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diff --git a/37821.txt b/37821.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..74f54ad --- /dev/null +++ b/37821.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7452 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Woman Who Vowed, by Ellison Harding + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Woman Who Vowed + The Demetrian + +Author: Ellison Harding + +Release Date: October 22, 2011 [EBook #37821] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMAN WHO VOWED *** + + + + +Produced by Anna Hall and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + _NEW SIX SHILLING NOVELS._ + + + THE BLUE LAGOON. By H. DE VERE STACPOOLE. + EVE'S APPLE. By ALPHONSE COURLANDER. + PARADISE COURT. By J. S. FLETCHER. + THE TRAITOR'S WIFE. By W. H. WILLIAMSON. + MAROZIA. By A. G. HALES. + + LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN. + + + + + THE WOMAN WHO VOWED + (THE DEMETRIAN) + + BY + ELLISON HARDING + + [Illustration] + + LONDON + T. FISHER UNWIN + ADELPHI TERRACE + MCMVIII + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. A Goddess and a Comic Song 7 + II. Harvesting and Harmony 21 + III. The Cult of Demeter 37 + IV. Anna of Ann 53 + V. Irene 63 + VI. Neaera 77 + VII. A Tragic Denouement 94 + VIII. How the Cult was Founded 101 + IX. How It Might be Undermined 119 + X. An Unexpected Solution 127 + XI. The Plot Thickens 135 + XII. Neaera's Idea of Diplomacy 144 + XIII. Neaera Makes New Arrangements 150 + XIV. "I Consented" 162 + XV. The High Priest of Demeter 171 + XVI. Anna's Secret 183 + XVII. Designs on Anna of Ann 190 + XVIII. A Dream 200 + XIX. The Legislature Meets 207 + XX. On Flavors and Finance 219 + XXI. The Investigating Committee 226 + XXII. "Treasons, Stratagems, and Spoils" 238 + XXIII. A Libel 249 + XXIV. Neaera Again 259 + XXV. The Libel Investigated 266 + XXVI. The Election 285 + XXVII. The Joint Session 293 + XXVIII. Lydia to the Rescue 302 + Conclusion 315 + + + + +THE DEMETRIAN + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A GODDESS AND A COMIC SONG + + +I remember awakening with a start, conscious of a face bending over me +that was beautiful and strange. + +I was quite unable to account for myself, and my surprise was heightened +by the singular dress of the woman I saw. It was Greek--not of modern +but of ancient Greece. + +What had happened? Had I been acting in a Greek play and been stunned by +an accident to the scenery? No; the grass upon which I was lying was +damp, and a sharp twinge between the shoulders told me I had been there +already too long. What, then, was the meaning of this classic dress? + +I raised myself on one arm; and the young woman who had been kneeling +beside me arose also. I was dazed, and shaded my eyes from the sun on +the horizon--whether setting or rising I could not tell. I fixed my eyes +upon the feet of my companion; they were curiously shod in soft +leather, for cleanliness rather than for protection; tightly laced from +the toe to the ankle and half way up the leg--half-moccasin and +half-cothurnus. I fixed my eyes upon them and slowly became quite sure +that I was alive and awake, but seemed still dazed and unwilling to look +up. Presently she spoke. + +"Are you ill?" she asked. + +"I don't think so," answered I, as I lifted my eyes to hers. + +When our eyes met I jumped to my feet with an alertness so fresh and +fruitful that I seemed to myself to have risen anew from the Fountain of +Youth. A miracle had happened. I was dead and had come to life +again--and apparently this time in the Olympian world. + +"Here!" I exclaimed; "or Athene! Cytherea, or Artemis!" + +Then quickly the look of sympathetic concern that I had just seen in her +eyes vanished. A ripple of laughter passed over her face like the first +touch of a breeze on a becalmed sea; for a moment she seemed to restrain +it, but her merriment awakened mine, and on perceiving it she abandoned +all restraint and burst into a laugh that was musical, bewitching, and +contagious. We stood there a full minute, both of us laughing, though I +did not understand why. She soon explained. + +"Where on earth do you come from, Xenos, and where--_where_ did you get +_those_ things?" She pointed to my pantaloons as she spoke. + +Then I discovered how ridiculous I appeared. + +"And why have they cut all the hair off your face and left that ugly +little stubble?" + +I put my hand to my chin and felt there a beard of several days' growth. + +"It must prick dreadfully," she said; and coming up to me she daintily +passed a soft, rosy finger over my cheek. I caught her hand and kissed +it. She jumped away from me like a fawn. + +"Take care, young man," she said, reprovingly but not reproachfully; +"though I don't suppose you are very young, for I see some gray in your +hair." + +I don't suppose I liked being reminded of my years, but I was altogether +too much absorbed in the richness of her beauty and health to be +concerned about myself. And the subtle combination of freedom and +reserve in her manner conveyed to me an indescribable charm. At one +moment it tempted me to trespass, but at the next I became aware that +such an attempt would meet with humiliating resistance; for she was tall +and strong. Her one rapid movement away from me proved her agility. She +was perfectly able to take care of herself. Her consciousness of this +had enabled her to meet my first advance with unruffled good humor, but +I felt sure that persistence on my part would elicit repulsion and +perhaps scorn. + +We stood a moment smiling at each other; then she said: + +"Come, you must take off those dreadful things; why, you are wet +through"--and she passed her hand over my back--"and you must tell me +what you are and where you come from. But you are chilled now and need +something warm, so come to the Hall and you can tell me as we go." + +As she spoke she swung to her head a basket I had not before observed; +it was heavy, for she straightened herself to support it; and the +weight, until she balanced it, brought out the muscles of her neck. She +put her arms akimbo and showed the way. + +"Well," she said, as we walked together side by side, "when are you +going to begin?" + +"How and where shall I begin?" answered I. "You forget that I too have +questions to ask; I am bewildered. Who and what are you? In what country +am I? Where did you get that beautiful dress?" I stepped a little away +from her to observe the beauty of her form. + +"We try to make all our garments beautiful," she answered, simply; "but +this is the common dress of all--or rather the dress commonly worn in +the country. We dress a little differently in town--but what do you find +peculiar in my attire? What else could I wear out in the fields?" + +I looked at the drapery, which did not hang lower than the knee; at the +girdle that barely indicated the waist; at the chiton gathered by a +brooch on one shoulder, leaving bare the whole length of her richly +moulded arm. + +"I would not have you wear anything else," said I, restraining my +admiration; "but our women dress differently." + +"Tell me about them," said she. + +"I will," answered I, "but tell _me_ first where I am and where we are +going?" + +"You are near a place called Tyringham," answered she, "and you are +going with me to breakfast at the Hall." + +As she spoke we were walking down a grassy slope and came in sight of a +meadow on the left, through which meandered a crystal stream; it flowed +from the right of the hill on which we stood, and just below where it +fell in cascades over successive ledges it was straddled by a mill +smothered in jasmine and purple clematis. The moment the mill came in +sight my companion uttered a loud call that came echoing back to us from +the surrounding hills. Her call was answered by several voices, and soon +there came to meet us a youth as handsome in his way as my own +companion. He, too, wore the Greek dress; he was about eighteen years of +age and so like the girl that I guessed at once he was her brother. He +put me out of countenance by staring at me with open-mouthed wonder and +then bursting into an uncontrolled roar of laughter. But his sister took +him by the arm and shook him. + +"Stop laughing," she said. "Don't you see he doesn't like it?" + +The boy stopped immediately--for I confess his laughter was not as +agreeable to me as hers--and there came upon him an expression of the +gentlest solicitude. + +"I am sorry," he said, with tears of laughter still in his eyes; "I +thought you were playing a joke on us." + +I tried to look pleasant. + +"I cannot at all account for myself," I said, "or for you; I suppose a +long time has elapsed since I went to sleep; so long that I hardly +remember where it was, though I think it was in Boston--in my bachelor +quarters there." + +They both looked puzzled and concerned. + +"And what is your name?" asked the girl. + +"Henry T. Joyce," answered I. + +I could see that my very name amused them though they tried to conceal +it. + +"And yours?" asked I of the girl. + +"Lydia--Lydia second, or more correctly, Lydia of Lydia." + +"That means," said the boy, "that her mother's name was Lydia; and so I +call myself Cleon of Lydia, because, my mother's name was Lydia. She," +he added, pointing to the girl, "is my sister." + +He was dressed, like her, in a simple tunic coming to the knees, and was +shod like her also; but the tunic was not pinned up on one shoulder: it +had sleeves like our jacket. + +We were walking down the hill and came now in sight of a group of +buildings entirely of wood, of a beauty that made them a delight to +behold. One much larger than the others reminded me of what Westminster +Hall would be if separated from the more recent Houses of Parliament. It +was lighted by large Gothic windows that started from above a covered +veranda; the veranda offered countless opportunities for surprises in +the way of carved pillars, twisting staircases, and subsidiary +balconies, every corner being smothered in vines and bursting into +blossoms of varied hue. Clearly the upper part of the building was a +large hall, and the lower part split up into smaller rooms. Near this +Hall and connected with it by covered ways were numerous other +buildings, all different, but conforming to the lay of the land on +either side of a torrent, upon one level reach of which stood the mill +in the same quaint style. + +"Our power house," said Cleon, pointing to it. + +I thought of the hideous masonry that ruined the valley of the Inn +between San Moritz and Celerina in the old days, and I wondered. But my +eyes were too much bent on the beautiful lines of Lydia's form to linger +long on the mill or its adjacent buildings. I had fallen behind her in +order to be able to take better account of her. The weight of the basket +on her head brought out the strength of her shoulders and the rhythmic +movement of her body. Every time she turned to speak to us her hands +left the waist in an unconscious effort to maintain her balance, thus +throwing into relief the rounded outline of her arm and the delicacy of +her wrist. "Alma venus genitrix," thought I, "hominum divumque +voluptas." + +Cleon kept talking all the way, interrupted occasionally by Lydia. He +explained all the buildings to me and their respective uses. As we +approached the Hall we met several other young men and women who joined +us, for all were going in the same direction. Each expressed the same +surprise and amusement on beholding me; they joined Lydia, who with an +air of importance repeated her story to every one. I felt more +comfortable between Lydia and Cleon and had therefore joined the brother +and sister, so as to have the protection of one of them on either side. + +When we reached the Hall, Cleon suggested that I must feel uncomfortable +in my damp clothes and took me to the men's quarters. He provided me +with all that was necessary for a complete toilet. A large swimming tank +occupied the basement of the building, and into it I was glad to plunge. +After I had shaved--for a razor was provided--I assumed the simple +garment of my neighbors and for the first time felt ashamed of the +whiteness of my skin. By the side of the swarthy limbs about me my arms +and legs looked naked and pitiful. I was extremely hungry, however, and +my appetite overcame my reluctance at facing the crowd that I felt was +awaiting me at the Hall. As we approached it we heard echoes of song +and laughter. + +"They have finished breakfast," said Cleon, pushing me through the open +doorway. + +Our entrance was unobserved, for they were all engaged in singing; the +words I heard in chorus were "The Lightning Calculator!" They all +stamped at each alternate syllable and I noticed that Lydia was the +centre of observation. She was flushed, half with vexation and half with +merriment, and was being held by a crowd of girls who prevented her from +interfering with the soloist, who, standing on a chair with a guitar, +was improvising. + +I could not hear the words distinctly from where I stood but caught +something about a certain Chairo, at the mention of whose name there was +a laugh, and the stanza closed, as had the last, with "The Lightning +Calculator," whereupon all laughed again and stamped as they repeated in +chorus "The Light-ning Cal-cu-la-tor." + +"That's my sister," said Cleon to me in a whisper. "She's the Lightning +Calculator." + +In the next stanza, which was quite unintelligible to me, I noticed an +allusion to Demeter, at which the women looked shocked and the men +delighted. I was wondering at the significance of this when Lydia +discovered me, and, delighted to divert attention from herself by +directing it toward me, she said to the tormentors who were holding her: +"There he is!"--and she nodded in my direction. + +Immediately all eyes were turned toward me and I became painfully +conscious of my bare white legs. The young man with the guitar stepped +down from his chair and came to me. + +"Welcome to Tyringham," said he. "We don't know how you got here or +where you come from, but we are ready to answer questions and willing to +ask none." + +I stammered something in answer and was led to a table where two places +had been left for us. Cleon and I sat down and food was brought. Lydia +asked me a few conventional questions to put me at my ease; but hardly +succeeded, for seemingly some hundreds were engaged in staring at me. At +last some one pushed the soloist by the arm. "One more verse, Ariston," +said he, and Ariston jumped on the chair again, and, twanging his +guitar, resumed: + + "Of swarthy skins she tires soon + To her new things must cater, + So now she's found a pantaloon-- + The Lightning Calculator." + +My legs were well under the table so I could join in the laugh, secretly +satisfied to be associated with her even in the jingling nonsense of a +comic song. + +"Boobies!" exclaimed Lydia, "and Babies!" she added. "Boobies and +Babies!" She ran to the door and they all followed her, boisterously +laughing, and leaving me alone with Cleon. + +"I didn't understand much of it," said I. "Who is Chairo?" + +"Chairo is a great man; one of our great men; the youngest of them; he +may become anything; but he is not popular because he is so +dictatorial." + +"And he is in love with Lydia?" + +"Frightfully in love." + +"And Lydia?" + +"Ah! no one knows; she's very sly, Lydia"; and Cleon chuckled to +himself. + +"And why did everybody look at one another when Ariston sang about +Demeter?" + +"Well, the women don't like to have it talked about." + +I was puzzled. + +"Do tell me about it," I said, "for I know nothing about Demeter except +what I have read in my classics." + +"Well, Demeter, you see"--but he blushed and stammered--"I really never +had it altogether explained to me; the women never talk of it, and yet +the Cult, as they call it, 'the Cult of Demeter,' is the most important +thing to them in the world." + +I went on eating my breakfast and trying to guess what Cleon was driving +at, but altogether failed. + +"What does this Cult of Demeter have to do with your sister?" I asked at +last. + +"Why," answered Cleon, looking round cautiously and lowering his voice, +"Lydia is a Demetrian." + +"What does that mean--'Demetrian'?" + +"It means that she has been selected by Demeter." + +"Do try to remember," I said a little impatiently, "that I know nothing +about your Demeter and can make neither head nor tail of what you are +saying." + +The irritation I felt made me aware that I was jealous of Chairo, +jealous of Demeter, and infatuated with Lydia. Cleon's half explanations +seemed to be putting Lydia out of my reach, and I was exasperated at not +being able to understand just how far. + +"Well," answered Cleon, "I don't know whether I ought to tell you, but +it's this way: Lydia is awfully clever at figures. She can square any +ten of them; add any number of columns; multiply any number by any +number all in a flash. And so she's been selected by Demeter; that is to +say, I suppose, they are going to marry her to some great +mathematician." + +"What!" exclaimed I, indignantly. "They are going to sacrifice her to a +mathematician?" + +"Sacrifice!" retorted Cleon with open eyes. "Why, it isn't a sacrifice! +It is the greatest honor a woman can have!" + +"And what does Lydia say to it?" + +"She hasn't made up her mind." + +"Oh, then, she has to be consulted," said I, relieved. "She cannot be +compelled." + +"Oh, no," answered Cleon, "she is selected--that is to say, the honor is +offered to her; she may not accept it if she does not like; but a girl +seldom refuses. She is no more likely to refuse the mission of Demeter +than Chairo would be to refuse the Presidency. It is very hard work +being President--very wearing; in fact, I should think it would be an +awful bore; but nobody ever refuses it, because of the honor. I suppose +it is the same thing with the mission of Demeter." + +I was more and more puzzled, but despaired of getting satisfaction from +Cleon. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HARVESTING AND HARMONY + + +We had finished breakfast now, and my hunger satisfied, I was free to +look about me a little. The hall was lofty, and the roof supported by +Gothic arches, sculptured by hands that had enjoyed the work; for +although the design of the building was simple and dignified it was +covered with ornaments of bewildering complexity. We were waited on by +women who could not be distinguished from those upon whom they waited; +of every age and of every type, most of them were glowing with health +and cheerfulness. They laughed a great deal with one another, and +offered me advice as to what they put before me; warned me when a dish +was hot, and recommended the cream as particularly fresh and sweet. They +made me feel as though I had been there for years and knew every one of +them intimately. Just as we were finishing, a fine old man with a white +beard and a patriarchal countenance joined us: + +"You come from a couple of centuries ago," he said. + +"Is it two centuries, or a thousand years?" asked I. + +"I have been looking at your clothes; you don't mind, do you? they +indicate the end of the nineteenth or beginning of the twentieth +century." + +"You have guessed right," said I; "and what year are you?" + +"We count from the last Constitution which was voted ninety-three years +ago, in 2011 of your reckoning. So we call the present year 93." + +"So you have given up the old Constitution," I said with a touch of +sentiment in my voice. + +"Yes, it had to be changed when we advanced to where we are now in +methods of manufacture and distribution of profits." + +"Can you give your methods a name?" + +"You used to call it Collectivism; we call it Solidarity." + +"You mean to say you actually practise Collectivism!" + +The patriarch smiled. + +"Your writers used to say it was impossible," he said; "just as the +English engineers once said the building of the Suez Canal was +impossible, and our own engineers the building of the Panama Canal was +impossible. As a matter of fact, Collectivism is as much easier than +your old plan as mowing with a reaper is easier than mowing with a +scythe. You will see this for yourself--and you will see" here his brow +darkened--"that the real problem--the as yet unsolved problem--is a very +different one. But Cleon must join the haymakers; what would you like to +do?" + +I was much interested in the old man and was anxious to hear what he had +to say about the "as yet unsolved problem," which I already guessed. But +I was still more anxious to be with Lydia, so I asked: + +"Does Cleon work with his sister?" + +"Yes," said Cleon, "on the slope, a few minutes from here." + +"Perhaps I had better make myself useful," said I hypocritically. + +I thought I detected a little smile behind the big white beard as the +old man said to Cleon, "Well, hurry off now; you are late." + +I followed Cleon up the hill. He explained to me on the way that the +meadows were all cut by machinery, but that the slopes had still to be +cut by hand. We soon came upon a group in which I recognized Lydia and +Ariston. They were on a steep hill. Lydia was swinging her scythe with +the strength and skill of a man. She was the nearest to me of a row of +ten, all swinging together. Ariston was singing an air that followed the +movement; he sang low; and all joined occasionally in a modulated +chorus. Cleon took up a scythe and joined them. I was glad to observe +that there was no scythe for me, for I had never handled one. I stood +watching the work. When the song was over they worked in silence, but +the rhythm of their swinging replaced the music. It reminded me of the +exhilarating harmony of an eight-oared crew. At last one of the girls +cried out, "I want to rest"; and all stopped. + +"I was hoping some one would cry 'halt!'" said Ariston. + +"So was I," whispered Lydia to him. + +"So were we all," called out the rest. + +They sat down on the grass; after a moment's breathing space Ariston +lifted his hand; all looked at him, and he started a fugue which was +taken up, one after another, by the entire party; to my surprise and +delight I recognized Bach's Number Seven in C flat, and I began to +understand the role that music might play in the life of a people, and +what a pitiable business our twentieth-century notion of it was. +Confined to a few laborious executants and still fewer composers, the +rich partook of it at stated hours in overheated rooms, and the masses +ignored it, except in its most vulgar form, almost altogether; while +here, under a tree in the large light of the sun during an interval of +rest, all not only enjoyed it, but joined in it at its best. I singled +out Lydia's rich contralto and noted how she dwelt on the notes that +marked changes of key, with a delight in counter-point that belonged to +her mathematical temperament. I watched her every movement. She had +thrown off the loose gloves she wore while mowing and was lying on her +face, playing with a flower. The posture would have been regarded by us +of the twentieth century as unmaidenly; but in the atmosphere created by +the simplicity of these people I felt as though I were in one of Corot's +pictures. Maidenliness had ceased to be a matter of convention and had +become a matter of fact. There was a fund of reserve behind the +frankness of Lydia's manner that conveyed a conviction of rectitude +entirely beyond the necessity of a rigorous manner, or of a particular +method of deportment. + +I seemed to be transported back to the peasantry of some parts of France +or of the Tyrol; but here was an added refinement that demolished the +distance which had always kept me despairingly aloof from these; here +was the charm of frankness, of gayety, and of simplicity, coupled with a +cleanliness of person, delicacy of thought and manner, culture, art, +music--all that makes life beautiful and sweet. + +The young men and women who sat singing under the trees, smitten here +and there with patches of sunlight, were all of them comely and +wholesome of body and mind; but Lydia was to me preeminent; and yet, +could it be said that she was beautiful? Her eyes were long and narrow +and when I crossed glances with her they escaped me; so that I forgot +the matter of beauty in my eagerness to penetrate their meaning; her +face was too square to satisfy the ideal; her nose was distinctly +tip-tilted, like the petal of a flower; her mouth was large and well +shaped--altogether desirable; and her hair was flaxen and straight, but +in its coils it seemed to have a separate life of its own so brightly +did it gleam and glow. + +Lydia was the first to jump up and suggest that work be resumed; and as +she stood among the prostrate forms of her companions she embodied to my +mind Diana, with a scythe in her hand instead of a bow. All arose +together and set to work again, but in silence this time; and under the +shade where I sat, nothing broke the quiet save the hum of insect life +in the blazing sun and the periodic swirl of the reapers. They did not +rest again until the patch of hillside at which they worked was mown, +when with a sigh of satisfaction they rested a moment on their scythes; +but for a moment only, for presently Lydia ran for shelter from the sun +to the shade of the tree under which I sat. She reclined quite close to +me, looked me frankly in the face and smiled. I was surprised to find +eyes that had escaped me till now suddenly become fixed composedly on +mine, and noticed for the first time that these women put on and off +their coquetry according to the context of their thought, for presently +she said: + +"I am afraid you are lazy!" + +"I believe I am," answered I. + +"You mean to say you wouldn't like to join us in our work?" + +There was not the slightest reproach in her voice, only surprise. + +"I much prefer looking at you," I replied with a little attempt at +gallantry. But there was no response in her eyes that remained fixed on +me. She was trying to explain me to herself. I felt uncomfortable at +being a mere object of abstract curiosity. She was reclining on her +side, resting on one hand: in the other hand she was absently twisting +a flower she had plucked. Notwithstanding my discomfort I rejoiced in at +last plunging my look deep into hers. What was happening in the blue +depths of those eyes? I felt as though I were trying to penetrate the +secrets of a house the windows of which reflected more light than they +passed through. I saw the reflection only. Behind was a judge weighing +me in the balance, but as to whose judgment I could form no idea. And +although I was conscious that in her I had a critic, I was so bewitched +by her charm that I said to her in an undertone--for the others were +talking to one another: + +"You are very beautiful!" + +She waved her flower before my eyes as though to put a material +obstacle, however frail, between us and smiled; but she looked down +presently and laughingly answered: + +"That doesn't make you any the less lazy." + +I did not wish to be set down permanently in her mind as good for +nothing, so I explained: + +"I am not incurably so; indeed, at my own work I was industrious; but I +never held a scythe in my life." + +She looked at me again in open-eyed wonder. + +"What was 'your own work'?" asked she. + +"I practised law." + +"What, nothing but law? Did you never get tired of doing nothing but +law?" + +"We believed in specializing." + +"Ah, I remember! The nineteenth century was the great century of +specialization. Later on it was found that specialization was necessary +to original work, but that it brutalized labor; we have very few +specialists now: only those who have genius for particular things, as, +for example, doctors, engineers, electricians--but we have no +_lawyers_." She laughed at me with bantering but good-natured contempt +in her laugh as she emphasized the word "lawyers." "And you mean to say +you did nothing but lawyerise?" And she suddenly with finger and thumb +lifted my free hand that was resting on the grass--for I was reclining +on my other elbow, too--and I became aware that my hand was soft and +white. + +"It wasn't always soft and white," I explained. "I did a great deal of +rowing at college." + +She kept hold of my hand with finger and thumb and laughed gently: + +"I don't believe it ever did a useful bit of work in its life." + +I was piqued; and yet her low laugh was so catching, her long eyes so +subtle, her lips so bewitching, that I gladly let my hand hang in her +contemptuous fingers so long as I could be near her and in commune with +her. + +"That depends on what you call useful work," said I. + +"I call useful any work that contributes to our health, wealth, and +well-being." The coquetry went out of her manner again and she became +thoughtful. "The people of that time needed lawyers to fight their +battles for them, but we have got rid of at any rate one principal +occasion of discord--the occasion that made lawyers necessary. We have +men specially versed in the law still, but they don't confine themselves +to law; they cut hay too. Ariston is a great lawyer." + +She had dropped my hand by this time; as she mentioned Ariston we both +looked toward him; one of the girls exclaimed: + +"I am hot; let's sing something cool." + +"The Fountain," called out another. + +Ariston lifted his hand again, and after beating a measure struck a +clear high note; he held the note during a measure and then his voice +came tumbling down the scale in bursts of semitones relieved by tonic +spaces, with a variety that reminded me of the Shepherd's song in +"Tristan and Isolde." The moment he left the first high note it was +taken up by another voice during the full measure, and as soon as the +second voice dropped down the scale, a third one pitched the high note +again, and so on voice after voice, the high note imaging the highest +point of the _jet d'eau_, and every voice dropping tumultuously down +into a placid pool of infinite variety below. Lydia did not attempt the +high note, but beginning low kept at the low level in peaceful contrast +to the sparkling tenors and sopranos, the whole musical structure +resting on the bass which moved ponderously and contrapuntally against +the contraltos. + +How shall I tell the thoughts that crowded upon me as, lying on my back, +I listened to this amazing harmony! The beginning reminded me of one of +Palestrina's masses and transported me to a Christmas midnight at the +church of St. Gervais; but as soon as the intention of the strain became +clear to me, I felt that it belonged to the open air, to the eternal +spaces, to the new-mown hay, to my radiant companions. The merriment of +it, its complexity, its wholesomeness, the