dominie would never have admitted it.' 
 
 ' Maybe,' says Gallio, ' but it 's true/ 
 
 ' It 's also true,' said I, ' that there was dis- 
 cord when Paris chose Love Pallas thought 
 he ought to have chosen her. Faith, and 
 there's trouble still about that same.' But the 
 Gallios only looked at each other and laughed. 
 
 So we talked a little more, and then we 
 went down to my launch. 
 
 What a change, thinks I, has come over 
 these since I met them first a fortnight or so 
 ago. Then they were two still, each ever 
 conscious of each other, talking at each other, 
 showing off, studying the other, rivals in a 
 way. Now it was different. They had 
 accepted each other for better and for worse, 
 had become one, not two. They were still 
 conscious of each other, but only as the right 
 hand is of the left, as the eyes are of the 
 mouth, complementary parts in one whole. 
 
 I wonder, was it the shipwreck that did 
 this ? Then should all married couples be 
 shipwrecked and some drowned. Gallio has 
 luck even in his accidents.
 
 3 i8 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 I took them up to their raft, and found it 
 moored against the bank with nothing lost. 
 But it was much shattered. The front two 
 joints were gone, and the salon was broken. 
 They looked at it in dismay. 
 
 c We can never mend it,' Gallic said, c and 
 after all it 's done its work. What do you 
 say, my dear ? we '11 take the steamer now.' 
 
 ' We couldn't begin again,' she said. * We 've 
 had our voyage.' 
 
 ' And learnt the river ? ' 
 
 She laughed. c And learnt the river. It 
 nearly drowned us ' 
 
 ' And are you sorry ? ' 
 
 She shook her head and smiled. 
 
 So I took them to the station, and next 
 day they left us. 
 
 ' Good-bye,' they said. ' Good-bye.' 
 
 4 Come home and see us,' Gallio said. 
 
 ' Come home and marry,' said Mrs. Gallio. 
 
 * He shan't,' said Gallio. ' He shall be 
 the Laughing Cavalier still. Marriage is a 
 serious matter.' 
 
 ' What then ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' Though we be virtuous shall there be no 
 more cakes and ale ? Yet such do not become 
 the married man. Good-bye.' 
 
 The steamer moved away, and I waved my 
 hand to them. Faith, I was sorry they were 
 gone. But marriage is too serious for me. 
 I mind me there is a legend about that too.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII
 
 ' That marriage only lives which is instinct with love. 
 The marriage of such as lack love is but a rotten carcass 
 covered with skin.' Kural.
 
 XXIII 
 
 E are on the steamer passing to 
 the sea. We stand quite close 
 together leaning upon the rail 
 and watching the low banks 
 go swiftly by. It is our river 
 still, and this is near the end 
 of its life journey. How far has it not come 
 since first we saw it emerging from the hills 
 where it was born, two streams to be one river. 
 What has it not done and learnt since then ? 
 
 Its waters are very muddy now, thick with 
 dense silt that it has picked up on its way and 
 brought down to its ending. It has done its 
 work, and it is stained and tired. Had it kept 
 itself as clear as when it started, it had not done 
 its work. What matter the stains ? It passes 
 to the sea, there to forget itself and merge in 
 the great ocean. Before it leaves the land for 
 the great deeps it will drop all its silt and 
 become part of the clear blue tides that ebb 
 and flow throughout the world. And it does 
 not hesitate, it does not fear. It runs as 
 swiftly as above.
 
 322 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 And we, what have we learned since that 
 morning when our streams were joined up in 
 the hills ? We have learned what marriage is 
 not, and what marriage is. Marriage is not a 
 ceremony made by Church nor State ; it lies 
 in no empty words, it is no tie, no matrimonial 
 chain. It is a living, growing, changing 
 state wherein two opposites are blended into 
 one. 
 