delight it gave--all brought +to a focus and intensified the interest that was growing within me for +Lydia. + +But the whole party rose now to begin work on another hillside and Lydia +turned to me with: + +"Why do you stay with us? Why not go to the Hall? You will find the +Pater there; we call him the Pater because he is the father of the +settlement. He will want to talk to you, and you _need_ to talk to him." +She put an arch little emphasis on the word "need." Evidently she did +not want me to be loitering among them. I pretended to adopt her +suggestion with alacrity although in my heart I wished nothing but to +remain with her. + +"Yes," I said, "I shall never get out of my bewilderment unless I talk +to some one who can understand my point of view." + +"And you will probably find Chairo there," she added, with a provoking +smile. "He was to arrive to-day." + +Ariston pricked his ear: + +"Ah!" he said. "You will enjoy meeting Chairo; he is the leader of our +Radical party; he is in favor of all sorts of Radical measures--such as +the destruction of the Cult--" the women looked at one another--"the +respect of private property----" + +"What! Do you call the respect of private property Radical?" asked I. +"It was the shibboleth of the Conservatives in my time; they called it +the 'sacredness of private property.'" + +"Just as the Demetrians speak of the 'sacredness' of the Cult to-day," +said Ariston. + +"Whenever Hypocrisy wants to preserve an abuse she calls it Sacred," +said a strong voice at my elbow. I turned and saw that a new companion +had been added to us, and I guessed at once that it was Chairo. + +He was a splendid man; nothing was wanting to him--stature, nor beauty, +nor strength. He was remarkable, too, by the fact that his face was +clean shaved, whereas all the other men I had met wore beards; but his +face bore a likeness so striking to that of Augustus that to have hidden +it by a beard would have been a desecration. And he was strong enough in +mind as well as in muscle to bear being exceptional. It would have been +impossible for him to be other than exceptional. + +Lydia blushed as she recognized him, and the blush suggested what I most +feared to know. Chairo went to her and without a shadow of affectation +took her hand, knelt on one knee, and kissed it. There could have been +no clearer confession of his love. I could not help contrasting the +frankness of this act and the superb humility of it with the reticence, +hypocrisy, and pride that characterized our twentieth-century +love-making. + +Lydia with her disengaged hand made a sign of the cross over his head; +not the rapid, timid, fugitive conventional sign that Catholics made in +our day, but with her whole arm, a large sign, swinging from above her +head to his as it bowed over her hand, with a large sweep afterward +across; and as she did so I saw her eyes widen and her glance stretch +forward across the heavenly distance. + +For the first time I felt the narrowness of my life and my own +insignificance. And I--_I_--had dared to think I could make love to this +woman! For a moment it occurred to me that Lydia had encouraged me; but +so mean an apprehension of her could not live in her presence. As she +stood there making the sign of the cross over the bowed head of her +beloved, I knew that Love was something more in this civilization than +the satisfaction of a caprice or the banter of good-humored gallantry; +that it was possible to make of Love a religion, without for that reason +sacrificing the charm of life, and the particular charm that makes the +companionship of a woman something different from the companionship of a +man. + +And yet I was puzzled; was Lydia not a Demetrian? Cleon had told me she +had not yet made up her mind; but was there not in this greeting with +Chairo a practical admission of a betrothal? And what was the meaning of +the sign of the cross? Was Christianity still alive, then? And if so, +how reconcile Christ and Demeter? And there swung through my mind the +terrible invocation of the poet: "Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean! +The world has grown gray from thy breath." + +When the cult of Demeter had first been hinted to me I had assumed that +the reign of the Galilean was over, and that the old gods had resumed +their sway. The possibility of this had admitted a note of latent +triumph in the hymn to Proserpine. + + Will thou yet take all, Galilean? Yet these things thou shalt not take: + The laurel, the palm and the paean; the breast of the nymph in the brake. + +Could it be that we could keep these things and yet remain loyal to the +religion of sacrifice? Could we worship as well at the voluptuous altar +of Cytherea and at the mystic shrine of the Holy Grail? + +My mind was in a tumult of inquiry as Chairo arose from his knee and +engaged in conversation with the group; and though they did not point or +look at me I knew that it was of me they were talking. Presently, Chairo +came to me and held out his hand: + +"You are a traveller from the Past, I hear! Dropped down among us in +some unaccountable way." He looked me squarely in the eye as he held my +hand a moment, with a frank scrutiny that I had already noticed in +Lydia. Then he added: + +"You were returning to the Hall; if you don't mind, I shall accompany +you; it is too late for me to begin work before lunch; besides, there is +no scythe for me." And waving his hand to Lydia and the others, he +walked away with me toward the Hall. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE CULT OF DEMETER + + +For some distance we walked in silence. At last I said: "You will not be +surprised to hear that I am bewildered; everything is in some respects +so much the same and in others so different." + +"I am curious to know what bewilders you most." + +"Well, it is bewildering enough to be told that you are actually living +under the regime of Collectivism--a thing which we always considered +impossible; but I confess what piques my curiosity most is this cult of +Demeter----" + +A scowl came over Chairo's face. + +"How much do you know about it?" said he. + +"Nothing, except that Lydia is a Demetrian and that she is to be married +to some mathematician----" + +"Married!" interrupted Chairo. "It cannot be called a marriage! It is a +desecration!" He paused a moment as if to collect himself and then began +again in a calmer voice: + +"It is difficult for me to speak of it without impatience; but +declamation which is well enough on the rostrum is not tolerable in +conversation, so I shall not give way to it. The cult of Demeter is an +abomination--one of the natural fruits of State Socialism, which, to my +mind, means the paralysis of individual effort and death to individual +liberty. I lead the opposition in our legislature, and you will, +therefore, take all I say with the allowance due to one who has +struggled, his whole life through, against what I believe to be an +intolerable abuse. The cult of Demeter is nothing more nor less than the +attempt to breed men as men breed animals. It totally disregards the +fact that a man has a soul, and that the demands of a soul are +altogether paramount over those of the body. To attempt to breed men +along purely physical or mental lines without regard to psychical +aspirations is contrary not only to common sense, but to the highest +religion. Did not Christ Himself say, 'What shall it profit a man if he +gain the whole world, and lose his own soul'?" + +"You quote Christ," interrupted I. "Is it possible that the Christian +religion can live side by side with the cult of Demeter?" + +"Yes," said Chairo, "and this is perhaps just where the mischief lies. +Christianity has remained among us as the religion of sacrifice; and the +priests of Demeter bolster up their hideous doctrine and their +exorbitant power by appeal to this religion of sacrifice." + +"But where," asked I, "do they derive this power of theirs?" + +"Where else," answered Chairo, "but through the hold they have upon the +imagination of the women--that terrible need for ritual which has given +the priest his power ever since the world began. Gambetta was right, 'Le +clericalisme; voila l'ennemi.'" + +"Do you mean to say," asked I, "that superstition has survived among +you?" + +"No, you cannot call it superstition; the time has long since passed +when the priesthood could impose on the minds of men through +superstition; but just because they now appeal to a higher and nobler +function of mind are they the more dangerous." + +"Tell me," I said--I paused a moment, for I was very anxious to ask a +question and yet a little afraid to do so. + +But Chairo looked at me again with a look so frank that I ventured: + +"Tell me," I said, "is Lydia going to accept the mission?" + +"No one can tell," said Chairo. "She is profoundly religious, profoundly +possessed with this notion of sacrifice; she has been brought up to +believe the mission of Demeter the highest honor which the state can +give, and it comes to her now clothed with all the mysticism of a +strange ritual and a religious obligation. Think of it: just because she +has the talent of rapid calculation, a knack which you in your time used +to exhibit as a freak in a country fair, she is to be sacrificed--ah, if +it were only a sacrifice I shouldn't complain--but she is to be +contaminated. She is to be contaminated, because, forsooth, it is +believed that by coupling this knack of calculation with one possessing +a profounder genius for mathematics, she will bring into the world a +being further endowed with mathematical ability. What if she did; is +there not something in the world worth more than mathematics?" + +"And what mathematician will be selected?" asked I. + +"That is the wicked part of it," answered Chairo; "that matter is +absolutely in the hands of the priests. My God!" he said, "I shall not +endure it." + +His eyes flashed, and his voice, though low, rang as he spoke these +words. But we were now approaching the Hall and we saw the Pater, as +they called him, sitting upon the veranda. "I have spoken vigorously," +he said in a lower voice, as we approached the Hall--"perhaps too +vigorously; but I do not mean to disguise my intention. I would not +speak in this way upon a public platform, because they would endeavor to +stop me, and the issue would be raised before public opinion is ripe for +it. But I warn you the Pater is on the side of the priests, and so, to +avoid discussion, which we seldom allow to interfere with the harmony of +our domestic life, I recommend you not to speak of these things to the +Pater when I am present." + +The Pater arose and advanced to meet us, holding out his hands to +Chairo. + +"Welcome to Tyringham," he said. And then looking toward me he added: +"You could not get hold of a better man to explain to you the changes +that have occurred since your time, but I warn you he will not give you +an optimistic view of them." + +I smiled, but said nothing. + +After a few words about the weather and the crops Chairo left us, and I +at once began upon the burning theme. + +I repeated to him the substance of what Chairo had said, leaving out the +heat, the indignation, and the threat. I sat down on the balcony with +the Pater, and he, after listening to me, began: + +"Chairo is a man of extraordinary gifts, and has, of course, the quality +which generally attends these gifts--inordinate ambition. Such men are +naturally prone to favor individualism as opposed to collective action, +and to desire the rewards that come from individual success. It was such +men as Chairo who prevented so long the realization of Solidarity, and +who will always constitute a formidable opposition. Nor, indeed, would +it be well for the state that they should cease to exist; for the +Collectivist community would soon lapse into mere routine and +officialism, were it not kept perpetually at its best by the opposition +of just such as these. + +"Unfortunately in this particular case his opposition is rendered not +only acute but dangerous, by the fact that he has come into collision +with one of the most precious institutions of the state, through his +inordinate passion for Lydia. Indeed, I had Chairo in mind when I said +to you, as we parted, that the economic problem presented by the +distribution of wealth was by far the least of the problems that +presented themselves. The desire for the accumulation of wealth is an +artificial desire; it grew with the institution of private property, and +when the institution of private property was abolished the desire for it +very soon, in great part, disappeared. But the desire of a man for a +woman is an elemental passion which has its root deep down in the +necessities of human nature. This passion will always be with us and +will always tend, when coupled with such abilities as Chairo's, to +disrupt the state." + +"But," I interrupted, "is not this cult of Demeter a dangerous thing?" + +"To the mind of Chairo," answered he, "inflamed as it is by his love for +Lydia, undoubtedly it is. But all those who belong to Chairo's party and +hate Collectivism because it doesn't furnish them the reward which they +feel due to their ability, are using this issue in an attempt to break +up the entire system. But consider for a moment what is this cult of +Demeter which you think so dangerous. In the first place there is in it +no coercion, absolutely none: the priests tender to such women as they +think proper the mission of Demeter, and this mission can be accepted or +declined; no disgrace attends the declining of it; the woman to whom it +is offered is absolutely free. In the second place, the cult is to the +utmost degree reasonable. Let us, for a moment, glance at the notions +that have prevailed on this subject in times past. + +"From the earliest civilization the notion has prevailed that the most +highly religious act a woman could perform was to make the sacrifice +involved in celibacy. We see it in one of its most beautiful +developments at Rome. There, to the Vestal Virgins was entrusted the +maintenance of the sacrificial flame; to them were accorded the highest +honors of the Roman state, the most favored places at all state +functions; they alone, except the consuls, were preceded in the street +by lictors, and if, in walking through the streets of Rome, they met a +criminal going to execution, he was immediately set free. The sacrifice +required by this institution was chastity. So, in the Christian Church, +those of both sexes who desired to give themselves particularly to the +worship of Christ secluded themselves in convents and took the vow of +chastity. Yet what a barren piece of sentimentality it was! We respect +it still, because there was in it the element of sacrifice; but a woman +capable of such self-sacrifice as this commits a crime against the body +politic by refusing to become the mother of children; it is just from +such women as these that we want to raise new generations, capable of +carrying the torch of civilization onward in its march. The real +sacrifice to be demanded of these is not chastity; it is the surrender +of personal inclination to the benefit of the commonwealth. The real +sacrifice consists in refusing to leave the maternal function at the +mercy of a momentary caprice, and, on the contrary, in consecrating it +to a noble purpose and to the general good. But you can hardly +understand all this till you have heard the story of Latona, who founded +the cult--the first and greatest saint in our calendar." + +The Pater did not persuade me; it was horrible to me that it should be +in the power of any man or men, by appealing to a woman's willingness to +sacrifice herself or by the exercise of priestly craft, to condemn her +to marriage without love, which, to my mind, is its only justification. + +"And you think," said I, protesting, "that it is right to sacrifice the +love of a woman for life?" + +"No," interrupted the Pater, "not for life! There you labor under a +mistake. Let me tell you what happens: if a woman accepts the mission +she becomes attached to the temple of Demeter, and while attending upon +the ritual is slowly prepared for the act of sacrifice; this is a period +of seclusion and prayer. Not that we believe in the existence of a +goddess Demeter, but that Demeter represents to us that divinity in our +own hearts which puts passion under constraint, and makes of it, not a +capricious tyrant, but a servant to human happiness--our own happiness +best understood, believe me--as well as the happiness of the community. +And so the Vestal--for so we entitle her--invokes and keeps herself in +communion with this special divinity within us each, and without us all, +until her heart is lifted into a consciousness of her mission as the +highest possible to her sex. Compare that, my friend, with the maternity +which is often the undesired consequence of a caprice or ceremony. But +as I have already hinted, the sacrifice is neither imposed at all, nor +is it suggested for a lifetime. + +"Indeed, the Demetrian ceremony, once consummated, often results in +permanent marriage; upon this point the woman has the first word; +though, of course, the ultimate conclusion must rest upon the consent of +both. For example, the woman decides the question whether the +bridegroom shall become known to her. Some women, in whom the instinct +of the mother predominates over that of the wife, elect never to know +the father of their child; and as soon as pregnancy is assured, cease +all relations with him. Others, indeed the great majority, become +mystically attached to the man who, in the obscurity of the Demetrian +temple, has accomplished for them the mission of their motherhood; they +ask to see him; and if upon fuller acquaintance both consent, a +provisional marriage is celebrated between them." + +"Provisional marriage!" exclaimed I, aghast again. + +"All our first marriages are provisional," answered the Pater with +magnificent disregard for my indignation. "What can be more +preposterous--more fatal to happiness--than to commit a man and woman +for life to bonds accepted at an age when the mind is immature, and +under an impulse which is notoriously blinding. It became a commonplace +paradox in your time that the fact of being in love was a convincing +argument against marriage; for a human being in love is one who has been +by so much deprived of reason--by so much deprived of the exercise of +the very judgment most necessary to select a life companion. Look back +at the consequences of your institution of marriage: in your time it +was already in process of dissolution; the facility of divorce had +already destroyed the indissolubility of marriage, and made of it a mere +time contract. And divorce, that the clergy of your day regarded as a +trespass of Immorality on the sanctity of the marriage tie, was, as a +matter of fact, the protest of Morality against the immoral consequences +of the indissolubility of the marriage tie. No, there are two essential +elements in sexual morality: one is temperance; the other is sacrifice. +All are expected to practise the one; the few only are capable of +practising the other. The art is to frame institutions which recognize +this and to accommodate the institution to the temperament of the +race----" + +"Yes," interrupted I, "but this is just where you fail; how are you +accommodating your Demetrian institutions to such temperaments as those +of Lydia and Chairo? Do you not see that by imposing them in such cases +as theirs you are risking the wreck of your entire system?" + +"You are perhaps right," answered the Pater. "I am not initiated into +the secrets of the priesthood; but it may be easily guessed that upon +the application of the system there may well be divergence of opinion. +We have already seen the system result in infamous outrage in the +South, and give rise to the necessity of government intervention--a very +dangerous thing in such questions." + +"But how do you practise this system of provisional marriage?" + +"Simply enough: the first marriage is always provisional; if a child is +born, the marriage must last until the child is weaned; at that time the +parties are expected either to renew the vow of fidelity in the temple +of Demeter, or to renounce it. They can at that time renounce it without +disgrace, though it is seldom renounced without heart-burning; one wants +to renounce and the other to renew. But both know in advance that the +day of the weaning--which is a function of the cult--is the day upon +which final vows are to be pronounced; both prepare for it, and its +inevitable coming insures on the part of the one who most desires the +renewal a conduct of a nature to insure it. But renunciation on the part +of either involves no disgrace. A second renunciation after a second +marriage is otherwise. There is no institutional obstacle to it; each or +both can at any time renounce; but public opinion has happily created a +sentiment against a second renunciation, which makes them rare. This is +just where the system broke down in the South; the public opinion +against repeated renunciations did not exist; caprice became the order +of the day; the priests of Demeter became corrupt; and sexual disorder +involved, as it always must, every conceivable other disorder in the +state." + +"And what was done?" I asked. + +The Pater looked grave: "The Government interfered and substituted state +control for individual control. It is this that furnishes to Chairo and +his party their strongest weapon. State control is abominable; +institutions like ours are possible only in a community possessed of +such a moral sense as prevails in these New England States." + +"But how could the Government undertake control of marriage?" + +"By an extension of our State Colony system; this you will understand +only when you have seen the working of the State Colony system for +yourself." + +One thing more I was eager to know. "What had the gesture of Lydia, as +Chairo kissed her hand, meant; was it an acceptance?" I asked the Pater, +and he answered: + +"Just as it is no disgrace to a man that a woman should not return his +love, so is it no disgrace to a woman that she should withhold her +answer. In your time a woman who did not respond affirmatively or +negatively to a proposal of marriage was accused of playing fast and +loose. But we do not regard it as a bad thing for a man to be kept +waiting, or for a woman to keep him waiting; indeed, I am reminded of a +word of one of your own authors who said that there was no better +education for a man's character than the effort to win the love of a +worthy woman. And so, when a man has altogether made up his mind that he +loves a woman, he does not feel it necessary to keep his love secret +till he knows whether the woman will accept it; on the contrary, he +makes open confession of it as Chairo did. And the woman, if she is not +prepared to decide, responds to such an act as Chairo's, with a sign of +the cross to indicate that she is for the time being set apart until +such time as she has prayerfully considered. And in Lydia's case, this +has a double signification; her choice is doubly religious, in that she +not only has to consult her heart as to her love for Chairo, but also +her conscience as to her duty to the cult." + +I was glad that the reapers began returning and that our conversation +was brought to a close by their return, for I was fairly tired. Great as +was my curiosity to know more of these singular institutions I felt the +need of thinking a little about them before my mind was crowded with +further information. And so I gladly returned to the men's quarters, +which were becoming crowded with those who had more right there than I +to a plunge in the crystal pool. We were soon ready for lunch, and I was +accompanied thither by Chairo, Cleon, and Ariston. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ANNA OF ANN + + +My place at lunch was by the side of the Mater. I soon guessed that she +was the wife of the patriarchal old man with whom I had been conversing. +She had a delicious air of comfortable _embonpoint_, a clear skin, pink +cheeks, and massive white hair. She was already seated when Ariston took +me to her table, and, moving the empty chair a little to help me to my +seat, she said, smiling: + +"You are to sit here; I am dreadfully anxious to talk to you; where on +earth have you come from now?" + +I sat down by her, and answered: + +"I wish you could explain it to me." + +She looked me in the face and said: "You look just like the rest of us, +except, that only our _priests_ shave"; I looked in the direction of +Chairo inquiringly. "Oh, yes, Chairo shaves, and a few others who want +to be peculiar; but all of us simple folk----" + +She chuckled a little, and then, bending near me, whispered in my ear: +"I have been looking at your trousers!" + +I made a deprecating gesture and smiled; she joined me, but in a laugh +so brimming over with merriment and so contagious that very soon all the +table had joined but without knowing why. When the Mater had finished +laughing and the others with her, Ariston said: + +"Well, Mater, now that you've finished laughing, perhaps you will tell +us what it's all about?" + +"Indeed, I won't," answered she; and there was almost a wink in her +innocent old eye as she turned to me and said: "It is a secret--isn't +it?--a secret between us two," and she patted my hand as if I had been +her son. + +I promised her with exaggerated solemnity never to reveal it, and she +patted my hand again and added: + +"I see you'll become one of us--one of the Tyringham Colony; we always +come together at every harvest time--as indeed do all the other +colonies--only we think our colony is just a little bit nicer than every +other." + +"And so does every other," said Ariston, "think itself better than the +rest." + +"And so all are happy," answered the Mater convincingly. "But have you +met your neighbor, Anna of Ann?" + +I turned to my right, and saw that Lydia was not the only beautiful +woman at Tyringham. Anna of Ann was of a different type. Her features +were delicate; the eye was not remarkable; indeed, her glance was veiled +and almost disappointing; her nose was ordinary; her skin clear but +colorless; it was assuredly in her mouth, and perhaps in her low +forehead and clustering hair, that her beauty resided; and as she spoke +there were little movements of the lips that were bewitching: + +"No, I have not been haymaking with Ariston's group and so we have not +spoken," she said. "But I saw you this morning after breakfast, +and"--she added archly--"I stared at you with all the others; we were +dreadfully rude! But then, there _was_ some excuse for us, wasn't +there?" + +"Every excuse," I answered reassuringly. "But tell me, what do you do +when you are not haymaking?" + +"What do you mean; work or play?" + +"What do you work at, and what do you play at?" + +"My work generally consists in attending at the public store; I sell in +the hosiery department at New York." + +"And what do you play at?" + +"Sculpture." + +"She's a great sculptor," volunteered Cleon, nodding at her from the +other side of the table. + +"No, I am not," deprecated Anna; "I am not recognized." + +I looked at the Mater inquiringly. + +"By 'recognized,'" said the Mater, "she means the state hasn't +recognized her; that is to say, she has to do her work at the store or +wherever else she is assigned during the regular three hours a day. When +the state recognizes her--as it is sure to do one of these days--she +will be allowed to devote all her time to sculpture." + +"I don't believe the state will ever recognize her," said Ariston; "she +is a great deal too good. That Sixth is a fool!" + +"Sixth is head of the fine arts department," explained the Mater. "His +full name is Sprague Sixth; six generations ago we had a great artist +called Sprague, who was for twenty years our secretary of the fine arts, +and one of his sons has borne his name ever since, until it has become a +tradition in Massachusetts that we must have a Sprague at the head of +our fine arts. This man Sprague Sixth, whom we call Sixth for short, +doesn't believe anybody can be good at art unless he has studied in the +state school. Now Anna did not show any talent until her school days +were over and she had been assigned to work in the store." + +"And now there is no chance for her," said Ariston ironically. + +"What do you mean," exclaimed Cleon, taking Ariston seriously, "she can +be a great artist, without being recognized?" + +"I am not sure I want to be recognized," said Anna. "If I were +recognized I should have to spend half my day in doing dull things for +the state to please Sixth; whereas, now one half of the day is spent in +doing mechanical work at the store; the other half I have fresh for my +own work. I am going to ask to be assigned to a factory; for factory +work is still more mechanical than that of the store, and I can then be +more free to think of my own work." + +All this was very strange and illuminating. A sculptor asking to do +factory work! + +"But won't factory work be very hard and brutalizing?" I asked. + +Anna looked at me, puzzled, and Ariston came to her rescue. + +"I don't think," he said, "Anna appreciates your point of view. In your +day all factory work was done purely to make money; the factories were +uncomfortable places, and workmen had to work eight and ten hours a day. +Now that most of us have to do some factory work during the year, +inventiveness has set to work to make the factory comfortable, and as we +all of us have to work for the state and we no longer have to pay the +cost of competition, three or four hours a day are all that are +necessary to furnish the whole community with the necessaries and +comforts of life." + +"And so I can give the rest of the day to sculpture," said Anna. + +"Without any anxiety as to whether her sculpture will pay or not," added +Ariston. + +"She just has to please herself," said the Mater comfortably. + +"I am dreaming!" said I. + +"No, you're not," said the Mater; and she pinched me till I started. + +Everybody found this very funny--and so I took it as good-naturedly as I +could. But I made up my mind to have a little revenge, so I asked the +Mater quite loud as soon as they had finished laughing: + +"Tell me, is Lydia the only Demetrian here?" + +All looked shocked except Cleon, who laughed louder than ever, but Anna +looked at him severely and said: + +"Cleon, I'm surprised." + +I noticed, too, a smile curl Ariston's lip. The Mater put a warning +finger to her mouth and shook her head reproachfully. + +"You see," I said, with no small satisfaction at the confusion I had +caused, "I am new to all these things; I have to distinguish fact from +fancy; the sacred from the profane." + +"Of course," said Ariston, "although we have our domestic life in the +cities, apart, every family having its own separate home, even there we +jostle against one another a great deal more than you used in your time; +and here at the colony we are like one large family; we have, therefore, +to respect one another's opinions, and I might add--prejudices." He +bowed here at the Mater as though in deference to her cult of Demeter. +"We wouldn't be happy otherwise; and we have learned that after all, the +highest religion is the highest happiness. And so each of us respects +the religion of the other; in our heart of hearts we doubtless tax one +another with superstition, but we never admit it. Every cult, +therefore, is tolerated and receives the outward respect of all." + +I could not help wondering whether this was true. Chairo clearly +regarded the cult of Demeter as dangerous and bad; how long then would +he tolerate it? Ariston divined my thought, for he added: + +"Of course, I assume that the cult involves no danger to the state; or +to individual liberty." + +But the brows of the women darkened and I felt we were on dangerous +ground, so I asked: + +"And what are you going to do this afternoon?" + +"We are going on with our haymaking." + +"But I thought you worked only three or four hours a day?" + +"Yes, that is all we owe the state; but we often ask to work all day for +a season in order to have the whole day to ourselves later. And as +harvesting must be done within a given space of time, it suits our +economy as well as our inclination to work all day at this season and +have October to ourselves. Most of us go hunting all of October, and in +November we meet again at the Eleusinian festival." + +"Hunting?" I asked; "but where do you hunt?" + +"Almost wherever we want, though, of course, this has to be arranged. +Since your time the state has replanted forests on all the high ground +least suited to agriculture, and game is carefully preserved there +during the whole year except October; which is our open season. Some +hunting is done, too, in November and December to suit the convenience +of those who have to work in October; but it is mostly done in October." + +Lunch was by this time over and we adjourned to the veranda for coffee +and a cigar. There we were joined by Chairo and others, and gradually I +began to get some notion of the working of their Collectivist State. But +as their explanations left me in considerable bewilderment, and it was +only when I saw the system in actual operation that I understood it, I +shall not attempt to give an account of our conversations, but rather +describe the events that followed, not only for the interest of the +events themselves, but for the light they threw on the problems which +still remain unsolved for our race. + +Lydia's good-natured reproach at my idleness kindled in me a desire to +remove the occasion of it, so I set myself to learn to mow, and in a +very few days my muscles accustomed themselves to the work. I soon +picked up a part in their favorite refrains and was able to join in +their music as well as their occupations. My ardor for Lydia cooled when +I felt its hopelessness; and I confess to an admiration for Chairo which +justified her love for him. Neither of them attempted to disguise their +desire to be alone with each other, and yet they never moved far from +the rest of us. Obviously, Lydia had not decided between Chairo and +Demeter. + +The Pater told me that she need not decide for another year, though it +was likely that she would do so at the Eleusinian festival in November. +This festival, corresponding to our Thanksgiving Day, was held in honor +of Demeter and Persephone, the genii of fruitfulness, whether of the +earth or of men; and it was generally on some such occasion that vows +were taken or missions renounced. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +IRENE + + +I spent the whole harvest season at Tyringham, and when it was over I +went with Chairo to New York in order to get some ocular understanding +of their factory system. It was there that I understood one of the +reasons that made Lydia hesitate, for I met there another woman--a +Demetrian also--whose history had been intimately interwoven with +Chairo's. + +Lydia had decided, much to Chairo's disappointment, that she would spend +October in the Demetrian cloister attached to the temple. She said she +felt the need of seclusion. It was one of the functions of the +cloistered to attend the daily rite at the altar, and I often went at +the sacred hour to attend the service, doubtless drawn by the desire to +see Lydia engaged in her ministration. One afternoon, as I sat in the +shadow of a pillar, I was struck by the singular majesty of one of the +ministrants. She headed the procession of women who carried the +censers, and it was she who offered the incense at the altar. + +I was living with Chairo and Ariston in bachelor quarters and described +the priestess to the latter on my return home. Ariston's face flushed as +he answered: "That must be Irene of Tania; she is a Demetrian and is the +mother of a boy by Chairo." + +Noticing that my question had moved Ariston I was unwilling to push my +inquiries; but after a few moments of silence Ariston, who after his +laconic answer had lowered his eyes to the book he was reading, looked +up and seeing the question in my eyes that I had refrained from putting +into words, added: + +"Her story is a sad one. She was selected by Demeter not on account of +any special gifts, but because of her splendid combination of qualities; +she was a type; she represented a standard it was useful to reproduce. +Chairo for similar reasons was selected as her bridegroom; she chose to +know him and became deeply enamored. How should she not? He remained +devoted to her until her boy was weaned and then did not renew his vows. +She bore his decision with dignity; indeed, so well did she disguise her +disappointment that for a long time no one knew whether it was Chairo +or herself who had decided to separate. But when Chairo began to show +his love for Lydia, Irene sickened; there was no apparent reason for it +and no acute disease; her appetite failed and she lost strength and +color." + +Ariston paused, as though he were going over it all in his mind, +unwilling to give it utterance. Finally, he arose and walked to the +window, and after looking out a little, turned to me and said: + +"The fact is, I was consumedly in love with her myself; her illness gave +me an excuse for being a great deal with her, and at last in a moment of +folly--for I might have guessed--I told her of my love. I shall never +forget her face when I did so: the sadness on it deepened; she held out +her hand to me and said: 'I am fond of you, Ariston--and am grateful! +But I love Chairo and shall never love anyone but him.'" Ariston's voice +became hoarse as he repeated Irene's words. But he paused, cleared his +throat, and went on. + +"Since then she has made a great effort over herself. She was told that +she was allowing sorrow to unfit her for her duty to her child, and that +she was suffering from no malady beyond that most pernicious of all +maladies--the malady of the will. She collected herself, regained +control, and has now recovered her health--and all her beauty. Was +there ever beauty greater than her's?" + +"She is very beautiful--more than beautiful--she filled me with a kind +of wonder. But tell me, won't she object to your having told me her +secret?" + +"It is not a secret; these things are not regarded as secrets; we hold +it unworthy to blab of such things, but we never make an effort to +conceal them. Often since then Irene has spoken of Chairo in such a +manner as to leave no doubt as to her feelings for him; and yet she has +probably never in terms admitted it to anyone but me. In confiding to +you my love for her, she would not complain at my also confiding to you +her love for him." + +Ariston's simplicity filled my heart with tenderness for him. + +I went to him, put my hands on his shoulders, and said: + +"I am sorry for you." + +For a moment he seemed taken aback by this expression of sympathy; but +when our eyes met his were dimmed. In a moment, however, he had +recovered control, and said: + +"It doesn't make any difference in one way. I see her still; and one of +these days she will be sorry for me and become my wife; she will then +end by loving me. I mean to work to this end; the hope of attaining all +this gives me courage." + +It seemed all the worse to me that Ariston, with his gayety and humor, +should be in his heart so sad. And yet, if it was to be, better that it +should come to one who had a fund of joyousness within himself, on which +he could draw. + +The next day Lydia sent word to Ariston that she would like to see him, +and Ariston suggested that I should go with him to the cloister. "I +shall, of course," he said, "wish to see Lydia alone for a little, but +you will have an opportunity of seeing the cloister and what they do +there." + +The cloister of Demeter and all the institutions which clustered around +it were situated in the neighborhood of what was in my time Madison +Square. All the buildings between Twentieth Street and Thirty-fourth +Street, north and south, and between Sixth Avenue and Fourth Avenue, +east and west, had been cleared away; and upon the cleared space had +been constructed a building dedicated to the cult. The temple of +Demeter, closely resembling the Pantheon, was surrounded by a grove of +ilex trees. At a short distance from the temple and connected with it by +a columned arcade, was the cloister, built also of white marble, around +a court carpeted with lawn; this cloister was the dwelling place of the +priestesses of Demeter and of all those women who were either in retreat +or in novitiate. A short distance from the cloister was a large +building, similar to the other large buildings of which New York now +mainly consisted. Twenty stories in height, covering acres of ground and +built around a large open court, these buildings were no longer open to +the objection alleged against them in my time, owing to the fact that +they were now removed from one another by large spaces planted with +trees. This particular building was devoted to the education of youth, +and particularly all children who, for any reason, became what was +termed "children of the state." The building was so large that it +permitted of a running track within the court of four laps to the mile. +New York had been transformed by the construction of these enormous +buildings, each one of which constituted practically a city of itself. +Some of them, such as the one in which I was living with Ariston, were +devoted exclusively to bachelors and childless widowers; others were +entirely for unmarried women and childless widows; others, on the +contrary, were set aside for the use of families and consisted of +apartments of different sizes. + +Although the inmates of these buildings constantly met after the +fulfillment of their daily task, every family had as separate a home as +in my day. Almost every building had a dramatic corps of its own, a +musical choir of its own, a football club, a tennis club, and other +athletic, amusement, and educational clubs of its own, and all these +clubs contributed to the amusement one of the other, each colony +contributing its share to the enjoyment of the whole community. + +Lydia was in the hospital ward of the state children's building, where +at last we found her, for though in retreat she was by no means idle. +She was not discountenanced when she saw us; nor would she even allow me +to leave them, but told Ariston what she had to say simply and in a few +words. It was this: She had come to the cloister, she said, very largely +for the purpose of seeing Irene there; she took it for granted that +Irene's duties at the temple would bring them together. Lydia feared, +however, that Irene was avoiding her, and wanted Ariston to arrange a +meeting between them. + +Ariston promised to do this, and then we all three walked through the +buildings, Lydia taking great pride in her share of the work there. + +Ariston did not find it easy to arrange this meeting. Irene freely +confessed that she did not want to speak to Lydia at this moment; she +was unwilling to give her reasons, but we both easily guessed them. +Irene, however, did not refuse to see Lydia and promised to go to her on +the following day. + +The following day was the first of the Eleusinian festival. In the daily +rite, incense was offered to the goddess as a token of sacrifice, but at +the Eleusinian festival there was added a note of thanksgiving to the +rite, which substituted perfumes and flowers in lieu of incense. It was +the privilege of Irene to select from among the ministrants the one who +was to hand her the gifts brought by the rest, and it was from the hand +of the chosen one that Irene took the gifts and laid them upon the +altar. + +On this opening day Irene selected Lydia for this privilege, for she +meant this joint ministration at the altar to serve as prelude and +preparation for their meeting. The temple was crowded. + +Lydia trembled a little as she followed Irene to the altar; a priest +stood on either side as the priestesses, postulants, and novices of the +Demetrian procession went up the steps to it. Arrived at the foot of the +altar they formed a group about it, dividing one-half on one side, the +other half on the other; between the altar and the body of the temple +stood only Irene and Lydia. + +Lydia took the perfumes and handed them to Irene, who sprinkled them +first upon the altar, then upon the priests, and then toward the +congregation; then she took the flowers, some of them in vases, others +in wreaths, and handed them to Irene, who arranged them upon the altar; +when the last gift had been taken there Irene kneeled and Lydia kneeled +by her side. There was a deep silence in the temple. At this point in +the ritual there was a pause, during which it was the privilege of the +postulants and novices to have a prayer offered in case of special +anxiety. Irene, though unsolicited, at this moment offered the following +prayer: + + "Mother of Fruitfulness, to her who now asks for thy special grace, + grant that she may neither accept thy mission hastily nor reject it + without consideration; for thy glory, O Mother, is the glory of all + thy people." + +There was a word in this prayer which did not fail to strike the +attention of every worshipper in the temple that day. The words of the +ritual were "Grant that she may neither accept the mission +_unworthily_." Irene had substituted "hastily" for the word +"unworthily." She had paused at this word and given it special emphasis. +It was usual for the Demetrian procession to remain kneeling after the +service was over and the congregation dismissed; and it happened that +the procession and the priests left the temple, leaving Irene and Lydia +alone there. For Irene did not rise with the other Demetrians, and +Lydia, feeling that she had been chosen as ministrant for a purpose, +remained beside Irene. The two knelt alone in the temple, Irene praying +and Lydia waiting on her. At last Irene arose and Lydia also, and they +both walked out into the covered way. + +Neither spoke until they were in the seclusion of the cloistered court. +Then Irene said: "You wanted to speak to me, Lydia." + +"And you have been avoiding me," said Lydia. + +"Yes," answered Irene. "You have a matter to decide regarding which you +have already guessed I am not altogether unconcerned." + +Lydia lowered her voice as she said: "You still love Chairo?" + +Irene answered in a voice still lower, but firm, "I do." + +For a few minutes they paced the cloister. Lydia was trying to decide +how to confess her own secret, but she did not find the words. At last +Irene said: + +"When the mission of Demeter was first tendered to me I was eighteen, +and, although I had often preferred certain of my playmates to others, I +had not known love. The honor of the mission made a great impression, +and as it slowly came upon me that I was chosen to make of myself a +sacrifice, the beauty of it filled my heart with happiness. It hardly +occurred to me possible to refuse the mission; I was absorbed by one +single desire--to make myself worthy of it. I thought very little about +the sacrifice itself. I had the legend of Eros and Psyche in my mind; +one day I should hear heavenly music and be approached as it were by an +unknown god. And passing from the pagan to the Christian myth, I saw the +Immaculate Conception of Murillo--that of the young maiden at the Prado +in Madrid--and I felt lifted into the ecstasy of a mystic motherhood. So +until I accepted the mission at the Eleusinian festival I lived in a +rapture--the days passing in the studies and ministrations of our +novitiate, the nights in dreamless sleep. But once the vows taken and +the bridal night fixed, there came upon me a revulsion as it were from +the outside and took control of my entire being so as to make me +understand what the ancients meant when they described certain persons +as 'possessed by an evil spirit.' The thought of the approaching crisis +was a pure horror to me. I lost my appetite and sleep; or, if I slept, +it was to dream a nightmare. Neither our priest nor priestess could +console me, the legend of Eros and Psyche became abominable, the +Immaculate Conception absurd, and, believe me, Lydia, nothing but pride +kept me to my word. It was a bad pride, the pride that could not look +forward to the humiliation of refusing a sacrifice I had once accepted. +That pride held me in a vice and accomplished what religion itself would +never have accomplished." + +Irene paused--and Lydia passed her arm around Irene's waist as they +continued to pace the solitary cloister, whispering "Go on" in Irene's +ear. + +"You know the rest," continued Irene. "The unknown god came to me in my +terror and converted my terror into love; and as I look back at it now I +am struck by two things: One, how unaccountable and unfounded the terror +was; the other, how little my pride would have sufficed to overcome it +had the terror been enforced by love." + +Lydia looked at Irene askance. + +"I mean," said Irene, "love for some one else!" + +A sigh broke from Lydia. This was what she had been waiting for. + +"And you think," said Lydia, "that a woman should not accept the mission +if she already loves?" + +"I don't _think_ it; I _know_ it!" + +Lydia felt a burden taken from her--the burden of doubt as well as the +burden of sacrifice. But suddenly she remembered that Irene in advising +the refusal of the mission was making a sacrifice of her own love, and +she said very low in Irene's ear: + +"But, Irene, it's Chairo----" + +"I know," answered Irene, "and this is all the greater reason for +refusing. Had you loved a lesser man you might have doubted the trueness +of your love, but having loved Chairo once you can never cease to love +him. I speak who know"; and Irene turned on Lydia a look of immortal +sorrow. + +But the tumult of emotion in Lydia's heart could no longer be +restrained. Her own great love for Chairo, her inability to sacrifice +it, contrasted with the dignity of Irene's renunciation, started a +torrent of tears. She fell on Irene's neck and sobbed there. Irene's +strong heart beat against her's as they stood in close embrace under the +cloister, and calmed Lydia. She slowly disengaged herself, and looking +into Irene's face, said: + +"And so you tell me to refuse the mission?" + +"You cannot do otherwise." + +Then Lydia kissed Irene and withdrew. + +Lydia went to her chamber and sat in the window seat, looking across the +lawn to the temple of Demeter. + +What did it all mean? She had felt the beauty of the mission; had glowed +at the thought of sacrifice; had taken pride in it. But such was the +strength of her love for Chairo that so long as he was in her mind the +mission seemed a sacrilege and her heart had responded to Irene's advice +with a bound of gratitude and delight. And yet now as she looked at the +white columns of the temple at which she would never again be worthy to +minister, an unutterable sadness came over her, as though she were +parting from the dearest and most precious thing in her existence. + +She was unwilling to mingle that night with the other novices, and +retired without seeing them. The night was filled with conflicting +dreams and she woke up next morning with the guilty conviction that she +had committed a crime. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +NEAERA + + +Meanwhile I was becoming acquainted with Lydia's family and their +friends. They occupied a building extending from Fifth Avenue to Lenox +Avenue and from 125th Street to 130th Street. It had a large cloistered +court within which was a beautiful garden, consisting of a grove +inclosing a lawn bordered by flowers. It was usual for the inmates of +the building to meet for tea in the grove on the border of the lawn. +They divided themselves into groups, each with his own arrangement of +chairs, hammocks, and tables, which reminded me of some of our _fetes +champetres_. Within the grove were openings for such games as tennis--of +which they had an infinite variety--and also for stages on which they +rehearsed concerts and plays. The hours between five and seven were by +common consent surrendered to social amusements. At seven there was an +adjournment to the swimming bath and gymnasium with which every +building was provided. Eight was the usual hour for dinner, this meal +being usually reserved to the family; and the evening was spent very +much as with us, either at some theater or at home. The dinner party was +a thing almost unknown. In the first place, the principal meal, and the +only one which required much preparation, was in the middle of the day. +The evening meal at eight was never more than our high tea, the object +of this system being to lighten domestic service. In the second place, +the unmarried, who did not live with their families, generally dined +together in the common hall; and if members of a family wished to dine +at the common table they could at any time do so. Members of different +families frequently dined at one another's domestic table but upon terms +of intimacy; the conventional dinner party had become ridiculous, no one +having the means or feeling the necessity to make a display. The more +thrifty and the best managers, who were skillful at dressing food and +chose to apply their leisure to securing exquisite wines, often +entertained; but out of the hospitality that enjoys sharing good things +with others, rather than the pride which seeks to impress a neighbor by +ostentation of wealth. + +I learned later that, although the conditions I have described still +prevailed, the state was passing out of the pure Collectivism with which +it started; that numerous factories had been started by private +enterprise, partly to supply things not supplied by the state, partly +because of dissatisfaction at state manufacture. Although private +enterprise could only count on voluntary labor during one-half of every +day it had already assumed vast proportions, had given rise to +considerable private wealth and was modifying the social conditions that +resulted from primitive Collectivism. + +I also perceived that although many of the problems of life, such as +pauperism and prostitution, had been solved by the introduction of +Collectivism, nevertheless it had not brought that total disappearance +of ill feeling which prophets of Collectivism had promised us in my +time. On the contrary, I soon discovered that the inmates of every +building were split up into cliques as devoted to gossip as in our day, +the only difference being that they were determined by individual +preference and political divisions and not by poverty or wealth; perhaps +it might be said, that the absence of the wealth standard raised the +level of the social struggle, deciding it by personal excellence and +attractiveness, rather than along conventional lines. Every man and +woman knew that popularity--and even political influence--could be +secured only by these, and this knowledge checked many an angry word and +prompted many an act of kindness. Chaff, too, and even sallies of wit +with a dash of malice in them were borne with more good humor than in +our day; because we all of us love to laugh, and generally the more if +it is at the expense of a neighbor, provided only there be no intention +to wound; so that those who bore banter well were as popular as those +who best could set it going. + +And yet there were some very foolish and malicious people among them. I +remember a foolish one particularly, Aunt Tiny they called her. She was +an aunt of Lydia and Cleon. Lydia First, as Lydia's mother was called, +had married twice. Her first husband had not known how to keep her love +and they had separated after her first child was weaned. Then she had +married a second time; her second husband was an excellent man but +inferior to her; he had not been able to impress his personality nor his +name upon the family, and so the children of the second marriage as well +as the child of the first had taken the name of the mother. The second +husband had died some years before the beginning of this story; but a +sister of his--Aunt Tiny--had remained attached to the family. She was +very small and plump; her hair was of a sickly yellow color and so thin +on the top of her head that the scalp was plainly visible; she wore a +perpetual smile of self-satisfaction which expressed the essential +feature of her character; it was impossible for her to entertain the +thought that she was plain or unattractive; her happiness depended, on +the contrary, upon the conviction that no one could resist her charms +did she only decide to exercise them. Age did not dull this keen +self-admiration; on the contrary, as the mirror told her that +lengthening teeth contributed little to an already meaningless mouth, or +wrinkles little to browless eyes, she felt the need of faith in herself +grow the more, and her efforts by seductive glances to elicit from +others the expression of regard so indispensable to her happiness +redoubled. + +I first saw her in Lydia's drawing-room. I had found it empty on +entering, but presently there came into it a little body with a hand +stretched up, in her eagerness to be cordial, at the level of her head, +and behind it a smirking face bubbling over with the effort of maidenly +reserve to keep within bounds an overflowing heart. + +"Welcome to New York!" she said. "I'm _so_ glad to see you!" + +She lisped a little, and as she emphasized the word "_tho_" she shook +her head in a little confiding way, and the smirk deepened into a +nervous grin. + +I had been so long in New York that I felt her welcome a little +superfluous, but it was part of the doctrine, which kept her happiness +alive, that New York had not completed a welcome to a stranger until it +had been expressed by her. + +I was a little confused by her effusiveness, for I did not wish to +offend an aunt of Lydia's, and yet I felt it impossible to respond in +proper proportion to her advances. + +"You must be Aunt Tiny," I said. "I have often heard of you." + +I refrained from telling her what I had heard; how she had constituted +one of the favorite types for Ariston's mimicry; how, indeed, Ariston +had gone through the very performance I had just witnessed, in which the +uplifted hand, the smirk, and the lisping "_tho_" had lost nothing in +Ariston's art. + +"Dear Lydia!" she exclaimed; and in the pronunciation of the "d" in +"dear" she put exaggerated significance and added a shake of her head. +She wore little corkscrew curls; every time she shook her head the curls +quivered with suppressed agitation. + +"Do sit down," she added--with unnecessary emphasis in the "do." + +There was nothing to be done but to resign myself; she drew up a chair +quite close to mine and settled down in it as an army might settle down +for a Trojan siege. + +"Do tell me--I am dying to know--how did it happen and what do you think +of us? You don't look very different from us; you remind me of Chairo, +and he is thought _very_ handsome"--her head and curls shook again and +she giggled consciously--"_very, very_ handsome!" She giggled still more +and her eyes assumed a coy meaningfulness that increased my discomfort. + +I have never been able to understand why this poor little +woman--perfectly innocent of any real ability to harm--should have been +able to cause me so much annoyance; but there was something in her +glance that made me wish to throw things at her. + +"And Lydia--isn't Lydia beautiful?" There was something caressing in her +tone as she puckered up her lips and dwelt on the word "beautiful" that +exasperated me again. + +"What _do_ you suppose she is going to do? _Is_ she going to accept the +mission or marry Chairo? She is a great flirt, you know; quite a +terrible flirt! But _I_ shouldn't talk of flirting!"