 There are two loves in marriage. The 
 first is of the flesh ; it is that call of nature 
 desiring intelligent children for her future 
 which shows the combination that will give 
 her such. This love is in our instinct, it is 
 despite ourselves. She knows, she calls, we 
 can obey or can deny ; we can't create nor 
 change nor stifle. It comes to us unbidden, it 
 is the cry of flint to steel. 
 
 It is the base on which alone the other love 
 can grow. For it creates in the beginning 
 close companionship, which is a necessity for 
 the germination of the other. It creates 
 pleasure in one another, it awakens and stimu- 
 lates the emotions which feed the other love. 
 
 The second love is of the spirit, its name is 
 understanding. Out of the first conflict of 
 two opposites there grows a mutual respect 
 and knowledge. Each learns that the other 
 is complementary and therefore necessary. 
 Neither seeks to convince the other, to im- 
 pose his views upon the other's sight. Two
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 323 
 
 eyes are necessary. Did one eye renounce its 
 function then were all perspective lost. Each 
 has a point of view quite different from the 
 other, and each is true. Were either to re- 
 nounce his sex, then were all balance gone. 
 And if the salt have lost its savour wherewith 
 can it be salted ? A man who sees as a woman 
 sees, a woman who sees as a man, what are 
 they fit for ? Not for love. We love each 
 other because we are man and woman. 
 
 ' Man gives and Woman takes, 
 Man makes and Woman saves, 
 Man sees large and Woman small, 
 Man makes the world, Woman the home, 
 Man is the poet, Woman the audience, 
 Man would sacrifice his home for the world's sake, 
 Woman would sacrifice the world for her home's sake, 
 Man joins but Woman separates.' 
 
 And many other antagonisms we have learned, 
 yet we fight no more, for we have learned 
 that each is necessary to the other. We are 
 not enemies but friends ; the closer that we 
 complement each other, and the truer each is 
 to his own sex, the better is each to the other. 
 
 We have learned this, that for either to 
 renounce his sex would be ruin to both, for 
 Man and Woman are not two, but one, and 
 what hurts either hurts both. 
 
 So out of mutual difference grows our love. 
 
 Every day we learn more of each other 
 by effort that never ceases. Marriage is a
 
 324 LOVE'S LEGEND 
 
 perpetual struggle to keep the balance true, 
 to understand, for tout comprendre c'est tout 
 pardonner. It grows for ever, for what does 
 not grow is dead, and dead things putrefy. 
 And we have made a promise to each other 
 and ourselves. 
 
 If ever true marriage should cease, if ever 
 we should find that we are drifting apart, not 
 growing together, we will be honest and con- 
 fess it. We will not make a mockery of this 
 sacred thing. If, despite all our efforts, all 
 our spiritual love should die, then we will 
 recognise this truth. Marriage will have 
 ceased for us, and we care not for mockeries 
 and chains. 
 
 We take this promise in all sincerity and 
 truth, and laugh. For our marriage shall not 
 cease. We will not leave our happiness to 
 chance nor custom, but we will work by every 
 thought and act to keep it true. Those who 
 wish for peace prepare for war. Only by 
 keeping always strong and true and brave can 
 you ward off war and the disaster that it 
 brings. It is the same in marriage ; only 
 by realising that disaster is bound to come 
 unless we daily strive to keep it off can it be 
 avoided. 
 
 ' The chains of matrimony ' that is a 
 Church phrase. 
 
 So we pass on.
 
 LOVE'S LEGEND 325 
 
 The banks have almost vanished now. 
 Our river merges fast into the sea. Its 
 waters now are less and less muddy, and they 
 toss already with the freedom of the sea. 
 
 Our river passes. So our lives will pass 
 sometime into that sea from whence we came, 
 to which we all return again. All rivers run 
 into the sea, yet is not the sea full ; unto the 
 place from whence the rivers come, thither 
 they return again. 
 
 And so is life, for ever, ever, evermore. 
 
 Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty 
 at the Edinburgh University Press
 
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