--and she giggled +again the same suggestive giggle. "_We_ mustn't be hard on flirts, must +we?" + +This appeal to me, as though I were already _particeps criminis_, would +have led me to protest, but she did not allow me the opportunity, for +she continued: + +"But she has not been fair to Chairo; a girl ought to know when to make +up her mind"--she became very serious now--"_I_ always knew where to +stop; no man ever had the right to reproach _me_." + +I at last could agree with her and I smiled approval. She seemed +delighted. + +"I am sure we are going to be great friends, and you will never +misunderstand me, will you?" + +I protested that I never would, and was relieved by the entrance of +Lydia First, who suggested our going to tea in the grove. + +On our way there as we passed the main entrance a detachment of +militia--some dozen or so--entered, divided into two columns, and stood +at arms while between them passed a woman somewhat more heavily draped +than usual. I asked the meaning of this, and was told that she was a +Demetrian. + +"But why the military escort?" asked I. + +"Demetrians are always attended by an escort unless they particularly +desire to be spared the honor; many would avoid it but the cult +dispenses with it only as a special favor and for a limited time." + +"I cannot see the use of it," lisped Aunt Tiny. + +But Lydia First looked sadly at her, and turning to me, said: + +"All of us do not understand the importance of upholding the dignity of +the cult. It is the very key-stone of social order and we cannot pay too +much honor to those by whose sacrifice it is preserved." + +We were joined at the grove by quite a party; Ariston came later; and +among others I remarked a young girl with bright black eyes who was +described to me as a journalist. It took me some time to become +accustomed to their habit of describing a person's occupation as that +adopted for recreation. The work they did for the state was not regarded +as a matter of particular concern; it was the work they selected for +their leisure hours which marked their character and bent. Neaera had +been first attached to the official journal of the state; but she had +joined Chairo's political party and her work on the journal betrayed her +partisanship, so the state assigned her work in a factory, and she +devoted her leisure therefore to the paper edited by Chairo. + +As leader of the opposition Chairo was, by an established tradition, +relieved of all work for the state. Every political party representing a +designated proportion of the voters of the state could elect a certain +number of representatives upon the plan of minority representation, and +the leaders of the opposition were by virtue of such election released +from working for the state. No law had enacted this, but it had become +the rule by the operation of the principle of _noblesse oblige_. The +representatives who neither belonged to the ministry nor were recognized +as leaders of the opposition did not enjoy this privilege, except during +the sessions of the legislature. But it was recognized that the minority +parties in opposition had as much work to do as the party in power, and +public opinion approved the plan which gave to the recognized leaders of +these parties the greatest opportunity possible for exercising +vigilance. The number of these leaders being small, there was no fear +that the plan would give rise to idleness on a scale to be feared, and +the temptation of the government to annoy leaders of the opposition by +the allotment to them of onerous tasks, or that of ascribing such +motives to the government, was thereby eliminated. + +So Chairo had his whole time free for the organization of his so-called +Radical party, and he published, with the assistance of his supporters, +a paper entitled _Liberty_, to which Neaera devoted all her spare time. +She was uncommonly pretty, but like all these women, was capable of +sudden changes of face and manner which, until I became accustomed to +it, constantly surprised me; though, indeed, I remember having noticed +it in some of the women of my own day whom we described then as +"advanced." Neaera was already seated at a small tea table with a young +man called Balbus, also a member of the _Liberty_ staff, when we arrived +and was engaged in earnest conversation with him. She looked at me +scrutinizingly when I was presented to her, neither rising nor offering +me her hand, and acknowledged the presentation only by a little +conventional smile. There was something that seemed to me ill-bred in +her keeping her seat when Lydia First and the rest of us arrived; but I +soon discovered that Neaera was a person of no small importance, and +expected attention from others which she did not herself concede. Our +party seated itself about an adjoining table and presently Neaera called +to me: + +"Xenos, are you going to lecture at our hall?" + +I had been invited by the Pater to lecture on the social, political, and +economic conditions of the twentieth century. He had assumed that such a +lecture would tend to strengthen the conservative and collectivist +government; and Chairo had asked me to lecture at his hall in the hope, +on the contrary, that it could be made to serve his own cause. I had +been told that these lectures were usually followed by an open +discussion, and I knew that it was from this discussion that both +parties hoped to draw arguments to sustain their views respectively. +Fearing, therefore, to become involved in their political animosities I +had not yet decided whether I would lecture or not, so I answered: + +"I am not sure; I feel a little the need of understanding your own +conditions better than I do, before undertaking to contrast them with +those of our day." + +"We'll undertake to explain our conditions," she said, with an oblique +smile at Balbus, "if you'll let us." + +"I could wish for no pleasanter instruction," I answered. + +"But I see you have Aunt Tiny," retorted she maliciously. + +"Oh, I haven't taken him in hand yet," said Aunt Tiny, taking the +suggestion _au grand serieux_, "but," she added encouragingly, "I will! +I will!" + +Balbus threw his head back and laughed outrageously. + +"What are you laughing at, you goose!" said Neaera. + +"Let him laugh and enjoy himself," answered Aunt Tiny quickly, by way of +discarding the thought that there could be in his laughter anything +disobliging for herself. + +And Balbus, taking the cue, said: + +"We don't want Aunt Tiny to take you in hand for she is terribly +persuasive"--the poor little thing giggled delightedly--"and we want you +on our side." + +"I don't mean to be on either side," I answered. "I am your guest, and, +as such, must confine myself to stating facts; you will have to draw +your own conclusions." + +"That's right," said Neaera. "All we want are facts; the conclusion will +be clear enough. For example, in your time, every man could choose his +own occupation." + +"Undoubtedly," answered I. + +"And was not subjected to the humiliation of working in a factory +because he would not be convenient to the party in control!" flashed out +Neaera. + +I nodded my head gravely in approval. + +"Imagine any of the writers of your day compelled to work in a +factory--Emerson, Browning, Longfellow!--and Tennyson--imagine Tennyson +working in a factory!" + +"Abominable!" responded Balbus. "Abominable and absurd!" + +"Wasn't Burns a plough-boy?" said Ariston, "And Shakespeare a +play-actor?" + +"A second-rate play-actor, too," echoed Lydia First, "and ended by +lending money at usurious interest!" + +"He chose to be that," retorted Balbus. "What we are fighting for is the +right to choose our calling." + +"But haven't you chosen yours?" asked I. "Isn't journalism of your +choosing?" + +"But I have to work at the state factory at the bidding of the state," +answered Balbus, "for half of every day." + +I could not help comparing his lot with my own in Boston. I had never +enjoyed the practice of law; indeed, I had adopted the profession +because my father had a practice to hand down to me. And as I sat day +after day listening to the often fancied grievances of my clients, their +petty ambitions, narrow animosities, and, particularly in divorce cases, +to the nasty disputes of their domestic life, I often felt as though my +profession converted me into a sort of moral sewer into which every +client poured his contribution. Had I really been free when I chose to +devote my whole life to so pitiful a business! + +"Some part of the day," I answered, thinking aloud, "must, I suppose, be +devoted to the securing of food and clothing. In the savage state--in +which some people contend liberty is most complete--the whole day is +practically devoted to it. In our state it was much the same, except +that a few were exempt because they made the many work for them. But +only a very few enjoyed the privilege of idleness--or shall we call it +'liberty'?" + +"No," answered Neaera, "it is quite unnecessary to confuse things; +liberty is one thing and idleness is another. We want the liberty to +choose our work--not the license to refuse it." + +"Liberty, then," said Ariston, "is _our_ license; and license is other +people's liberty!" + +"Ingenious," retorted Neaera, "but not correct. Can't you see the +difference between choosing work and refusing it?" + +"Certainly," answered Ariston. "The work I should _choose_ would be +lying on my back and 'thinking delicate thoughts,' like Hecate. The work +I should refuse would be factory work, like _you_." + +Neaera did not like to find herself without an answer; so she covered +her defeat by taking a flower out of her bosom and throwing it at +Ariston, who, picking it up, kissed it and fastened it to a fold of his +chiton. Just then a strain, that reminded me of our negro melodies, +being wafted to us through the trees, Balbus exclaimed, "Now, Neaera, a +dance!" + +She sprang up at once and began moving rhythmically to the music. It was +a strange and beautiful dance, that had in it some of the quaint +movement of a negro breakdown, and yet the gayety and grace of a Lydian +measure. + +Balbus clapped his hands to accentuate the broken time, and we all +joined him; Neaera, stimulated by a murmur of applause, gave a +significance to her movements; danced up to Ariston, then flinging her +hands out at him in mock aversion, danced away again; next reversing her +step danced back to him, and, snatching the flower out of his chiton, +tripped triumphantly off, throwing her head up in elation; and to +increase Ariston's spite she made as though she would give it to Balbus; +but upon his holding out his hand for it, danced away from him, and +after raising hopes in others of our group by tentative movements in one +direction and another, finally fixed her bright eyes on me, danced +hither and thither as though uncertain, and then finally brought it to +me, and daintily pressing it to her lips, put it with both hands and a +pretty air of resolution into mine. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A TRAGIC DENOUEMENT + + +Lydia could not disembarrass herself of the feeling of guilt with which +she awoke after her interview with Irene. She went to the temple for +help and knelt before the story of Demeter's sorrows, which was told in +sweeping frescoes on its walls. Chance so happened that she found +herself before that part of the story which described the goddess +forgetting her own sorrow in her devotion to the sick child of the +woodman in his hut. The artist, in the reaction from the Greek method of +treating this story which marked the narrative of Ovid as contrasted +with that of Homer, had dwelt upon the humble conditions of the poor hut +in which the light of Demeter's golden hair shone like a beneficent +aureole; and the nascent maternal instinct in Lydia vibrated to the +beauty of Demeter's task. Was she to renounce this highest standard of +maternity? What though she did love Chairo, was it not this very love +which the goddess bade her renounce? And was not the greater the love +the nobler the sacrifice? + +She returned to the cloister weary with the struggle and strove to +forget it by devoting herself to the duties of the hospital. As she +cared for a sick child there, the fresco in the temple before which she +had that morning kneeled came back to her, and in the memory of that +hour and in the love that went out to the child she was nursing she +found consolation. + +But perhaps she was most influenced by a certain capacity for passive +resistance in her, which unconsciously set her upon opposing the +inclination to yield, whether to her love for Chairo or to the pleading +of the priest. She could refuse to yield to both more easily than decide +to yield to either. And so, many days passed in the valley of indecision +before she was lifted out of it by an unexpected event. + +A novice came to her one morning and bade her go to Irene, who had asked +for her. She had not seen Irene since the day they had spoken in the +cloister and she had wondered; but something in her had secretly been +satisfied. Irene would have challenged her to decide, and this was just +what she was not prepared to do. + +As she followed the novice to Irene's rooms the novice had told her that +Irene was very ill and had moaned all night, begging for Lydia. Inquiry +elicited that Irene was threatened and perhaps was actually suffering +from congestion of the brain, and that she had been confined to her +rooms ever since she had ministered with Lydia in the temple. When Lydia +approached Irene's rooms a nurse stopped her by saying that Irene had +just fallen into a sleep--the first for a fortnight--and must not be +awakened. So Lydia remained in the sitting room, peeping occasionally +through the curtain that separated it from the room in which Irene +slept. For many hours Irene remained motionless, but at last as Lydia +stood holding aside the curtain, Irene opened her eyes; her face was +flushed; she sprang up in her bed, leaning on one hand, and glared at +Lydia with eyes that lacked discourse of reason. Then, suddenly, she +seemed to recognize her and a shriek rent the room and sent Lydia +staggering back against the nurse who stood behind her. Putting both her +hands over her eyes and ears Lydia dropped the curtain between herself +and the raving Irene; but no hand could keep her from hearing the words +that came through the curtain and pierced her brain: + +"Go away! Go away!" shrieked Irene. "You have taken him from me! Stolen +him!" + +Irene's shriek sounded to Lydia like the crack of doom. Then came the +words, "Stolen him," in the voice of the accusing angel--and as if it +were in answer to her own shrinking gesture of protest behind the +curtain, she heard Irene shriekingly repeat: "Stolen, yes, stolen!" + +The nurse put Lydia into a chair and went to Irene; she found her risen +from the bed, and, shrouded in her curtain of blue-black hair, with +lunatic eyes, she was advancing slowly to the room where Lydia sat. When +Irene saw the nurse she said, in low grave accents, "Not you--not you!" +and then with menacing significance added, almost in a whisper, "The +other!" + +The nurse tried to stop her and urge her back to her bed, but Irene +swept her away with a single movement of her arm, and moved to the +curtain which separated her from Lydia. But Lydia had by this time +recovered control of herself; she knew that a maniac was approaching and +she arose to await her. Irene pushed aside the curtain and confronted +Lydia standing in the middle of the room, motionless and rigid as though +changed to stone. + +"Don't stand there, brazen-faced!" shrieked Irene. "Kneel--I say, +kneel!" + +But Lydia stood her ground unflinchingly. + +Then Irene burst into a furious laugh: "Great mother," she began +mockingly, and Lydia had to stand and listen while the maniac, with +lurid eyes and frantic gesture, recited the most sacred of the prayers +to Demeter--the prayer in which daily the vestal repeats her vows; but +as the prayer came to a close the light went out of Irene's eyes, the +fury out of her gesture; she slowly bent down upon her knees, and the +last words of the prayer were, in a voice sinking to a whisper, +addressed to Lydia as though she had been the goddess herself. + +When Irene's voice died away it seemed as though the paroxysm was over; +she remained kneeling, with her head bowed upon her breast. + +Then Lydia thought to lift her up, and bent down to her. Irene looked up +suddenly and shrieked as she recognized Lydia; she frantically waved her +hands before her face as though to rid her eyes of the spectacle, and +Lydia resumed her erect posture again. + +By this time the nurse had returned to the room and tried to lead Irene +away. At first she succeeded, but suddenly Irene swept her away, and +confronted Lydia again: + +"It hurts here," she said, clutching at her heart. "You'll know," she +added, and laughed harshly. "You'll know!" she repeated, and throwing up +her hands she clutched the air; then in an agony of paroxysm she +whispered again in a faltering voice, "You'll know"--and suddenly sank a +huddled heap upon the floor. + +Lydia and the nurse ran to her and lifted her back upon the bed, and +from that moment Lydia did not leave her side. For many days life +hovered on the edge of Irene's lips, sometimes appearing to take flight +altogether, and again returning to reanimate the clay. And Lydia with +anguish in her heart bent over her night and day. + +At last a crisis came and Irene fell into a profound and restful sleep; +the fever left her, and the pulse slowly recovered regularity and +strength; she seemed to recognize no one, and it was expected that for +some weeks she would probably remain unaware of those around her. Lydia +was advised to absent herself, lest to Irene, on recovering her reason, +the shock of seeing Lydia prove dangerous; and so, one evening as the +sun set, her strength shattered, she returned to her own rooms. + +It happened that the following day was the ninth of the Eleusinian +festival, on which, if at all, those to whom the mission had been +tendered might accept or renounce it. Strange to say, with her waning +strength ebbed also the power of passive resistance which had kept Lydia +from decision; she surrendered not to the exercise of a controlling will +but to the suggesting influence of Irene's anguish; and on the next day +in the temple, to the rage of some and to the deep concern of all, in +the procession she wore the yellow veil which announced her as a bride +of Demeter. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +HOW THE CULT WAS FOUNDED + + +Before the dramatic climax of the Eleusinian festival, the first +incident of which closed the last chapter, and the thrilling sequel of +which I shall have later to narrate, I had become, in spite of myself, +dragged deeper into the political arena than I wished. + +In the first place I had not remained an unmoved spectator of Neaera's +dance. It was very new to me and altogether bewitching. She had a +faultless figure--or, if it had a fault, what it took away from the type +of ideal beauty it perhaps added to her feminine attractiveness. And so, +on returning with Ariston to our bachelor quarters she was the theme of +our conversation. Ariston had passed through a phase of _tendresse_ for +Neaera. Most of his generation who were of Neaera's class had +experienced her novitiate. Even Chairo had not returned unscathed. We +found him at the bath, and after a plunge into the bracing sea water we +lounged in our wraps on the couches prepared for that delightful moment. + +Chairo declined to take Neaera seriously: "'Il y des gens,'" he said, +"'qui sont le luxe de la race.' She is a sprite created to awake +sentiments which must be satisfied by others; or, perhaps, remain +unsatisfied, and thus stimulate the brush of the painter and the pen of +the poet. She is an artist herself; utterly without conscience or heart; +but contributing greatly to the charm of life, and if not taken in too +heavy doses, altogether delightful." + +Ariston was more severe! "She is a calculating little minx with her own +ends to serve; sometimes those ends are good and she secures a large +following by virtue of them; sometimes they are altogether bad, and then +she uses the following secured by her good ends to attain the bad. But +the worst of it is, she uses what she has of charm remorselessly and has +more than once been summoned before the priests of Demeter." + +"That is no discredit," retorted Chairo. "The whole band of priests +ought to be consigned to the shades. They are an unmitigated curse----" + +It was no easy matter to understand the working of the priestly system +but I gathered this from the discussion: According to Ariston, the cult +of Demeter was organized mainly through the influence of the women to +accomplish a reform in the marriage system and an intelligent, +scientific, and religious regulation of all sexual relations. The evils +to be remedied were threefold: To reconcile continence with love; to +retain the sanctity of marriage without imposing a life penalty for a +single innocent mistake; and to secure, without compulsion, the +improvement of the race. + +In regard to the first of these three, it was recognized that no one +function in the human body contributed so much to the health or malady +of the race as this; and that free love, which had constituted one of +the planks of the Socialist party, would be fatal to the survival of the +community, in consequence of the physical and moral abuses to which +incontinence would give rise. The survival of the races which practised +continence over those which did not practise it was too clearly recorded +in history for its lesson to be neglected. Thus, the promiscuous savage +disappears before the savage who exercises the continence, however +slight, involved in metronymic institutions; these last disappear before +the races which exercise the higher degree of continence required by the +patriarchal or polygamous system; and these last succumb in the conflict +with those which practise the highest degree of continence, known in +our day under the name of monogamy. The lesson of history, then, is that +continence is essential to the progress of the race. The problem +consists in defining continence. + +This could not be done by written laws; the attempt to regulate sexual +relations by law had broken down in my own day. Divorce was the attempt +of morality to rescue marriage from promiscuousness. The greatest +immorality prevailed where divorce was forbidden; in other words, the +institution of marriage became a screen for immorality; women took the +vow of marriage only the easier to break it, and even those who took it +with the sincere intention of being faithful to it, once the bond proved +intolerable, finding no moral escape from it adopted the only immoral +alternative. Divorce, therefore, was the only escape; and the easier +divorce became the more did the sanctity of marriage diminish; so that +at last it became impossible to decide which system resulted in more +demoralization--the one which maintaining a theoretically indissoluble +marriage resulted in secret promiscuousness, or the one which through +divorce by making marriage easily dissoluble opened the door wide to the +satisfaction of every caprice. + +The only force that has ever seemed able to cope with this problem is +religion. Religion for centuries filled convents and monasteries with +men and women who under a mistaken morality offered love as a sacrifice +to God; religion has been the determining factor in the survival of +community life; that is to say, those communities which were animated by +religion--such as Shakers, and the conventual orders--have relatively +prospered, whereas those which were not animated by religion have +rapidly disappeared. Religion effectually preserves the chastity of +women, even outside of convents--as in Ireland--and has been the main +prop of such continence as survived during our time in the institution +of marriage. Religion, then, seemed to be the only human sentiment that +could determine continence, and to some religious institution, +therefore, it was thought this question must be referred. + +What actually happened was this: The constitutional convention, which +put an end to the old order of things and brought in the new, was +controlled by the Socialist faction which believed in free love; a +provision, therefore, was inserted in the constitution forbidding all +laws on the subject of marriage. The same constitution, however, +provided that all adults over the age of twenty-five years who had +passed the necessary examinations--female as well as male--should have a +vote; and this last gave women a voice in political matters, which they +soon exercised with unexpected solidarity. They became a power in the +state, and threatened a modification of the constitution on the subject +of marriage, which would not only restore it to its original +inflexibility, but would impose penalties on both sexes for violation of +the marriage vow, such as the world had not up to that time seen or +dreamed of. The whole community was aghast at the conflict between the +sexes to which this question gave rise, and all the more so, that women +had become a fighting power that could no longer be disregarded. The +drill introduced into the schools for both sexes had demonstrated that +in marksmanship the average woman was quite equal to the average man, +and in ability to endure pain she proved altogether superior to him. +Already the licentiousness that prevailed in Louisiana and the adjacent +States between Louisiana and the Atlantic seaboard had given rise to a +civil war; and the women of the North had fought on the side of sexual +morality in a manner that opened the eyes of men to the existence of a +new and formidable power in the state. The issue upon which Louisiana +had undertaken to secede was upon the power of the federal Government +to enact penal laws against idleness. Obviously, idleness is, under a +Collectivist government, a most dangerous offence. Collectivism cannot +survive except upon the theory that all the members of the community +furnish their quota of work. It was supposed that this question could be +left to state legislation; and during a few generations every state did +secure enough work from its citizens to furnish the stipulated amount of +produce to the common store. But as dissoluteness prevailed in the +South, the Southern States fell more and more behind in their +contribution, and their failure was obviously due to the demoralization +which attended promiscuity in sexual relations. In the Northern States a +certain sense of personal dignity had created a public opinion on the +subject, that prevented free love from producing its worst results; +habits of industry, too, already existed there, and the creation of +state farm colonies--such as existed in our day in Holland--where the +unwilling were made to work prevented idleness from prevailing. In the +Southern States, the climate lent itself to all the abuses that attend +the surrender of self-control; the women never possessed the initiative +necessary for defense; the more the men abandoned themselves to +pleasure the less they were able either to govern or to tolerate +government; and, as a necessary consequence, there was a relaxation of +effort in every direction whether political, industrial, or domestic. + +Much agitation prevailed in the rest of the Union over the condition of +the South; the women, particularly, fearing that the contagion would +spread, banded together to form purity leagues, with a view to meet the +evil by a system of social ostracism; but before the sexual issue came +to a head, the failure of the Southern States to furnish their quota to +the common store raised an economic issue easier to handle. The federal +Government passed a measure providing that in case any State failed to +furnish its quota, the President was to replace the elected governor by +one appointed by himself, and the whole penal administration was to pass +into federal hands, with power to the federal Government to create +pauper colonies and administer them. This aroused the ferocity of the +whole Southern people, and it was at this crisis that the women of the +North showed their prowess and initiative. They formed regiments which +rivaled those of the men in number, and even compared with them in +efficiency. The seceding States proved utterly unable to resist the +forces of the North, and were soon reduced to unconditional surrender. + +In the period of reconstruction which followed this civil war, there +came to the front in Concord a woman of singular ability, who united the +mystic power of the founders of all religions with a personal beauty +that made of her the model of the great sculptor of that day--Phocas. +She early developed a faculty for divining thought, which secured for +her the wonder and awe of the entire neighborhood; and when upon +reaching maturity Phocas took her as his model for a statue of Demeter, +she entered into the spirit of his work and the spirit of his work +entered into her. The statue was his masterpiece, and was moved from +city to city until, coupled as it soon was with the personality of +Latona--for so the new priestess styled herself--it became the center of +a veritable cult. It drew the minds of men to the old Greek worship of +Fertility and Death in the personalities of Demeter and Persephone, so +that Fertility became dignified by Death, and Death disarmed by +Fertility--both merging, as it were, into a notion of immortality dear +to the hopes of men. The golden ear of corn that figured in the radiant +tresses of Demeter was shadowed by the death in the dark earth that +awaits it, and thus became to them an emblem of the annual resurrection +of the spring with its promise of a new after-life for man also. + +To Latona the quality of the Greek myth most worthy of commemoration was +the spirit of sacrifice, which made of Demeter the Mater Dolorosa of the +ancient world. The mother seeking her ravished daughter through all the +kingdoms of the world, wresting her at last from the dark god--but for a +season only--and during the season of sorrow and solitude finding +compensation in caring for the sick child of a woodman in a forest +hut--here was a myth for which Latona could stand and through which she +could draw men to learn the lesson of progress and happiness through +sacrifice. The long hours she spent with Phocas in the study of these +things and the strength of his genius inspired her with a love for the +man as well as for his art; but as the thought that she was born to a +mission slowly dawned upon her she withdrew from his companionship, as, +indeed, from the companionship of her neighbors; performed the tasks she +owed the state with punctiliousness, and gathered about her a few women +who responded to her exalted ideas. Her love for Phocas, about which all +her earthly life centered, became to her the consummate sacrifice that +she could make to this new religion that was slowly taking shape in her. +She drew her votaries chiefly from the conventual order that had +gathered about the great cathedral on Morningside Heights; for the +Christian religion had experienced a great change since the revolution. +The Christian Church, released from the necessity of worldly +consideration of wealth, was now sustained by those only who sincerely +believed in her principles; and as soon as the city had been rebuilt to +suit the new conditions, those who had contributed their leisure to the +beautifying of the streets, turned their attention to the neglected +foundations on the Heights. They found in the new Christian spirit +something of the enthusiasm of the thirteenth century, and ridding the +creed of all save the principle of love which Christ had made the +foundation of His church, set themselves to embodying this principle +with its mystic consequences of sacrifice into gothic arch and +deep-stained glass, upon a scale and design heretofore never +accomplished. Abandoning the transitional style at first contemplated, +they adopted the general scheme of Chartres; but in lieu of the almost +discordant steeples of Chartres they substituted a design taken rather +from what is left of St. Jean, at Soissons, varying in height and +detail, but identical in style, stimulating wonder without shocking it. +The entrance porches of the western facade were inspired by Rheims and +Bourges, for there were five of them; the nave and choir towered to the +heights of Beauvais; and in the center rose the spire of Salisbury. The +lateral steeples flanking the north and south approaches were completed +with the same bewildering variety as on the west front, and the apse, +where rested the sanctuary, terminated the story with a cluster of +chapels that equaled, if not excelled, the _chevet_ of Le Mans; and so +every part of this tribute to Christ lifted itself up in adoration to +heaven like a flame. It rose from a green sward, and adjoining it, on +the north side, was a cloister that in the hush of its seclusion brought +back hallowed recollections of a bygone age. + +It was from this cloister that Latona drew her following; for Latona, +with her thoughts turned to Eleusis and not to Galilee, conceived of a +worship which--though sorrow had a part in it--partook also of joy and +thanksgiving; sacrifice assuredly, but for the happiness of this world, +rather than for its mortification; an after life also, but an after life +for which preparation in this world might through the great +unselfishness of a few assure the happiness of the many. So that while +sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice had become the underlying principle +of the Christian religion, sacrifice for the making of joy became the +central idea of the new cult. And Latona, as indeed every mystic, the +more she dwelt upon these things, the more she grew to believe in her +mission; she began by dreaming dreams and ended by seeing visions; she +found that fasting and asceticism contributed to lengthen and strengthen +the moments when, losing consciousness of this world, she seemed to find +herself in direct communion with the divine. Her body soon showed the +traces of her spiritual life; she lost her beauty, but in the place of +it came a happiness so radiant that as she walked in the streets to her +allotted task it caused men and women to stand and wonder. + +Meanwhile, her fame grew apace. But her personality was at first far +more impressive than her cult. The one was clear and striking, the other +vague and even obscure. At last on a day that afterward became the great +festival of the Demetrian calendar, Latona fell into an ecstasy that +lasted from the rising of the sun to the setting. She spent it on her +knees, in adoration; rigid and motionless, with her hands held out as +though upon a cross; none of those about her dared intrude; when +darkness came she swooned, and those watching lifted her to her couch. +For a week she lay as it were unconscious. Then she gathered her +votaries about her, and for the first time clearly enunciated her gospel +to the world. This done, a strange sickness came upon her, she was, as +it were, consumed by the fire of her inspiration; she wasted away, and +with her dying breath asked that what was left of her be placed in an +alembic, the gases into which her body passed be burned and the flame, +so lit, be never extinguished. + +And it was done. The corpse of Latona gave birth to a new vestal fire +tended by new vestals, vowed no longer to barrenness, but to fertility +and sacrifice. + +Her words were preserved by many of her votaries, but their stories +varied, as must indeed all such records vary in a world where minds +differ as much as inclinations. But the central idea remained and gave +rise to a cult which, unsupported by the state or by law, acquired +control over the minds of men, much as did the papacy in the eleventh +century. Some, as Ariston, believed it to be founded on reason, but +dreaded its power and increase; others, as Chairo, regarded it as an +unmitigated despotism. The issue was to be fought out--as, indeed, such +issues generally are--through the conflict between personal passions +and political beliefs, each using and abusing the other and out of both +emerging, after the appeasement to which every struggle eventually +tends, into a clearer idea and a popular verdict. + +Meanwhile, the followers of Latona had built the temple of Demeter on +the old classic lines, and the solemn grove about the temple had not +detracted from the cathedral close, perhaps because each cult appealed +to different temperaments; perhaps, also, because many found that the +two cults appealed to the different sides of character and to the +different demands of each. + +The cult, though unsupported by any law or statute, had acquired +extraordinary power in the state. It undertook to summon before its +council all persons charged with offenses against Demeter--Demeter +standing amongst other things for the purity of domestic life. If the +party summoned refused to appear before the council, the matter was +referred to the attorney general, who, under the influence of the cult, +prosecuted the charge in the criminal courts with the utmost severity; +and whether the person accused was convicted or not, a refusal to appear +before the council resulted in a social ostracism so complete that few +ventured to incur it. If, on the other hand, the party charged appeared +before the council, the case was likely to be treated with leniency, and +conviction seldom resulted in more than the imposing of some penitential +task. Should it, however, appear that the charge was more serious than +could be dealt with by the cult, it was referred to the attorney +general. + +The cult was careful to abstain from any act or teaching which could +tend to encourage idolatry or superstition; thus, the statue of Latona, +which had first inspired the Demetrian idea, was not placed in the +temple where it might be thought properly to belong, but in the +cloister. The temptation to worship it, therefore, was removed. Indeed, +it was for the purpose of making the worship of a graven image the more +impossible that Latona had asked that her body be consumed and the flame +from it perpetuated on the altar. A flame could remain an emblem; it +could hardly itself, in our day, ever become an object of worship. + +In this way was kept alive the idea that the divine, wherever else it +might also exist, exists certainly within each and every one of us, and +that by the cultivation of love and usefulness it can be made to prosper +and increase in us. For men, the active scope of usefulness lay chiefly +in the field of labor; for women, chiefly in the field of +fertility--neither field excluding the other--but rather both including +all. And so women contributed labor, in so far as labor did not impair +their essential function of motherhood, and men contributed continence +as the highest male duty in the field of fertility. + +The duties of the male, therefore, were grouped into two classes, active +and passive; the former were for the most part exercised in willingness +to labor for the commonwealth without too grasping a regard for reward; +the latter consisted mainly in continence, carefully itself +distinguished from abstention--for it was a cardinal maxim of the +Demetrian faith--as old, indeed, as the days of Aristotle--that human +happiness could but be attained by conditions that permitted the due +exercise of _all_ human functions, each according to its laws. Science +therefore came to the rescue of human happiness by determining the laws +of human functions; and art completed its work by creating an +environment which to the highest degree possible enabled every man and +woman to exercise all their functions with wisdom, moderation, and +delight, to the best happiness of all and the ultimate advancement of +the race. + +And although the future of the race was forever present to the priests +of the cult, yet were men and women not expected to make any great +sacrifice beyond the immediate generations that succeeded them, the +institution of marriage being carefully maintained because it kept alive +the care of the parent, each for its own offspring, thus providing for +every generation the protection furnished by paternal pride and maternal +solicitude. + +The purity of the domestic hearth, its reverential care of offspring, +the lifting of motherhood out of the irreligion of caprice into the +religion of sacrifice; the exercise in all these matters of the highest, +because the most difficult, of all the virtues--moderation--these are +the special concerns of the Demetrian cult. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +HOW IT MIGHT BE UNDERMINED + + +The discussion of these matters by Ariston and Chairo elicited an old +story which was to receive its sequel in my time and it is important, +therefore, to narrate it. + +It seems that the year before my arrival among them Neaera had +encouraged the addresses of a certain Harmes--a brother of Anna of Ann, +and that Harmes was accused by her of having become so ungovernable that +it had given rise to a public prosecution. Harmes had been convicted and +confined to a farm colony, where he was still serving his term. The +incident had given rise to much vexation of spirit, for many felt that +Harmes was more sinned against than sinning. + +The account Ariston gave of the matter was greatly to Neaera's +discredit; according to him, Neaera originally had designs on Chairo, +and he seemed willing enough to enjoy her society. Much thrown together, +both by politics and journalism, it was not unnatural that their +companionship should often extend itself into their hours of leisure. +But Chairo was far too clear-sighted not to perceive the capriciousness +and duplicity of his collaborator, and Neaera wasted her efforts upon +him. + +Of this, however, she could never be convinced and she returned to the +charge over and over again. During one of the interludes she happened to +meet Harmes and took a liking to the freshness of his youth; he became +infatuated with her, and one evening he visited her at her apartment on +an occasion when Neaera's mother was absent and she was therefore alone. +It seems the young couple remained together so late into the evening +that Neaera on the following day, fearing that a rumor of the visit +might reach Chairo to her disadvantage, complained of Harmes's violence. +Harmes, with a devotion to Neaera of which Ariston did not think her +worthy, refused to defend himself against the charge. It is probable the +matter would have dropped had not some enemies of Neaera taken the +matter up, believing that, if prosecuted, Harmes would not refuse to +vindicate himself and injure Neaera. + +The charge had therefore been brought first before the Demetrian +council; and the council, on the same theory as that adopted by Neaera's +enemies, and convinced that Neaera would be punished, put the matter +into the hands of the attorney general. Harmes's silence, however, only +served to vindicate Neaera and convict himself; and the community was +still undecided as to which was the culprit and which the victim. + +I had an opportunity myself of forming an opinion on the subject, for +shortly after my conversation with Ariston and Chairo I received an +intimation from Neaera that she would like to see me at the office of +the _Liberty_ staff, and upon going there at the hour mentioned I found +Neaera busily engaged writing in a room that suggested other things than +labor; for it was furnished with more luxury than was usual, and there +were richly upholstered divans in it laden with piles of eiderdown +pillows; the air, too, was heavy with perfume. + +Neaera, however, received me with her brow contracted; she was working +at an editorial, and I evidently interrupted the flow of her thought; +but the frown very soon passed away from her forehead, and standing up a +little impatiently she flung her pen down on the table. + +"There!" she said, "I am glad you have come; I need rest." + +She threw herself on the divan, and I could not help thinking as she +lay there that the Greek dress was less open to criticism in the fields +and open air than in a closed room. In town the longer mantle was worn +which came down to the feet; but the clinging drapery displayed the +lines of the figure in a manner to which I felt uncomfortably +unaccustomed. + +"I sent for you," said she, "to speak to you seriously about this +lecture you are to give. Your views may have an important bearing and +you ought to know the evils of our system if you are to compare them +with the old." + +"I am impressed," answered I, "with certain things--such as the absence +of poverty, the relative well-being of all; and this seems to me so +important that I am inclined perhaps to undervalue the price you pay for +them----" + +"The price--that is it--the terrible price; we are subjected to a +despotism such as you in your times would not for a moment have +endured." + +"Undoubtedly--in one sense of the word--despotism. But Ariston claims +that this despotism, though absolute, applies to only a few hours in the +day, whereas in our time there was for the mass as great a despotism +that controlled their entire existence. Some time must be given to the +securing of food, clothing, and shelter. The present government claims +to furnish this to all with less labor and less compulsion than under +our system." + +We discussed this question at some length, but I could not help thinking +that some other thought was preoccupying Neaera's mind, and presently +she stretched her arms over her head and said, "Oh, I am tired of it +all!"--then turning on her side she laid her head upon a bare arm, and +looking at me, smiled. + +It was impossible to mistake her gesture or her smile; it told me that +she had not called me to speak of serious things at all; it beckoned me +to her side on the divan, and I almost felt myself unconsciously +responding to her invitation. But I was aware of danger and refrained. +Nevertheless, I was curious to know whether I was accusing her +wrongfully, and I said: + +"The thing that puzzles me most about you all is--" I hesitated +intentionally, and she helped me. + +"What is it?" + +"I don't know how to say it." + +"Bashful?" + +"A little." + +"Can I guess?" + +"I think you can." + +"We are all as much puzzled about it as you." + +"And yet I am told you pride yourselves on your good behavior." + +"Some do"--she paused a little, took a flower from a vase by her side +and bit the stalk; she held the flower in her mouth a minute, looked at +me again, half closing her eyes; but I remained seated where I was. +Finding I remained unresponsive, she went on: + +"We have all the faults that come from too great intimacy between men +and women. The men get so accustomed to the women that romance is dead. +We tend to become a vast family of brothers and sisters. Fortunately we +travel and receive travelers, and so the dreadful monotony is relieved. +_You_ are a traveler, you see." + +I understood now why I was favored, but still I remained seated where I +was. + +Perceiving that I was either stupid or resolute she jumped up from the +divan and came to where I sat. She was short, and as she stood by me, +her face was near mine and only a little above it. She had the flower in +her hand now, and handing it to me, said: + +"Put it in my hair." + +I did so. She lowered her head to help me. I thought the time had come +to effect an escape. + +"Did you ever hear," said I, "the Eastern story of the man with the +staff, the cock, and the pot?" + +"No, tell it me." + +"There was once upon a time a man climbing a mountain. He had a pot hung +on his arm and a cock in his hand. In the other hand he held a staff. On +his way he perceived a young girl and invited her to climb the mountain +with him. With some little show of reluctance she consented, but as they +approached the last house on the mountainside she paused and said: + +"'I shall go no farther with you!' + +"'Why not?' asked he. + +"'Because I fear that when we have gone beyond reach of these houses you +will kiss me.' + +"'Nay,' answered the man, 'do you not see that both hands are +encumbered? In one hand I hold my staff; in the other is a cock and a +pot hangs upon my arm.' + +"The maiden smiled and they pursued their way. But when they were gone +well up on their way the maiden stopped again and said: + +"'I shall go no farther with you.' + +"'Why not?' asked he. + +"'Because I fear that now we are beyond reach of the houses, you will +stick your staff in the ground; you will put your cock under your pot, +and you will kiss me.' + +"And the man did then at once stick his staff in the ground; he put the +cock under the pot and kissed her--as indeed all along she meant he +should." + +She gradually edged away from me as I proceeded with my story, until at +last she sank on the divan again. + +When I had finished she said, "That is a very old story, and if you will +permit me I shall get to work again." + +I bowed very low and left her, feeling more humiliated than Neaera; and +I wondered why it was that virtue, in the presence of vice, sometimes +seems cheap and even ridiculous. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +AN UNEXPECTED SOLUTION + + +Chairo had been kept informed of what was happening to Lydia until the +last day of the Eleusinian festival, and he believed that all danger of +losing her was over. The appearance of Lydia, therefore, in the +procession wearing the yellow veil was all the more a stupefying +surprise to him. I was standing with him and Ariston as the procession +passed, and was looking with eager and delighted interest at the +gracefully draped figures that succeeded one another to the sound of +music, which, with a subtle combination of majesty and grace, combined +the plain chant of the Catholic liturgy with the lighter fugues of Bach, +for in and out of great chords there ran intermingling strains of many +voices, very light and delicate. + +The procession was headed by girls and boys, selected for their perfect +wholesomeness, who carried flowers and scattered them; they were dressed +in the old Greek _chiton_ which, fastened only above the shoulder, +betrayed every movement of their lithe young bodies, as, swaying with +the rhythm of the sower casting his seed, they threw their offerings +first on one side and then on the other. The governor of the State, the +mayor of the city, the commander of the militia, and their respective +cabinets and staffs followed, respectively arrayed in the insignia of +their office; the other cults also were represented; those of Jupiter +robed in purple; those of Asclepius; those of Dionysus, and others. In +striking contrast with these came next the novices and the nuns, swathed +closely and heavily, even the head being concealed within a fold of +drapery. The procession entered from the cloister, and on approaching +the altar where was kept burning the vestal flame, it divided so as to +allow the high priest and his acolytes to pass up between. The high +priest was followed by the choir, and after the choir walked those who +had accepted the mission. + +It was upon these that the curiosity and impatience of the congregation +centered; it sometimes happened that there were none; in such case the +procession was closed by the Demetrians--that is to say, all who had +already accepted the mission and completed it. On this occasion a single +figure was seen to enter the portal, covered with the yellow veil and +so draped as to conceal her features. The head, however, more usually +bowed, was erect. For a sensible period of suspense it was impossible to +tell who it was that had assumed the yellow shroud; but presently those +nearest to her had discovered Lydia, and her name passed in an awful +whisper to where we stood. The name once pronounced, there could no +longer be mistake; Lydia alone of all the postulants could so hold +herself: _Vera incessu patuit dea_. I felt a clutch at my arm, and, +turning, saw the face of Chairo blanched and hard; but I was too +absorbed in the procession to take long heed of him; I saw the +procession close, and followed the ritual with breathless interest till +the congregation was dismissed, unaware that Chairo had already slipped +away from me and out of the temple. + +As Ariston and I walked back to our lodging I asked what Chairo would +do. Ariston answered that he feared trouble. We were both deeply +affected, for even Ariston, votary of Demeter though he was, could not +but feel as I did, that there was something in the choice of Lydia +strange and portentous. We discussed it in low voices, and for many days +little else was spoken of. Meanwhile, anxiety regarding the action of +Chairo redoubled for he had disappeared. It was well known that the +Demetrian council was taking steps, but no one knew what the steps were, +and a sense of impending calamity weighed upon us all. + +From the moment Lydia had decided to accept the mission, there seemed to +grow in her a strength that was not her own. She rose from the couch, on +which she had thrown herself upon leaving Irene, without a symptom of +her old irresolution; she stood without sense of fatigue while the +yellow shroud was so draped about her as to hide her face to the utmost +possible, for though she knew she could not escape recognition an +instinct in her set her upon the attempt to do so; and when in the +procession she entered the portals of the temple, a glow moved up from +her heart to her head that deeply flushed her countenance as she heard +the whisper "Lydia" grow from mouth to mouth into an almost angry +protestation. Nevertheless, she felt sure now that she was right; it was +easier as well as nobler to make the sacrifice than to yield. She walked +firmly, with head erect, until she sank upon her knees before the altar, +and the choir's triumphant processional was subdued in low responses to +the chant of the high priest. + +At last he turned to her and lifted his hands in mute suggestion that +she should bring her tribute to the goddess. A Demetrian presented her +the flint which was to symbolize the strength of her sacrifice; the +priest gave her the steel that symbolized its cruelty; and striking one +against the other she lit a spark that added a new flame to the altar. +This was the irrevocable act. A great sigh mingled with many sobs broke +from those present in the temple; but _her_ eyes remained dry, and at +the close of the ceremony she walked back to the cloister as firmly as +she had left it. + +But once returned, there came upon her the inevitable reaction; she +discovered that the strength which had come upon her suddenly could no +less suddenly forsake her; she threw herself upon a couch and asked to +be left alone. As the door closed upon her attendant she was half +astonished, half afraid to find sobs invade her and tears gush from her +eyes. What did it all mean? Had she a will of her own, or was she merely +the arena upon which instincts, half of heredity, half of education, +were fighting out their battle, independently of her? She seemed to have +become a mere spectator of it; alas, she must also be its victim. She +lay sobbing until the sobs slowly died away, leaving her exhausted, and +at last she slept like a tired child. + +The next morning she awoke as weak as though she had had a long fever. +It was the custom for novices to be removed to a temple in an island off +the coast as soon as they accepted the mission--for, from the day of +acceptance they were secluded--living with Demetrians only, under +conditions which, though compatible with their mission were, +nevertheless, most conducive to gayety and health. But Lydia was too +weak to be moved; and she lay in her bed night and day, eating little, +sleeping little, very quiet. There was hardly room in her thoughts for +regret; she had committed the irrevocable act and now she must resign +herself; her body had been exhausted by the struggle and cried for rest; +and rest was given her. + +Slowly her strength returned, and she was beginning to feel the time had +come to go to the island cloister when, suddenly in the middle of the +night, she was aware that some one had pushed aside the curtain at her +door and was standing in her room. She had neither seen nor heard +anything, but she was conscious of a presence, and a guilty delight in +her heart told her, however incredible, that it was--Chairo. + +She raised herself in her bed on her hand and found herself seized in a +passionate embrace. + +"For the love of God!" she heard his voice whisper to her, "don't +resist"; and compelling arms lifted her off her couch, wrapped the heavy +coverings upon it about her, and carried her like a child out of the +room. She was taken into the cloister; her head was covered, and she did +not wish to see. The weakness which had racked her bones and from which +she had barely recovered came back to her, but now how different! For it +wrapped a lethargy about her to which it was an ecstasy to surrender; no +pain now; no sorrow; not even contrition. She was in the arms of Chairo, +and it had happened without a sign from her; almost against her will; +without her consent. For a season, at any rate, Lydia surrendered +herself to the sweet self-deception that this had really all happened +without her consent. Deep in her heart, however, was the conviction that +she had strength enough to resist had she chosen; that a single cry +would have sufficed to thwart a desperate stratagem. She was a little +alarmed to find that this conviction could remain unshaken, and that, +nevertheless, there was a song of thanksgiving in her heart that the +strength of resistance had remained unused and the cry remained +unuttered. + +Chairo's strong arms were about her as he silently hurried through the +cloister. Lydia heard other hurrying steps besides his; he had clearly +joined confederates; she was soon put into a carriage and whirled away +from the temple. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE PLOT THICKENS + + +The first news I had of the carrying off of Lydia was from Ariston. I +was just going down to breakfast when he abruptly entered the sitting +room we shared, and exclaimed: "Lydia has disappeared!" + +To my inquiries he answered that the gate of the cloister had been +forced, and the janitor bound and gagged. Obviously several men were +involved, for traces of many steps were clearly visible--all shod; +Lydia's sandals and cothurni were still in her room: she had, +apparently, been lifted off her bed in the bed clothes; the absence of +all trace of bare feet indicated that Lydia had not put foot to ground. +Probably she had been gagged also, as no cry had been heard; everything +seemed to indicate that she had been carried off against her will. The +Demetrian council was swearing in special constables and had called upon +the state authorities for help to capture the intruders; on the other +hand, Balbus and others were collecting their followers, and armed +conflict was feared. + +Ariston was in great perplexity; all his convictions were on the side of +order; but friendship made it impossible for him to join Chairo's +enemies. After an animated discussion we decided that he should go to +the council and endeavor to obtain a hearing, in the hope of persuading +the council to abandon the effort either to recover Lydia or punish +Chairo. Ariston begged me to go to Lydia First, explain to her the steps +he was taking, and put myself at her disposal should she have a message +to send him. + +I hurried to Lydia First's apartment and found Cleon there. With flushed +face Cleon announced that Chairo and his sister had been captured; that +they were probably at that moment before the magistrate; that he had +rushed home to tell his mother, and that she was preparing to go to her +daughter. + +Presently Lydia First entered the room; the events of the night had not +impaired the dignity of her manner but had deepened the lines in her +already timeworn countenance. She bade me seek Ariston, of whose +knowledge of legal procedure she felt in need, and hurry him to the +court where Lydia and Chairo were being examined. + +Prisoners were entitled to counsel if they asked for it; but the +innocent seldom availed themselves of the privilege. The examination +might, therefore, be actually then proceeding unless either Chairo or +Lydia demanded an adjournment. It little suited the temperament of +Chairo to seek counsel, and the consciousness of innocence would prevent +Lydia from doing so. I hastened, therefore, with all speed and found +Ariston waiting to be introduced into the council chamber. He was still +ignorant of the capture. We hurried to the courthouse and Ariston, who +had no right to appear except at the request of one of the prisoners, +sent in a line both to Chairo and Lydia urging them to demand an +adjournment. The examination had already commenced. Both Chairo and +Lydia, however, asked that Ariston be admitted, and I was admitted with +him. + +Lydia First was there and had already urged both Chairo and Lydia to ask +for counsel, and both had refused. The examination was not a public one, +only relations and friends or counsel being admitted; when, however, +Ariston's message was received, he was by general consent admitted, and +he immediately addressed the examining magistrate. He pointed out that +Chairo, being a member of the state legislature, enjoyed immunity from +arrest unless captured _in flagrante delicto_, and that Lydia was not +charged with any offense; both ought, therefore, to be released without +examination. A priest, however, who appeared for the Demetrian council +persisted that their doors had been forced, their sanctuary violated, a +vestal carried off without her consent, and Chairo found in the act of +flight with her; the priest maintained that this constituted arrest _in +flagrante delicto_. Chairo reminded the magistrate that he had not +sought to escape examination, but added that, mindful of the magnitude +of the issue involved in the case, he felt it ought to be fought out in +the political rather than the judicial arena, and that he was indebted +to Ariston for having reminded the court of an immunity which would +transfer the question from the courts to the legislature. + +The magistrate decided that he would not proceed with the examination, +but in view of the seriousness of the offense he would hold Chairo until +the question whether legislative immunity applied to his case could be +decided by a full court. + +Chairo was, therefore, confined in the house of detention, and Lydia was +restored to her mother. + +We at once sought admittance to Chairo, and found him impatiently pacing +the room where he was confined. + +"There was treachery," he exclaimed. "My carriage had been tampered +with; it broke down within a mile of the cloister. I am trying to think +who can have been guilty of it." + +He continued pacing the room and neither of us was disposed to speak. +Suddenly he turned to Ariston: + +"But I have not thanked you; I should have made a mistake had you not +interfered; and I know you belong to the other side." He put his hand +out to Ariston and they shook hands warmly. + +"You may be of immense service at this moment," he continued, "just +because you belong to the government party. I was prepared for violence, +and Balbus is now collecting our friends; but this treachery makes me +doubtful of success; only some half dozen knew of my plan; the loyalty +of every one of them seems essential to us, and one of them is +a--traitor." + +"You should be thankful that treachery prevented your resort to +violence," answered Ariston. "You have secured what must be the matter +of most importance to you: Lydia is restored to her home; she is removed +from the cloister and is given time for reflection. This you could +doubtless not have brought about in any other manner than by the plan +you adopted. But had you escaped there would have been only one +alternative; now the question can be settled without the shedding of +blood." + +"But I have lost Lydia!" exclaimed Chairo, with haggard eyes. + +"Not lost," said Ariston. "I have yet to learn just what part Lydia has +played in the matter. Did she consent?" + +Chairo, who was still pacing the room, suddenly stopped and faced us; he +put out both hands deprecatingly and seemed about to answer, but +arrested himself and resumed his walk. Then very slowly he said: + +"What do you mean by consent? Can she be said to have consented when, +under an influence that paralyzed her will she paid her tribute at the +altar? The question we have to bring before the state is not whether +Lydia consented to the cult or to me, but whether the influence +exercised by the cult is a wholesome influence or a damnable one." + +"If you want this issue to be fairly presented," said Ariston, "don't +allow your case to be prejudiced by violence. Send orders at once to +Balbus bidding him abandon this gathering together of your followers. +The mere fact that he is preparing for violence will distort the issue, +and any attempt at rescue will prevent a calm and fair discussion of it +altogether." + +"You are right," said Chairo. He took out a note book and made as though +he would write, but checking himself, he said: "I must put nothing on +paper," and turning to me asked: "Won't you go to Balbus at once and +explain to him that violence now would be a mistake? He would hardly +accept such a message from Ariston, who is known to be on the government +side; but from you it will seem less open to suspicion. Tell him if he +doubts you to come and see me, and hear my views from my own lips." + +On leaving Ariston I was aware that a large force of special constables, +bearing the badge of Demeter--a sheaf of wheat--were gathered about the +House of Detention. I hurried to the office of _Liberty_ and found a +crowd there, through which it was difficult to penetrate. Obviously +something unusual was happening. I should never have got through to +Balbus had I not been able to state that I was the bearer of a message +from Chairo. This, however, opened every door to me, and soon I found +myself in a room where Balbus was engaged in giving rapid instructions +to a number of men waiting their turn to be received. Neaera was there +also, sitting at a side table, busily writing. As soon as I began giving +my message to Balbus, Neaera rose and came toward us. She was serious +and there was a slight frown upon her face. When I had finished, Balbus +turned to her and she answered: + +"It is too late. Measures have already been taken. Besides, Chairo's +messenger"--and as she looked at me squarely in the face her brow +darkened--"is not accredited." + +I explained the situation as Chairo had stated it and urged Balbus to go +himself to the House of Detention. But Neaera said quickly: + +"If Balbus were to leave this office unescorted he would be arrested. He +is already compromised. Moreover, we cannot take our orders from a +prisoner." + +"The House of Detention is strongly guarded," said I. + +"And we are strongly armed," answered Neaera. + +I felt that it was useless further to insist and proposed to retire, but +Neaera whispered a word in Balbus's ear, and he said to me, "I think I +shall ask you to stay with us a little while." + +"I shall not stay with you except compelled to do so by actual +violence," I answered, with no slight indignation. + +"Then we shall have to use violence," answered Balbus. + +In a moment I was seized, bound, gagged, and hurried into an adjoining +room where I was tied to a chair and a band was fastened about my eyes. +In this uncomfortable position I remained for some hours. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +NEAERA'S IDEA OF DIPLOMACY + + +At first I was aware from a hum of voices that others remained in the +room with me; but after some time the hum ceased; next I heard the noise +of artillery not far off. It did not last long, but I recognized the +tearing screech of machine guns. When it was over, believing myself to +be alone, I sought to extricate myself from my bonds. The cords, +however, were so tightly fastened about my wrists that the skin was +torn, and every effort I made to loosen them occasioned acute pain. I +must have uttered a low cry, for I heard a voice I knew well say +mockingly: + +"Does it hurt?" And the gag was removed from my mouth. + +"I thought I was alone," answered I. + +"We _are_ alone--quite alone," said Neaera. "Why don't you stick your +staff in the ground and put the cock under the pot?" + +She was so close to me that I could feel her breath on my cheek. + +"Release my hands and I will," answered I. + +"Thank you, indeed! Do you think I have had you bound for that!" + +"I do not flatter myself; but as you are disposed to chat, tell me what +is happening." + +She took the band off my eyes and looked bewitching as she mocked me: + +"Nothing is happening; and if there were something happening how should +I know it?" + +"Who tampered with Chairo's carriage?" + +I asked the question suddenly in the hope that I should take her by +surprise. + +"What carriage?" asked she with an air of innocence, but the color +mounting to her cheek betrayed her. + +"Chairo says some one treacherously tampered with his carriage." + +"Nonsense," answered Neaera. "The accident to Chairo's carriage is not +the first carriage accident in the world. Chairo is thinking only of +himself." + +"How so?" + +"He wants Lydia; we want liberty." + +My suspicions were confirmed. + +"I suppose Chairo has made love to you--as have all the rest." + +The dimple deepened in Neaera's cheek, but she busied herself +unfastening the cords that bound my wrist. + +"I am going to give you liberty at any rate," she said. "For I want you +to do something for me." + +"Stick my staff in the ground and put----" + +"No; I have forgiven you; it is something very different from that." + +My hands were free now, and I stretched them out in exquisite relief. + +"Are you a little grateful?" + +"Of course, I am grateful--but I am still more curious to know what you +want me to do for you." + +"It is very simple." She showed me a sheet of paper upon which was some +typewriting. "I want you to sign this." + +I put out my hand to take the paper and read the writing. + +"Oh, no!" she cried, putting the paper behind her back. "I want you to +sign without reading." She looked at me with a smile which she meant to +be irresistible; and, assuredly, to most men the temptation would have +been great--for the smile said plainly that acquiescence would have its +full reward. + +I had unloosed the cords about my feet and was standing in front of her +irresolute; not wishing to make an enemy of her by a downright refusal, +for I did not know what confederates might be within call and yet half +inclined to snatch at the paper and read it in spite of her. But I +suspected that she meant me to do this; that she shrewdly guessed a +playful struggle between us would increase the temptation to yield to +her beyond powers of resistance. + +As I stood smiling at her, for the grace of her posture--leaning a +little forward and holding the paper behind her back--disarmed me, she +suddenly waved the paper before me as though inviting me to snatch at +it. + +I cannot imagine what would have been the result of this little comedy +had not a distant hum from the street suddenly attracted our attention. +She ran to the window, threw up the sash and, taking up a field glass +that was lying on the table, looked down the street. One glance was +sufficient; when she turned back into the room her face was blanched; +every trace of coquetry had disappeared; she barely looked at me and +hurried from the room. She locked the door upon me as she left. I went +to the window, but on my way there picked up the paper she had offered +for my signature and which she had dropped as she picked up the field +glass. I was too much interested in what was happening in the street to +read it then. I thrust it in my wallet and saw without the help of the +field glass that the street was full of armed men hurrying to the +_Liberty_ building, and upon their shoulders the badge of Demeter--a +golden sheaf on a blue ground--was clearly visible. Obviously, Balbus's +attempt at rescue had failed, and instead of bringing back Chairo in +triumph to the _Liberty_ office, it was the special constables who were +crowding to its doors. Soon I heard a rush of steps up the stairs; there +was a fumbling at the door; the door was forced and there rushed in a +number of men, one of whom recognized me. I explained the message from +Chairo which I had brought to the office of _Liberty_ and, without +mentioning names, added that I had been bound and imprisoned there. The +cords in the room and the abrasions on my wrists confirmed my story. I +promised to hold myself at the disposal of the investigating magistrate +and was given my liberty. + +The offices in which I had been confined were searched and every paper +in them carefully collected. I betook myself at once to the chambers I +shared with Ariston, but on the way I took the paper I had been asked to +sign out of my pocket and read it. + + + "DEAR CHAIRO: + + "Balbus has confined, bound, and gagged me. I owe my freedom now to + Neaera, who will see that this reaches you. + +"VERB. SAP." + +Not a word in this interesting document was literally false; and yet it +was obvious how falsely Neaera meant to use it. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +NEAERA MAKES NEW ARRANGEMENTS + + +Neaera left the building in which were the _Liberty_ offices by an +entrance on a street other than that which she had seen threatened by +the constables, and hurriedly considered where she could find a certain +Masters to whom she had always determined to fly in case of defeat. +Masters was a man whose career had greatly contributed to the particular +phase of Collectivism which I found prevailing in the New England +States. Originally the state had undertaken to monopolize manufacture, +and for a long period--over a hundred years--had succeeded in giving +general satisfaction. During the first century of Collectivist existence +so much time was spent in transforming cities that there was no leisure +for individual enterprise; indeed, during this period the majority +worked as hard as they had ever worked under the competitive regime; for +although a half-day's labor only was exacted to earn a full share in the +national income, another half-day's labor was asked and freely given to +make those changes in the cities and towns which were obviously +necessary under the new regime. And a certain exchange of occupation had +taken place, masons and carpenters working all day at their respective +trades, while others worked all day at theirs, extra wages being paid +for extra work; these extra wages were applicable to the purchase of +luxuries, the most laborious and the most thrifty thus reaping the +reward of their labor and thrift. When, however, the cities, towns, and +villages had been so converted as to furnish practically equivalent +lodging to all, under conditions that were wholesome and with due regard +to the demand for the beautiful that, though expressed in my time only +by a few, is in fact latent in us all, there was no longer the same +imperious call for extra labor on the part of the state, and the leisure +enjoyed in consequence was soon employed in a manner not anticipated by +socialists of my day. And Masters had been the first to inaugurate the +new system. It happened in this way: + +The state had exposed itself to much criticism as to many of the things +furnished by its factories, and when Masters was still a youth of +twenty-five years, the complaint on this subject became so wide-spread +that he set himself to correcting the evil. He was employed in a +wall-paper factory, and wall paper was just one of the articles that had +given rise to the greatest dissatisfaction; so one day when an artistic +friend was mocking at the work the state factory turned out, Masters +suggested that they should get a few others to join them in setting up a +factory of their own. The experiment was looked upon at first as a piece +of innocent child's play, but when some hundred young men and women +actually succeeded in producing a wall paper so preferable to that +manufactured by the state that theirs alone was purchased and the state +had to shut down some of the government mills, the question of the right +of individuals to compete with the state was brought up in the +legislature, and the issue became sufficiently serious to drive Masters +into politics for the purpose of defending what came to be known as +"Liberty of Industry." + +The principal argument made against this so-called liberty of industry +was that Masters and his fellow-workers were becoming rich. The money +that formerly was paid to the state factory was now paid to them, and +thus the accumulation of wealth became possible which it was the +principal object of Collectivism to prevent. In vain Masters argued +that they applied their leisure to the manufacture of wall paper not in +order to become rich, but in order to have paper that suited their +taste; that the real value of Collectivism was to provide all men with +the necessaries of life so as not to subject poor men to a few rich; +that so long as the state provided necessaries against a stipulated +amount of labor it was quite immaterial whether a few chose by voluntary +labor to provide an article that was needed and incidentally increase +their own wealth; and that such voluntary labor benefited all. The cry +against accumulation was too powerful to be silenced, and Masters felt +some concession must be made to it; so he consented to a proposition +that all state money should have purchasing power only during a period +of two years; under this system hoarding or accumulation would be +prevented, because every two years the money so hoarded would become +valueless--all money being paper and bearing a date, gold being used +only by the state in foreign trade. + +This compromise was adopted, and the effect of it was to give an immense +impulse to private industry. While the question was being discussed few +were willing to embark on an enterprise that might be declared illegal +and be appropriated by the state. As soon, however, as private +enterprise was indirectly sanctioned by the passage of this law it +became clear that any individual might devote his leisure to the +production of anything not satisfactorily produced by the state, and the +result of this new departure was considerable, for it not only greatly +increased the total wealth of the community but it stimulated the state +to maintain and improve standards of manufacture, contributing all that +is good in competition without tolerating those features of oppression +and pauperism which had made competition so evil in our day. + +And Masters became a great man in the community; for not only was he +regarded as the author of private enterprise, but possessing the powers +of organization and the judgment in selecting his fellow-workers +essential to success, he soon became the head of numerous enterprises; +and although he was unable at first to accumulate wealth in the shape of +money, he did accumulate it in the shape of products of manufacture. +Moreover, the fact that he could not accumulate it in the shape of money +and that there was a limit to his power to accumulate it in the shape of +products of manufacture, drove him to distribute his earnings among his +neighbors with a prodigality so lavish that, possessing a naturally +generous heart and an attractive manner, he became a man of +enormous--some men said undue--influence in the state. Recently, too, +owing to the establishment of a banking system, accumulation in private +money became possible. + +Masters had never married. His interests were so various and engrossing +that he had not felt the need of a wife. Nor was he ever at a loss for a +companion; the bath was his club; and a short evening--for he was an +early riser--was comfortably spent in the society of those with whom he +dined at the common table. But he was by no means insensible to feminine +charm, and Neaera had not ineffectually aired her graces for his +benefit. + +Neaera had often decided that Masters was the best match in the country +and had schemed to secure him; but she was aware of his sagacity and had +so far refrained from any overture that might alienate him. She had, +however, never failed to improve an opportunity for displaying her +attractions in his presence, taking care to keep religiously away from +him at such times lest he should guess the plot that lay at the bottom +of all her performances. On more serious occasions she had had long and +confidential conversations with him, chiefly on political subjects; she +had indeed been one of his political lieutenants, but when engaged in +politics she had studiously avoided the slightest symptoms of coquetry. +Masters, on the contrary, had often allowed her to feel that he would +gladly have made their relations more intimate. She had seen the big +fish rise--a little lazily, it is true--at her cast; she had felt that +upon a sufficiently dramatic occasion she could land him; and now it +satisfied her sense of antithesis that so signal a defeat as that of her +party that day might be converted by her skill into an individual +victory. + +It was about four in the afternoon--the hour when Masters should be +leaving his office for his apartment. If she walked in the direction of +the latter he would possibly overtake her; she did not wish to go to +him; she preferred to meet him accidentally; it would not do for him to +imagine she had counted on him. She walked, therefore, slowly and with a +pretty air of concern along the street he usually took, wondering +whether she would be favored by fortune before the arrest which she knew +was being prepared for her. She felt that the events of the day would be +likely to change the daily routine, even of so methodical a man as +Masters, and was beginning to fear she would have to take refuge in his +apartment, when she heard a step overtaking her, and to her great relief +his big voice said: + +"Why, Neaera, what are you doing here? I thought you were in the thick +of it?" + +Neaera looked up shyly and then down again. + +"I am afraid all is over," she said very low. + +"And where are you going?" + +"I don't know." + +"Is there any fear of arrest?" + +Neaera brewed up a tear and cast an appealing glance at him. She was one +of those fortunate and dangerous women who could summon a tear to her +eye without at the same time bringing blood to her nose and eyelids. + +"You must step into my apartment until we can take precautions," he +said. + +"I'm afraid I'll compromise you." + +"Compromise _me_!" exclaimed Masters, "never in the world! And as for +_you_, I'll send for your mother." + +"Will you, indeed?" said Neaera, edging a little closer to him; but she +did not mean that he should do this. + +They were at his door then; and touching her lightly on the elbow he +guided her past the porter's lodge, up the staircase and into his +rooms. + +Masters bade her sit down and tell him how matters stood. Neaera took +care that her version of the story should, by keeping herself in the +shade, throw the whole responsibility on Chairo and Balbus. Masters, +however, plied her with questions which she parried with skill. At last +Masters exclaimed: + +"But you are blameless in the matter; they cannot mean to arrest you; +and if they do, you will be immediately released." + +"I am afraid," answered Neaera, "you are inclined to believe others as +frank and generous as yourself." + +"I don't understand," said Masters, a little uncomfortable under the +flattery implied in Neaera's words--for he liked neither flattery nor +those who used it. + +"I have not lived very long," said she, "but I have lived long enough to +know that failure brings discord between the best of friends. I have +believed that we could effect our reforms best through constitutional +measures; and the very fact that I have been right will unite them all +against me now. Of course I have done a great deal of the +writing--generally at the dictation of others"; Neaera, as she said +this, congratulated herself on having utilized the absence of all from +the offices except herself in destroying every shred of paper that could +compromise her, and even fabricating some that would exonerate her. She +paused a little, and then went on: "I don't even know who has survived +the disaster; some of them I could trust to the end; but others are +capable of any treachery. And then mamma"--Neaera's chin twitched a +little--"mamma does not know how far I am involved in the matter--and +she is so alone----" + +And here Neaera's grief became uncontrollable; she jumped up from her +chair and burst into a flood of tears. As she stood there, her face in +her hands and her soft and rounded figure convulsed by sobs, compassion +filled the heart of Masters; all his nascent fondness for her suddenly +burst into a flame; he went to her, took her by the shoulders, and said: + +"Don't cry, Neaera; I am very fond of you; it hurts me to see you cry; +tell me about it; let me help you; I can help you and I will--if you +will let me." + +As he ejaculated these sentences he gently pressed her shoulders to give +emphasis to them; and Neaera yielded to his pressure, so that at the end +she was very close to him and her bowed head rested against his breast. + +When Masters felt the pressure of her head against him, a rush of love +for her passed beyond his control. Looking down at her he observed the +delicate whorl of a small ear like a pink shell and a soft neck so +inviting that, bending his own head, he pressed his lips against it. + +Neaera burst away from him and threw herself upon a chair. + +"Masters, Masters," she said reproachfully, "you should not have done +that!" + +He had often heard stories of Neaera to her disadvantage and at that +culminating moment her reproach became a conviction in him that those +stories were false. She was looking at him now with tearful eyes wide +open; Masters felt contrite; he had taken advantage of her at a time +when she was at his mercy; of a woman, too, whose talents and +conspicuousness had made of her a mark for envy and malice; she was down +now; anyone could hurl a stone at her; she had thrown herself upon his +generosity, and he had responded by insulting her. There was only one +reparation he could make, and that reparation his heart was already +urging him to make. + +He threw himself on one knee by the side of Neaera as she sat, put both +his arms on her lap, and looking straight into her reproachful eyes, +said: + +"Only one thing could have justified it; I love you, Neaera; have indeed +loved you long----" + +Neaera bowed her head and said nothing. + +There was a long pause. But Neaera allowed him to remain there, very +close to her, with his arms upon her lap. Then Masters moved his head +slowly nearer to her until it rested on her bosom. And Neaera folded her +soft round arms about his neck. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +"I CONSENTED" + + +When I reached our chambers I found them empty. At the bath, however, +though Ariston was not there I learned the incidents of the day. Almost +immediately after my interview with Balbus he had headed the attempt to +rescue Chairo; it had been carefully planned, for exactly at three +o'clock there converged upon the House of Detention from every side no +less than six different lines of attack, which took shape only within a +few yards of the house itself, so as to avoid conflicts at points other +than the one upon which the attack was concentrated. But the cult had +taken precautions. Some machine guns had been put into position and +Balbus and his followers were blown out of existence, leaving a mass of +wounded men and but few unwounded survivors. The constables that day +sworn in had at once repaired to the _Liberty_ offices where I had met +them. Ariston was doubtless at that moment conferring with Chairo and +the authorities as to how far this act of violence was to affect the +procedure. + +Ariston did not appear at our chambers until after midnight, and he was +then so weary that I did not press him for details. He informed me, +however, that my message to Balbus would probably constitute the pivotal +fact in his defense of Chairo; that Balbus was shot to pieces; and that +the question whether Chairo was to be kept in confinement would probably +be heard within a week. + +The next morning Ariston had a long conference with me over the whole +situation, which was a complicated one. The courts, though fair, were +undoubtedly strongly Demetrian in their tendencies, and Ariston did not +believe they would set Chairo at liberty; but he felt it his duty as +Chairo's counsel to make the effort. Ariston did not conceal from me, +however, his conviction that Chairo was insisting on the effort being +made in order to use the decision of the courts on the political arena, +where the issue must be ultimately decided. He, Ariston, doubted the +wisdom of his appearing as Chairo's counsel under the circumstances, for +on the political issue Ariston would fight Chairo to a finish, and +Chairo knew this. But Chairo had declined to release Ariston. He claimed +that Ariston having offered to act for him, and he having accepted the +offer, Ariston was no longer free to withdraw except for better reason +than he could give. + +The importance of the testimony I could give, and the fact that I was a +lawyer admitted me into all the conferences that were held. Chairo's +case was to come up on habeas corpus, and I undertook to prepare an +affidavit as to the message sent through me by Chairo to Balbus. In the +preparation of this affidavit I was confronted with the question whether +it was necessary to introduce Neaera's name; there was in me a strong +repugnance to doing so. If by involving Neaera I could save an innocent +man I should have been guilty in omitting her intervention in my +interview with Balbus; but the only person that to my mind could be +affected by her intervention was Balbus, and Balbus was dead. Nor would +his memory gain much by testimony that would tend to prove that the +incriminating act was done at the bidding of a woman. + +Three days after Chairo's arrest I was still hesitating over this +question when I received a message from Masters asking for an interview. +I readily accorded one, and we met in Chairo's chambers which were put +at my disposal during his detention. + +Masters opened the conversation by telling me confidentially that Neaera +had promised to marry him, and that he was naturally, therefore, anxious +to exonerate her from responsibility as regarded the rash attempt at +rescue. I let him speak preferring to hold my tongue till I learned the +story Neaera had told him. He admitted that Neaera had taken a strong +stand in favor of Chairo and all that Chairo stood for, but explained +the enormous difference between constitutional opposition and appeal to +force. Neaera had told him that no word of writing that she could +remember--save such as might have been written at the dictation of +others--could possibly compromise her, but that she did not know how far +some of the survivors might not seek to escape punishment by throwing +responsibility on her. Neaera had particularly asked Masters to see me +and find out how far this was to be feared. + +I recognized the fine work of our astute friend in the story told by +Masters, and anxious to know just how far Masters was committed to +Neaera, I asked: + +"When do you expect to be married?" + +Masters lowered his voice as he answered: + +"Confidentially, we are already married. I found her wandering aimlessly +about the street expecting arrest; so I took her at once to Washington +and married her there. I have left her among friends in a neighboring +state till this matter blows over." + +The marriage having taken place, there was clearly no duty upon me to +enlighten Masters, so I said to him: + +"Assure Neaera from me that I shall keep you informed of how matters +move and particularly if any witness testifies in a manner to compromise +her. No such testimony has been given as yet to my knowledge--but then, +none of the survivors of the rescue party have yet been examined." + +I worded my answer in a manner to reassure Neaera so far as I myself was +concerned and Masters left me satisfied. _He_ deserved sympathy, at any +rate. + +Ariston was extremely busy endeavoring to obtain affidavits from the +survivors as to Chairo's non-complicity in the attack, and asked me +therefore to see Lydia and explain to her the importance of silence at +this juncture. Accordingly I went to see her and found Aunt Tiny in a +state of great excitement. Lydia was ill and her mother was with her. +Aunt Tiny wanted to take the whole matter on her shoulders. + +"Lydia will do just what I tell her to do," assured Aunt Tiny, nodding +her curls gravely at me. + +"I think I ought to see Lydia myself if it can be managed," I answered. + +"But she is so ill." Her lisp was childish and I unconsciously smiled a +little. My smile put the little woman in quite a flutter. + +"I'll manage it," she said confidently. "You'll see; I'll manage it"; +and the busy little body, in spite of her age, tripped out of the room. + +Presently she returned radiant. "It's all right," she said. "You can +come; I told you I should manage it"; and she showed me to Lydia's room. + +Lydia was lying on a couch with a shawl thrown over her knees; but the +chiton loosely fastened over her right shoulder showed all the beauty of +her bare arm. Very different, indeed, did she look from the girl I awoke +to find bending over me on the hill on Tyringham. The warm color of the +sun had left her skin, which was now white and extremely delicate. Her +head, then strong and erect, now leaned upon a pillow so gently that it +seemed + + "A petal of blown roses on the grass." + +Her mother was standing as I entered and pushed a chair for me by +Lydia's side. I sat upon it, and taking Lydia's hand, kissed it. A tear +came in her eye at this act of sympathy and she said: + +"I am glad you have come to see me." + +"I would not have dared to come," said I, "were it not that I have to +warn you in Chairo's interest and in your own to say nothing for the +present." + +"Say nothing!" she exclaimed, raising her head erect. "What! does Chairo +wish me to say nothing when I can by a word exonerate him altogether!" + +"How so?" I asked. + +"I consented," she said. "If the charge is that he carried me away it +must fall when I say that I consented." + +"Lydia!" exclaimed her mother. "Do be careful! Our friend here can be +depended on; but such an admission might be used against you; it may be +no crime in law to have consented, but in the cult you will be disgraced +forever." + +"Then may I be disgraced," said Lydia despondingly. "I did consent; and +Chairo must not suffer the odium of having carried me off against my +will. Besides," added she, erect again, "I am not ashamed of having +consented. I love Chairo. I am ready to declare it before the world. I +was wrong when I accepted the mission and those around me should have +known it. Not you, mother," added Lydia, as she saw her mother start, +"not you, but the priests--they should have known it--they did know +it--and yet they allowed me to accept the mission, loving Chairo." + +Lydia put out her arms to her mother, who bent over and kissed her. + +"The time will doubtless come," said I, "when you will be able to +vindicate Chairo. But at this moment I think, perhaps, it may be wiser +to say nothing. Chairo does not wish to be released. He wants the court +to decide against him. Such a decision will constitute a grievance which +will to his mind strengthen his cause with the people. I don't know," I +added, smiling, "whether I am altogether on his side upon all the +political issues he stands for; but I am on your side, Lydia. I want you +to be happy, and much depends upon the circumstances under which your +declaration is made. At this moment it may be wiser to keep silence; +they cannot compel you to testify until Chairo is tried, and he proposes +to postpone the trial, if he can, until the legislature meets. Masters +is taking a vigorous stand in favor of Chairo, and he may carry a +sufficient number of votes to constitute a radical majority. Up to the +present time Masters has voted upon most issues with the government." + +Lydia listened to me with her long blue-gray eyes fixed on mine. It was +a luxury to look into them. I thought I was no longer in love with her, +but there was a fascination in those eyes to which it was a delight +innocently to surrender. + +"Chairo is doubtless right," she said, "and you too." + +"The priests will probably ask you for a declaration; you are ill enough +to make illness an excuse for keeping out of the case altogether. My +advice is not to antagonize them at this moment. You can let them know +that you propose to make no affidavit whatever, neither on one side nor +on the other--at present." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE HIGH PRIEST OF DEMETER + + +The affidavits read before the court by both sides brought out the facts +of the case in a manner to leave no doubt in a reasonable mind as to +Chairo's guilt. It was true that the person who actually forced the gate +of the cloister and overpowered the janitor remained unknown, but Chairo +had been arrested in the act of flight and in the company of Lydia, +whose capture was the only possible motive for the act. Then, too, on +the evening that preceded the capture a typewritten message had been +received by the high priest of the cult informing him that Chairo's +carriage would that night break down upon a certain road, and that the +cult would have an interest in watching the event. Clearly, therefore, +the capture had been planned by Chairo. Then, too, for every affidavit +read by Ariston to prove that the attack on the House of Detention had +been arranged as well as executed by Balbus a dozen affidavits were read +by the other side showing the preparations for violence that had been +made by Chairo prior to the carrying off of Lydia. The only question +that the court had to decide was, whether Chairo's immunity from +imprisonment as a member of the legislature applied to his case; +obviously he was an accessory to the crime after as well as before the +fact, even though he were not guilty of the crime itself; and he was +caught in the very act of carrying out the object for which the crime +was committed--that is to say, the placing of Lydia beyond the reach of +the cult. But Ariston argued that there was no obligation upon the court +to hold Chairo; the matter under the peculiar conditions which presented +themselves was practically left to their discretion; and he appealed to +them to liberate Chairo lest he should use his imprisonment as an +argument before the higher tribunal of public opinion, to which the +question must ultimately be referred. The court adjourned without +rendering a decision; and it was later arranged that Lydia be removed +from New York and Chairo released on parole not to leave the city limits +until the trial of his case. + +Lydia, therefore, was taken to the Pater's farm at Tyringham; and I +gladly accepted an invitation to join the party there, which included +Ariston, Anna of Ann, the high priest of the cult, and a few others. + + * * * * * + +I was much interested to learn there the particular form of Collectivism +which prevailed in the country districts of New England. The land, it is +true, technically belonged to the state, but the enjoyment of it had +never been taken from those farmers who were able and willing to pay to +the state the amount of produce exacted by it. Assessors periodically +visited every district to determine what crops the land was best fitted +to produce, and what amount of the designated crop the occupying farmer +should pay the state. The farmer was not bound to grow the particular +crop designated, unless a shortage in a preceding year obliged the state +to require a quota of the designated crop. He was free to furnish the +state some other crop according to a fixed scale, the bushel of wheat +constituting the standard--a bushel of wheat being equivalent to so much +hay, so many pounds of potatoes, etc. But the farmer generally grew +enough of the particular crop designated to furnish the amount required. +The state suggested the best rotation of crops and the farmer was left a +certain choice. + +The working of the system was to eliminate all the incapable farmers, +leaving upon the land only the most capable. The eliminated were put to +other employments. The surviving fit generally enjoyed an enviable +existence; for the exactions of the state were not exorbitant, and it +had become a rule that no farmer should ever be deprived of a farm so +long as he paid the state contribution; thus, the state contribution was +practically nothing more nor less than a state tax. + +The Pater had succeeded to his farm from his father, who himself had +succeeded to his, so that the same land had remained in the same family +since our day. There was no limitation of hours of work on the farm. The +occupation was regarded as so desirable that farm laborers willingly +gave their whole time; for during the summer their life was enlivened by +the arrival of city dwellers, who occupied the colony buildings adjacent +in the neighborhood; and in the depth of the winter, when the sporting +season was over, every farm laborer had his two or three months in town. +The owner of the farm, for so every farmer was still called, supported +his own laborers and supplied them with money for their annual city +vacation. His own wants, including the wages paid to the laborer, were +supplied by the sale to the state of the farm produce over and above +that required by the state for rent. The essential Collectivist feature +of the system consisted in the fact that no man was obliged by the +necessity of earning wages to work upon a farm. He could always refuse +to work for a farmer by taking work from the state. Only those farmers +who knew how to make their farms not only prosperous but attractive, +could secure laborers, the relation between a farmer and his hands being +that of man to man rather than that of employer to employee. Indeed, it +was the security every man and woman had of employment by the state that +had caused pauperism and prostitution to disappear; and with them the +dependence of one class upon another. In agriculture, as in manufacture, +employment of one individual by another was a matter of inclination, not +of compulsion; and under these circumstances every employer took care to +make his employment agreeable and to share equitably with his +fellow-workers the product of their joint labors. + +As soon as the hearing of habeas corpus proceedings were concluded and +Lydia was transported to Tyringham she rapidly gained health. Chairo +wrote to her daily the progress of his preparations for the legislature, +which was to meet in a few days. He was assured of Masters's support in +favor of a bill of amnesty to all engaged in the carrying off of Lydia +and the attack on the House of Detention, and this bill would constitute +the first business to be brought before the Assembly. An identical bill +would be introduced in the Senate, and efforts were being made at once +to secure the approval of the governor. + +Meanwhile we often had leisure at Tyringham for the discussion of the +Demetrian cult, which had given rise to so great a tumult. The day that +the high priest received intelligence of the proposed amnesty bill I +asked him his views regarding it. + +The high priest was a tall, aged man, closely shaven--as indeed were all +the priests--and very slow and distinct in his way of speaking. Though +he occupied the highest function in the cult he was by no means its +controlling will. On the contrary, the Demetrian council was composed +almost entirely of women, that is to say, priestesses; but it had passed +into a tradition that in order to avoid too great animosity on the part +of the men, these last should be permitted a representation on the +council and the presiding officer and the head of the cult should be a +man. + +The high priest answered my question with his usual deliberation and +care: + +"I cannot tell you what my own views regarding this matter are; the +subject will be discussed by the council and its argument presented in +due time by its representative in the legislature, but I can tell you +some of the things that occur to me in favor of this measure and against +it: + +"In the first place, it is clear that whatever may be the merits of the +Demetrian cult it is bound sometimes to occasion misfortune; misfortune +is seldom distinguished from injustice, and so the cult is made to bear +the brunt of every disappointment that results from the working of the +system, whether it proceeds from unwisdom, caprice, or accident. Now +against caprice and accident the cult is powerless; but as regards +unwisdom, whether it be in the council or in those to whom the council +tenders the mission, the cult is responsible, and must be held +responsible. Whether the misfortune in this case results from unwisdom +or not is a question which I do not care to discuss; but obviously +something has occurred that can be used to discredit our cult, and it is +the part of wisdom to diminish the evil resulting therefrom to the +utmost possible. + +"In the second place, there has been recourse to violence, and violence +is the greatest crime against social welfare which any man can commit. +Are the persons guilty of this crime to be left uncorrected and free to +frame new plots of violence against the state? + +"In the third place, a trial of all the persons involved in this matter +is going to give rise to a great public scandal. The trial is +essentially of a political character, and no political trial can be +conducted impartially; the very fact that political prejudice enters +into it necessarily impairs the impartiality of the court; and even if a +fair court could be secured, the defeated political faction would surely +accuse the court of unfairness. + +"All these things make the decision of this question complicated and +difficult." + +"But," asked I, "does not the very fact that your cult raises these +difficulties put into question the wisdom of the cult itself?" + +"Do you mean to say that in your opinion the mission of Demeter, with +the beauty of its sacrifice and the blessing it must eventually bring +upon the race, should be abandoned because in a single instance it has +crossed the passion of a Chairo?" + +"In the first place," asked I, "is it sure to bring a sensible benefit +to the race? And in the second, is the sacrifice a beautiful one? Is it +not rather inhuman and repulsive?" + +"I shall answer your questions in the order you put them: Plato was the +first philosopher on record who proposed applying to the breeding of men +the same art as we apply to the breeding of animals--and he did not +seriously propose it; his proposition was spurned, as you know, by all +so-called practical statesmen up to the day of Latona, not because the +evil attending the existing system was not recognized, but because the +remedy proposed seemed worse than the evil. And, indeed, if men and +women were to be obliged to mate or refrain from mating at the bidding +of the state, one may well ask whether life would not become intolerable +to the point of universal suicide. The evil, therefore, remained +unabated. Consumption, scrofula, cancer, and other unnamable diseases +became rooted in the race on the one hand, and no attempt was made to +compensate the evil by selecting according to art. Not only so, but the +pauper proved the most prolific, the cultured the least prolific; so +that the breeding of man--far more important to human happiness than the +breeding of sheep--seemed contrived so as to occasion the minimum of +good and the maximum of evil. There seemed to be only two ways to +mitigate this curse: one, to restore marriage to the sanctity it +theoretically had under the canons of the church; the other, to appeal +to the self-sacrifice of a few gifted women. As to the first, Latona +believed marriage to be degraded in great part through the inability of +young men and women to choose their mates with wisdom, and she +instituted therefore the system of provisional marriage, tolerable only +in youth, and though possible in later years, tolerated then only under +extraordinary circumstances. As to the second, Latona instituted the +mission of Demeter. + +"It is not easy yet to draw any definite conclusion from the practical +working of the system, for it has not been working long enough. +Nevertheless, it would be impossible, I think, to find anywhere a more +hopeful band of youths than those to whose education Irene and her staff +are now devoting themselves. Indeed, wherever the cult is in operation +the girls and boys who proceed from the cloister are, to my judgment, +immeasurably superior in the average to any similar number drawn at +haphazard from the community at large. And, indeed, how could it be +otherwise? Heredity must in the long run count for a great deal; and by +securing to the Demetrian issue, not only the highest conceivable +education and parental care, but a sense that they owe something more to +themselves as regards standard of conduct because they owe so much to +the state, we create an environment which gives hereditary tendencies +the best possible opportunities for development. + +"Now, as regards the last part of your question, my answer is a very +simple one: The mission is beautiful only when wisely tendered and +wisely accepted; when unwisely tendered or unwisely accepted it is +likely to be, as you say, inhuman and even repulsive." + +"But how are you going to learn wisdom," asked I, "in a matter so +difficult?" + +"Experience has already helped us, I think, to avoid serious mistakes +except in such exceptional cases as this of Lydia. For your attention +has perhaps not been called to a profound difference that exists in +women little recognized in your day. This difference can, I think, best +be defined as follows: some women are essentially wives, others are +essentially mothers. Love is the key that opens the heart of the one, +maternity the instinct that animates the other. You are a lawyer, are +you not? Did you ever have any divorce cases?" + +"Many!" + +"Ransack your brain, then, and see if you do not find there evidence of +what I have stated." + +He paused; and there came back to me an interview with a woman who +complained that her husband did not wish her to have children; and as it +was children she wanted--so she said--the husband was almost immaterial. +There came to my mind also many women I had known for whom the husband +ceased to have importance the moment a child was born. + +"Our art," continued he, "consists in selecting the women who combine +willingness to sacrifice themselves with this maternal instinct; and not +the maternal instinct alone--most women have this--but a maternal +instinct that preponderates every other. We have made a double mistake +in Lydia: her love for Chairo is the prepondering instinct; and though +she has undoubtedly a strongly developed religion of sacrifice, she is +also fond of pleasure. That pretty little tip-tilted nose of hers," he +added, smiling, "should have warned us of this!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ANNA'S SECRET + + +I saw very little of Anna during the first few days of my stay at the +Pater's. Cleon had drawn a bad number and was therefore drafted on a +detachment of workmen engaged in mending roads--a work all disliked, and +as no one volunteered for it, it had to be apportioned by lot. Anna of +Ann felt the absence of Cleon because, although he was young, he had +attached himself to her and she had learned somewhat to depend on his +companionship. In the absence of Cleon, therefore, I often joined Anna +in her walks and became more and more charmed by her singleness of +purpose. She seemed indifferent to everything except her art, cared +nothing for Chairo and his principles, had little conviction as regards +the Demetrian cult, and absorbed herself altogether in the joy to be +derived from beauty, whether in nature or in man. The idea that there +was something in man different from nature had become so familiar to +this century that the confusion between them from which the philosophy +of our time was only just emerging seemed to her altogether impossible, +and it was a hope of hers one day to compose a group or monument in +which man with his faculty of subjugating the forces of nature to his +use would be contrasted with these forces, typified either by animals or +undeveloped human races. She had shown me several models upon which she +was at work to typify these forces; among them I remember one of a negro +kneeling, with wonder on his thick lips and a superb strength about his +loins; she had modelled also a lion crouching at the bidding of an +unseen hand; but I had seen no model of Conquering Man. In an abandoned +sugar house which she had arranged as a studio, however, were many +unfinished busts hidden away which she did not show to me or to others, +and there was a good deal of curiosity and some little chaff as to the +secret so carefully thus concealed by her. + +One morning, however, that I had risen early, tempted by the bright sun +of an Indian summer, I started for a short stroll, and passing Anna's +studio was surprised to find a window open. Looking inside the window, I +saw Anna so absorbed on a clay bust that she had not heard my approach. +I watched her work in silence without appreciating that I had surprised +a secret, until moving a little I saw clearly that the bust on which she +was working was a portrait of Ariston. Even then I was not clear that +Anna had been hiding this portrait from us; it seemed perfectly natural +that she should be engaged upon it. But when she at last perceived me +she blushed scarlet and threw a cloth over it. + +"You have seen it," she said reproachfully. + +"Why not?" asked I. "It was only a portrait of Ariston." + +"Was it so like him that you saw it at once?" + +"Did you not mean it to be so?" + +"No!" she exclaimed, almost with temper, "and I did not mean you to see +it." + +I apologized to her and suggested that she should join me in my walk; +but she did not answer me at once; she moved about the studio as though +agitated by my discovery, moving things aimlessly, taking things up and +putting them down again. I stood at the window waiting for an answer, +for I did not wish to leave her in this disturbed condition. At last she +looked me full in the face and her mobile lips twitched with +ill-suppressed emotion. Had she known how little I suspected the cause +of her trouble she need not have been so moved; but she had been so +long fighting against her love for Ariston that she imagined the +discovery by me of the portrait had betrayed her secret. + +"You won't tell any one you have seen it, will you?" she said at last +appealingly. + +"Certainly not," answered I. "But why are you so anxious to keep it a +secret?" + +She opened her eyes at this question and then burst out, with a sob in +her voice: + +"I would not have them guess it for the world." + +At last I understood: this bust was not a portrait of Ariston; it was a +study for her Conquering Man, and she could not keep out of it the +features of the one she loved. + +"See," she said, pointing to the corner where the uncompleted busts were +hidden, "they all look like him; even when I tried to model a face +without a beard, expressly to escape this haunting thought, you can see +it--somewhere in the brow," and she moved her hand over the brow. "At +every attempt I make, something betrays me," and she sat down on a low +chair and buried her face in her hands. + +I stood by her, not daring to intrude; and presently she got up sadly +and said: + +"Yes, I shall go with you--anything to get away from it all"; and +taking her cap from a peg, closed the window, locked the door, and +joined me. + +"I had half an idea," said I, as we moved toward the wood, "that you had +a fancy for Cleon." + +Anna smiled. "Cleon is a sweet boy and I am very fond of him; I suppose +he thinks he is in love with me; but we are accustomed to these 'green +and salad' loves; indeed, we are taught not to discourage them. It is +good for a boy like Cleon to be in love with some one much older than +himself that he can never marry; it keeps him out of mischief and does +no one harm. One day he will reproach me and tell me I have encouraged +him; I have not, you know, not the slightest; but he will say I have, +and honestly think it for a few days; a little later he will get over it +and be a good friend of mine to the end of my days." + +We had a walk in the wood that has remained in my memory as one of the +sweetest hours I spent at Tyringham. She soon accustomed herself to my +knowledge of her secret, and this created an intimacy between us that +was rare and pleasant. + +At that early hour the woods were dark and fresh, and the light upon a +meadow we were approaching reminded me of a forgotten poet: + + "I knew the flowers; I knew the leaves; I knew + The tearful glimmer of the languid dawn + On those long rank dark wood walks drenched with dew + Leading from lawn to lawn." + +I quoted them to her and she responded to them; wanted to know the +poet's name and more of his work; and as the autumn mist lay heavy on +the lower pastures and the heavy fragrance of the autumn woods filled +the air, I repeated to her those other lines of his: + + "The woods decay; the woods decay and fall, + The vapors weep their burthen to the ground; + Man comes and tills the earth and lies beneath, + And after many a summer dies the swan. + Me only, cruel immortality consumes + Here at the Eastern limit of the day----" + +She put a hand on my arm and stopped me: + +"What is that again, 'Me only, cruel----'" + +I repeated the line to her. + +"What a subject," she said; "not for a Tithonus--no; what a thought to +work into my group!" + +I saw her meaning: Man might subdue Nature to his use; what then? Was +he to be nevertheless forever consumed by immortality? Here was the +limit to his triumph; its shadow and reverse. + +"What is the meaning of it all!" she said. "We are unhappy, do what we +may, and it is out of our very unhappiness that we find something that +replaces happiness--a sort of divine sorrow." + +We had by this time traversed the wood and stood on a height which +commanded the now deserted colony buildings. The sun was well up on the +horizon; the birds hopping silently in the boughs, their spring and +summer songs over; but the torrent filled the air with its noisy music +as it dashed down the hillside, and beyond we saw it meandering in +peaceful curves among the meadows. + +"It is very beautiful," she said. "After all, there is joy enough in +beauty, and it is no small thing"--she was looking absently over the +meadows as she repeated--"it is no small thing that we can by art add to +it." + +"It is a mission of which you can well be proud," said I. + +She looked at me and smiled gratefully. + +As we returned I felt that she had shaken off some of the sorrow with +which she had started. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +DESIGNS ON ANNA OF ANN + + +My stay at the Pater's farm was altogether delightful, for most of the +day was spent in shooting. October was the only month open to all; but +one permit was given to every ten inhabitants during November, and as +there were forty-four, including the Pater's family, on the farm, it was +easy to spare one to me. The Pater's younger son Phaines had another; he +was not only a keen sportsman but an agreeable companion, and we killed +much game, great and small. During a period of twenty years the shooting +of bear had been prohibited, and now, with the extension of forests, +bear had increased so as to be extremely plentiful. Deer, elk, caribou, +moose, wild boar, and such destructive animals as lynxes, foxes, and +wild cats, furnished all that a sportsman could ask in the way of +variety. As the amount of game we killed far exceeded the consuming +power of the neighborhood we daily telephoned to the County Supply +Department for instructions where to ship it, and we received our pay +therefor. + +During the winter, country people took their principal meal in the +evening, the morning and midday hours being the pleasantest for being in +the open air. The farm hands and we sportsmen took our luncheon with us +and came home prepared for a large meal. Those who prepared the meal +preferred to spend the dark hours from four to seven in the preparation +of it, and to be free during the earlier part of the day. + +The evening passed pleasantly. Every large farmhouse--and there were few +small ones, except such as were, so to speak, dependent upon the +large--had a room with a stage, specially applied to music and +theatrical performances; it could also be used for such indoor games as +squash or badminton. In this room those who wanted to practice music, +etc., would assemble, and here they would occasionally give +performances. When these farms sent their inmates to the city for a few +months in the winter, hospitality was gladly extended them for the +variety of performances which they could furnish; and by this exchange +of population, the city people going to the country to harvest in the +summer, and the farmers going to the city for amusement and instruction +during the winter, monotony of life was eliminated. + +One day when I was returning from a day's sport with Phaines, a buck +packed on each of our horses, we were talking of marriage, and I asked +him whether he did not intend to marry. + +"I want to marry very much," said he. + +I looked at him inquiringly. + +"I have asked Anna of Ann a dozen times to marry me and she won't," +continued he. "I can't see why she won't, either; she doesn't seem to +care for anyone else; she might as well marry me, and then she could +give all her time to that art of hers she is so devoted to." + +"But she would have to work some part of the day at the farm, wouldn't +she?" + +"No; we are quite well enough off to let her give all her time to her +art if she wanted to. It's this way: we have to furnish so much butter, +or its equivalent in eggs, poultry, stock, etc., to the state for the +amount of land we cultivate; then we have to support our farm hands, +that is to say, either we have to give to each wages out of the surplus +produce of the farm, over and above what we pay the state as rent, or we +have to furnish the state extra produce for every farm hand we have. +Well, our hands prefer the former of these plans. The amount we give +each farm hand depends on the amount of the surplus; every one of us is +interested in making this surplus as large as possible. In this way we +really have a great deal more than we can spend, and I could easily +afford, out of my share of the surplus, to support Anna, so that she +need not work at all." + +"You are very prosperous then?" + +"Yes, and why shouldn't we be? Now that we get grain at what it really +costs instead of paying middlemen and speculators, railroad +stockholders, elevators, etc., etc., everything is half the price it +used to be. Then we need never fear that no one will buy our produce. +The Supply Department can always tell us just where what we have is +needed, and pays us for it on the spot. It does the transportation; and +so the state needn't ask us an exorbitant rent, and can always pay us a +remunerative price for our surplus." + +"But you don't suppose Anna of Ann would be induced to marry you just +because you could support her, do you?" + +"She's a fool if she doesn't, as she apparently does not care for any +one else." + + * * * * * + +That night after dinner most of the party adjourned to the music room, +so I took a chair near the Mater who was knitting by the big fire in +the hall. + +A benign smile lightened up her dear old round face as she made room for +me to get close to the fire. I was curious to know what she thought of +Anna, and said to her: + +"Phaines tells me he wants to marry Anna of Ann." + +"Isn't she foolish now not to marry him?" answered the Mater, putting +down her work. "I am so fond of her, and Phaines and she would make an +ideal couple. She could work all day at the art she is fond of and both +ought to be as happy, all the year long, as larks in the spring." + +"I have sometimes thought," said I, wishing to draw the Mater out, "that +Anna looked sad." + +"Well, she is a genius, and all geniuses look sad sometimes. It seems as +though somebody has to be sad in order that others may be happy. Now, I +am glad I am a plain farmer's wife and don't have to be sad. And yet," +she added, taking up her knitting again, "I love to look at sad things. +Have you ever seen Anna's statue of Bacchus?" + +I had seen it and wondered at it until it was explained to me that the +better Greek notion of Bacchus as the god of enthusiasm had been +restored to the Dionysan cult. Then I perceived that Anna had given to +the wine god something of the discontent that lends charm to the statues +of Antinoues. + +"Anna's thought doubtless is," said I, "that the highest enthusiasm +springs from a sense of an unsatisfied need." + +"Well, I like to look at it but I don't care to think about it. I like +just to toast my toes by the fire these long winter evenings and know +that our storehouse is full and our boys happy. But I do wish Anna would +marry Phaines." + +Assuredly, thought I, man is a variable thing--constructed upon lines so +different that it is surprising one variety of man can at all understand +the other. And yet, in view of the variety of occupations in which man +must engage if he wants to satisfy his complex needs, how fortunate that +the Mater could be happy only on her farm, and Anna happy only in her +studio! And for the Mater and Phaines the question of marriage with Anna +was one that could tarry for its solution year after year; while for +Anna, her love for Ariston tormented her life, intruded into her art, +saddened and inspired it. + +I was interested, however, to discover that she had escaped from the +thraldom of it for the time at any rate; for on the next day, when I +peeped into her studio early in the morning, she no longer threw a cloth +over her clay, but, on the contrary, beckoned me in. + +And I saw dimly growing out of a gigantic mass of clay the noble +lineaments of an old man with shaggy projecting eyebrows and a beard +that rivalled that of the Moses of Michael Angelo. + +"It is only the bust," she said. She looked very lovely as with +suppressed excitement she explained to me her thought, and her eyes +usually dim grew bright. "It is to be a colossal figure, standing; I +think there is something in it that is going to be suggested by the +Creator of the Sixtine chapel as he stands creating Eve; but then, too, +I see in the clay before me something more kindly, reminding me rather +of Prospero; and yet he is to be triumphant; I think one arm will be +lifted, half in joy and half in benediction, but his brow will be +thoughtful and sad." + +"And you have got rid of Ariston altogether?" asked I. + +She blushed and pouted a little. + +"You must never speak to me of Ariston again. I am glad to be free from +him, in this at any rate--and it is your Tithonus that has rescued me. +If I were to put a legend to this sculpture--of course, I won't--but if +I were to do so, it should be 'Me only, cruel immortality consumes.'" + +"And yet this would express only a small part of the whole thing." + +"And that is why no legend should ever be attached to sculpture; +sculpture must tell her own story in her own way--legends belong to +literature. Sculpture must owe nothing to any other art than her own." +She was looking critically at the bust now, as though I were not in the +room, but presently becoming conscious of my existence again, she added: +"I value this legend because it started me on a new line of thought +unhaunted by the old." + +For days Anna was so gay that I began to wonder whether Ariston had not +lost his opportunity, and I wondered so all the more when I saw little +advances to Anna on his part unresponded to. One evening when he had +felt himself discouraged by her, he said to me: + +"I don't think Anna will ever care for anything but her art. I asked her +to show me what she is doing and she refused--a little curtly, I +thought." + +"My dear Ariston," answered I, "do you suppose Anna is going to fall +into your arms the moment you open them to her? You have treated her +for years as though she did not exist, and now you are disappointed +because at a first lordly approach she does not at once fall trembling +at your feet." + +"Am I really such a coxcomb as that?" asked Ariston. + +"Don't take me too seriously," said I. "All I mean to suggest is that if +Anna is worth winning she is worth wooing; she is absorbed in her +work--her life is quite filled with it--and if you want her life to be +filled with you, you must take some little trouble and exercise some +little patience." + +Ariston laughed good humoredly, and asked me how Lydia was doing. I had +seen little of her. We met at meal-time, but so many sat down to every +meal that I seldom found myself near her. I knew that she heard daily +from Chairo and wrote daily to him, but more than this no one knew. +Ariston explained to me that the forces marshalled in opposition to one +another were now fairly organized, but that it was impossible to tell +with whom the victory would rest. The leader of the government, Peleas, +was not a big man; on the contrary, many charged him with being narrow. +He was bitterly opposed to the amnesty bill; regarded Chairo as a +firebrand who must be suppressed, and asked, if blood could deluge the +streets of New York one day and amnesty be voted to those responsible +therefor the next, what security could the community hope for in the +future? Would not such action serve to encourage all discontent to take +the shape of riot and revolt? + +There was, of course, much truth in his view. The Demetrian council had +met, but their decision was kept absolutely secret. Irene had now +altogether recovered and was expected to direct the Demetrian forces in +the legislature; she would not, however, take the floor; it was +considered that their spokesman ought to be a man. Ariston was +disqualified by the fact that he was acting for Chairo; so they decided +on an extremely judicious, though not very eloquent speaker, by name +Arkles. Ariston returned to New York the next day. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A DREAM + + +The day that Ariston left, the Mater summoned me to her room to make +plans for the day, and I found Lydia there, engaged in moving a bracket +of beautifully wrought iron that she found too low. While I talked to +the Mater I found my eyes following Lydia's movements as she stood with +her back to me unscrewing the bracket from the wall. The Mater soon came +to an understanding with me and left the room to attend to her household +duties. I was left alone with Lydia. + +She had by this time unscrewed the bracket and was holding it higher up +against the wall, estimating the height, prior to fastening it in again. + +"You will never be able to fasten it at that height," said I, "without a +ladder." + +She looked round at me, still holding the bracket against the wall, and +I wished I had the art of a sculptor to immortalize her as she stood. + +She smiled as she said: "How about a chair, Xenos?" + +I immediately brought a chair to her. + +She stepped upon it but slipped. I was holding the back of the chair, +and as she slipped I put out my hands to catch her. For a moment I held +her in my arms. She had stumbled in such a way that her head was thrown +a little back over my shoulder, and before she could recover herself her +face was so close to mine that I could have kissed her with the +slightest possible movement of my face. + +I thought that I had conquered the feeling which she had inspired in me +the first moment I set eyes on her on Tyringham hill. But the blood, +rushing through my veins, and my beating pulses, as I held her for a +moment in my arms, told me that I was still hopelessly in love with her. + +She seemed altogether unaware of it, for recovering her balance she +laughed a little, looked at me straight in the eyes, her brows a little +lifted, and her lovely lips parted by a smile. + +"I slipped," she said. "Wasn't it silly of me!" + +And jumping on the chair she got to work again. + +I watched her work and drank deep draughts of delicious poison as I +watched. + +As soon as she had finished she looked at her work critically and said: +"That is very much better!" and turning to me, added, "Isn't it?" + +I could not help wondering whether she was as unconscious of the effect +she produced as she seemed to be. But she gave me no chance of +discovering, for finding I did not answer but stood there silent, like a +fool, she added: + +"I must be off! _Au revoir!_" and taking up her screwdriver and other +things, went with the appearance of utter unconsciousness out of the +room. + + * * * * * + +All that day my mind was haunted by her; I knew it was folly to harbor +hope, and yet I harbored it fatuously; her image came in and out of my +mind as the sun on a rainy day in and out of the clouds, to delight and +to torment. + +That evening the orchestra played a minuet of Mozart so charmingly that +Lydia rose, and saying, "We really must dance to that," made a sweeping +bow. + +I jumped up at the challenge, and soon eight of us were on our feet. +Lydia was my partner. I was so absorbed by her every movement, so +entranced by the occasional touch of her ungloved hand, that I was +aware of nothing else in the room. Surely, thought I, there never was a +Tanagra figure to compare with hers. + +When we separated for the night I was in a fever. It was useless to go +to bed, and I went out into the bright cold air. I saw the light in her +room and stood in front of it, cursing myself for a love-sick fool. But +the cold drove me in--and to bed. For hours I tossed about, and sleep +overtook me at last, but only to torture me; it played with me, threw me +on my back, as it were, at one moment, only to jump me on my feet the +next; and throughout it all I saw Lydia at odd intervals in every +conceivable mood; now smiling and beckoning, now turning from me as +though offended, and, again, treating me with indifference. But at last +I seemed to have passed through a period of deep unconsciousness, for I +woke suddenly to find Lydia before me more lovely than I had ever seen +her. I was not surprised--although I know I ought to have been--to find +her in a dress that showed her bosom, her hair hung like a curtain of +gold about her; her long eyes were wet with tears, and yet there shone +out of them a light so mystic and divine that I threw myself at her +feet. She held out a hand to me and lifted me up. I did not know the +meaning of her tears or of her graciousness, but as I rose nearer to +her she smiled. In an ecstasy I touched her lips with mine; she did not +withdraw them; nay, she kissed me on the brow and cheek, fond and +despairing kisses, for her tears fell upon my face and they were warm. + +How long did it last? Was it for a moment or for all time? A blaze of +light pouring through my window roused me. I jumped out of bed and +looked stupidly out on the old sugar house that Anna had converted into +a studio. It was nothing but a dream. + +"Nothing but a dream!" thought I exultingly. "But no one can ever +deprive me of it. I have felt her kisses on my lips and her tears. All +my life long that memory will belong to me--and suffice." + +I sat down, weak and tired, closing my eyes to recall the vanished +dream; and it came back to me, every detail of it, so vividly that I +jumped up from my chair with the thought that it was not all mere fancy; +something had happened, something had actually happened, of this I felt +sure, and was it possible--I hardly dared entertain the thought--was it +possible she had dreamed also of me? + +I dressed automatically, breakfasted automatically, strolled +automatically about the grounds. I must see Lydia. I returned to the +house, asked the Mater where Lydia was, and was told that she could be +found in the room where she had been the previous morning. I almost ran +there, and, on opening the door, saw her seated in a high-backed oak +chair, very erect, with her hair about her and something resembling +tears in her eyes as I had seen her in my dream. She had tapestry in her +hands, but they rested idly in her lap. She did not move when I entered. +She seemed to be expecting me. + +I advanced toward her slowly with something like awe in my heart. + +"Did you have a dream in the night?" I at last summoned courage to ask. + +She did not answer, and the look in her eyes baffled me. + +"Did you dream of _me_?" I asked huskily--almost aghast. + +Still she said nothing but kept fixed upon me her inscrutable eyes. + +I hardly dared to go on, but in my folly I continued. + +"Did you"--stammered I--but I could not put my question in words. + +Tears sprang to her eyes, and she sat there just as I had seen her in +my dream, save that she wore the usual chiton. + +I was in an anguish of suspense, but it came to an end, for she shook +her head sadly. + +"Don't!" she said. "Don't!" + +I fell at her feet and buried my head in her lap. She did not shrink +from me. On the contrary, I felt her hand stroke my head, and I knew it +was not love but compassion. + +I knelt there a full minute, but even to the luxury of grief I had not +the right to surrender. So I rose abruptly. I took her hand, kissed it, +held it for a moment in mine, and said: + +"I shall not intrude on you again, Lydia; I love you consumedly, but I +shall not intrude on you again." + +And laying her hand gently upon her lap I turned abruptly and left the +room. + + * * * * * + +Next day I left Tyringham. + +Almost the entire population of the farm--save only Lydia, her mother, +and the few farm hands necessary to care for the stock--and these last +had their holiday later--repaired to New York. Most of them went to the +building in which lived Anna's family. Ariston and I returned to our old +quarters. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE LEGISLATURE MEETS + + +At the first meeting of the Assembly--for the Legislature now sat no +longer at Albany but at New York--Masters arose as soon as the opening +formalities were over and read a bill of amnesty for all concerned in +the so-called riot of the preceding month. He stated that an identical +bill was being at that moment offered in the Senate, and moved a joint +session of both houses to consider it. + +Peleas, the leader of the government, consented to the joint session, +but asked that the matter be referred to a committee. He pointed out +that the facts were not clearly before the house, and that it was +essential that a committee should investigate the facts and present them +in a report to the joint session. + +Masters opposed reference to an investigating committee. He contended +that the very object of the bill was to prevent the issues, that had +caused their streets to be stained by blood, from remaining confounded +by personal animosities. A great institution had been attacked; that +institution was, in the opinion of many, of the highest social value. It +was possible that in some respects it had a lesson to learn; it was +important that the lesson be learned free from the heat of such bitter +hatred as must result from an attempt to punish those who had been +driven by misguided zeal to acts of violence. Already the investigation +had shown how far the desperate effort of those implicated to shield +themselves might distort facts; it had even been alleged--and his +strong, honest countenance glowed for a moment with indignation as he +spoke--it had even been alleged that the whole responsibility for the +attack rested not upon Balbus and his followers but upon a woman! He +would not waste the time of the house now by pointing out the diverse +reasons why an investigation was to be avoided. Obviously, what the +country needed, and he thought he could say asked for, was oblivion. +Why, then, an investigating committee? + +Arkles next arose--and as he was known to be the spokesman of the cult +he was listened to with breathless attention. He altogether appreciated +the weight of the argument against an investigating committee just made, +but as had also been justly said, it was possible that the cult had a +lesson to learn. In order to learn that lesson it had to know the facts, +and the facts had not yet been properly determined. Moreover, something +was due to law and order. It might, in the end, be considered the better +course to allow the punishment which those involved in the riot had +already suffered, to suffice, and to allow oblivion to obliterate, to +the utmost possible, the whole matter from their annals. But the state +would not do its duty if it did not thoroughly investigate the crime it +was condoning; and though he regretted to oppose a man who had always +been regarded as a pillar not only of the government but of the cult, he +nevertheless felt it to be his duty to support the government in asking +for the appointment of an investigating committee. + +Masters, who in his heart, though he could not admit it to himself, +feared the consequences to Neaera of an investigating committee, +maintained his opposition; Chairo, also, who desired to avoid, at all +hazards, the necessity of Lydia's appearing before such a committee, was +opposed to the investigation. Both were also influenced by the desire to +carry the bill promptly by a _coup de main_, if this were at all +possible. + +The motion of Peleas was carried by a large majority, and the result +produced much discouragement in Chairo's ranks. Masters, however, +immediately arose and moved that in view of the importance of the +question and the impossibility of calmly discussing any other matter +until the fate of the amnesty bill was settled, the house adjourn, and +not sit again until after the elections and after the joint session of +both houses had completed its mission. + +Peleas and Arkles both approved of this motion, and the passage of it, +with only a few scattering votes in the negative, to a certain extent +restored the confidence of the opposition. For if the government to this +extent recognized the importance of the issue raised by the amnesty +bill, it was possible that in the end some compromise would be agreed +upon that would give substantial satisfaction. + +Ariston took no part in this preliminary skirmish. As we walked home +together he expressed to me his satisfaction at what had occurred. +Peleas had not displayed all the narrowness of which he was capable, and +the judiciousness of both Masters and Arkles indicated a willingness on +the part of both to bring the matter to a fair adjustment. I was myself, +however, concerned by the probability that I should now have to appear +before the investigating committee. My regard for Masters, as well as a +liking for Neaera, of which, in spite of her duplicity, I could not +altogether rid myself, made me unwilling to state all that had occurred +when I conveyed Chairo's message to Balbus. I had hoped that the passage +of the amnesty bill would have made the hearing of testimony +unnecessary; so I asked Ariston whether I would be compelled to testify. +To my great relief Ariston assured me that my peculiar position as a +guest of the community, made it quite possible for me to ask and obtain +a dispensation; he promised to arrange it for me. + +On reaching our quarters we betook ourselves as usual to the bath, +which, at this season of the year, was warmed to a suitable temperature, +and after our plunge, as we lay upon our couches smoking cigarettes, I +asked Ariston whether he had seen Anna of Ann since our return to New +York. + +"No," answered he, "it is difficult to see her; she is working all day +at the factory, in order to earn a full month's holiday later; she is +eager to complete the sculpture on which she is engaged; and that father +of hers never invites any one to his house!" + +"I have never met her father," said I. "Her mother I have seen at the +Lydia's, but her father--what kind of a man is he?" + +"He is a miser!" + +"A miser!" exclaimed I. "In a Collectivist state! How is that possible?" + +"It could not be possible in a purely Collectivist state; but as soon as +individual industry took an important development it became possible." + +I was not clear about this, and Ariston, seeing the confusion in my +face, explained. + +"Take this case of Campbell's, for example"--Campbell was the name of +Anna's father--"as soon as Masters got at the head of several industrial +enterprises and had obtained a valuable credit in the community, +Campbell saw that there was here a credit to exploit and a real service +to be rendered to the public, so he induced Masters to start a bank, and +the bank of Masters & Campbell is known all over the United States. But +Campbell can explain all this better than I can; and although Campbell +never asks any one to his house, we can ask him to ours; or, better +still, we can ask the whole family to dine at Theodore's--you must see +Theodore's; his restaurant is one of our institutions. Come," he added, +"let us go at once to their building; we may catch Anna of Ann in the +tea-room, and agree upon a day." + +We dressed rapidly, and on the way I expressed my disgust at Anna's +having to work in a factory when all her time might, under other +circumstances, be given to her art. + +"Are you quite sure," asked Ariston, "that the enforced rest from her +artistic work is such a bad thing? How much of Michael Angelo's time was +spent in the purely mechanical part of his art? Then, too, there is no +reason why she should be compelled to work in the factory at all. Men +are all obliged to give the required quota of work to the state, but +women have always been granted dispensations, provided somebody +undertook either to do their work for them or to relieve the state of +their support. Now if Campbell were not a miser Anna need never do state +work. And if Anna were to marry an industrious and capable man she need +never do state work." + +I looked at Ariston significantly, and he caught my eye. + +"I saw Irene yesterday," he said, "and we spoke of it. She is a noble +woman, and the eagerness and delight with which she heard me speak of +Anna made my eyes fill. She is altogether devoted now to her work in the +cloister; she is absorbed in her boy, who seems to combine all the vigor +of Chairo with her own gentleness; she teaches not only him but a class +of boys of his age, and is doing a splendid work there. I have quite +given up the idea that she will ever marry again." + +It was pretty clear that, although Ariston was willing to admit he had +given up the idea of marrying Irene, he was not willing to admit that he +was seriously entertaining the idea of marrying any one else. So I +returned to our original subject: + +"But how can Campbell hoard?" asked I. "Isn't your money valueless two +years after its issue?" + +"Yes, but Campbell has made a money of his own; besides, before he did +this, he hoarded gold." + +"But I thought all the gold was owned by the state and used exclusively +for foreign exchanges?" + +"So it is--as currency; but the state could not refuse to allow skillful +workers in the precious metals to exercise their skill in ornaments, and +so there comes into the market not only state manufacture of gold and +silver, but also for some years past the products of individual +enterprise. Don't you remember the beautiful necklace Neaera wears? +Lydia, too; even Irene wears a heavy bracelet of solid gold. + +"And do you mean to say that Campbell hoards ornaments?" + +"My dear fellow, there is nothing unusual in hoarding ornaments; most of +the wealth of the Rajahs at the time of the conquest of India consisted +of ornaments and precious stones; and later, the hoarding of ornaments +by the natives constituted one of the financial difficulties with which +the English Government had to contend. Then, too, a miser is not +actuated by intelligence; he is the slave of an instinct--the hoarding +instinct. He must hoard something, and as there is no gold coin to +hoard, Campbell hoards gold ornaments." + +We found that both Ann and Anna had left the tea-room, so we ventured to +the inhospitable door of their apartment. Anna opened it to us and +ushered us into a room where her father was sitting. He was a small man +with an intelligent face, but the hair grew on his head in a manner that +was characteristic; some people would have called him bald, but he was +not bald; the hair was extremely thin, so thin that it gave his scalp +the appearance of not being perfectly clean. He greeted us courteously +and inquiringly, as though we could not have called upon him except for +some definite purpose. So Ariston at once suggested that he and his +family should join us that evening at Theodore's. + +"We should be delighted," said he. "But we are expecting our boy this +evening--Harmes." + +Harmes was the young man who had been convicted of using violence with +Neaera and had been sent to the Penal Colony. + +"You will want to spend your first evening with Harmes _en famille_," +said Ariston, "so let us say to-morrow." + +Campbell consulted his wife, and accepted. + +"When does Harmes arrive?" asked Ariston. + +"We are expecting him every moment," answered Campbell. + +"To-morrow, then, at Theodore's at seven," said Ariston, and we left. + +The absence of all shame as to the imprisonment of Harmes struck me as +remarkable, but Ariston soon set me straight. + +"You are possessed by the notions that prevailed in your day--notions +that resulted in great part from the fact that most of your criminals +were poor and dirty. Your system created a residuum--a criminal +class--as surely as the thresher by sifting out the wheat leaves behind +the residuum we call chaff. And the residuum of your competitive system, +which recognized practically only one prize (that is to say, money), +necessarily consisted of those who being unable to earn this prize +became destitute; of these the most enterprising were criminals, the +least enterprising, paupers. This is the state of things to which +Collectivism puts an end. Because all work for the state all are +entitled to an equal share in the national income; there are no +destitute, no paupers, no criminal _class_. Indeed, it may be said that +the criminal, such as you were accustomed to see him in your police +courts, does not exist among us at all. Occasionally a man is tempted +beyond endurance, as in the case of Harmes, or in the case of Chairo and +his confederates. But if Chairo were convicted and sent to a penal +colony, he would on his release recover the social position to which he +was by his conduct entitled without regard to the fact that he had +served a term. No one would think of applying the Word 'criminal' to +either Chairo or Harmes. Of course there are men born among us, as among +you, with what may be termed truly criminal instinct--moral perverts who +take pleasure in causing pain. Such are rarely curable. They seldom +return to social life. They are treated like lepers. We try to make +their lot as little wretched as we can. But we recognize that the +happiness of the entire community must be preferred to that of these +exceptions; they are kept in confinement, and above all, they are not +allowed to perpetuate the type." + +There was nothing new in all this. We were as familiar in my day with +this reasoning as Ariston. But we were dominated by our institutions, +our penal codes, our criminal lawyers, our prisons, and, above all, our +amazing doctrines of individual liberty, which vindicated it for the +criminal and disregarded it for the workingman. So that the industrious +were bound to as enforced labor as the convict all the time, whereas the +convict was periodically let loose on the community to idle and to +steal. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +ON FLAVORS AND FINANCE + + +Next evening we met at Theodore's restaurant and sat down to a dinner, +which reminded me of the best I had ever tasted in Paris. + +Theodore himself was a type. Rather short in stature and stout, he had a +large head off which was combed thick hair, treated very much as a +sculptor would treat hair in a monument. For Theodore took himself very +seriously. He believed gastronomy to be one of the fine arts, and that +he was its high priest. He would never allow any one to joke about it, +and admitted to his restaurant only those who behaved toward him with +the respect to which he felt entitled. + +He received us at the door with a napkin over his arm, for of this +napkin he was as proud as a British peer of his robes; it was the emblem +of his art, and as such he bore it proudly. Ariston greeted him and +introduced us to him each by name. He bowed at every introduction. + +"And now," said Ariston, turning to us, "you have before you the +greatest culinary artist in the world." + +Theodore smiled sadly--as indeed he might--for possessed of the finest +palate in New York, he had for years been confined, by an ungovernable +indigestion, to a milk diet. + +Theodore showed us to a private room, and explained that he meant to +open the ceremonies with a _pot au feu garbure_, and that the cheese +used on the toast had just arrived from France. He left us to seat +ourselves, and very soon after we were settled, the door was thrown open +by his son and Theodore appeared, with an air of almost stern solemnity, +holding a silver soup tureen in both hands, the inevitable napkin on his +arm. He placed the soup tureen on a side table, lifted off the lid, and +with religious care ladled the soup into plates, carefully providing +that each had his share of the preciously prepared toast. + +A chorus of approval from us brought the sad smile back into his face +again, and as we sat he told us that he had "created" a new dish for us. +He was very particular about the use of this word "created." He kept a +list of his special dishes, and Ariston told us afterwards that he had +once asked Theodore for this list, describing it as the list of his +inventions. Theodore had offendedly corrected him. "_Creations_, you +mean." The dish he had created for us that day was a pheasant stuffed +with ortolans, all cooked in their own juice--_braise_--over a slow fire +during six hours. He explained that it was a great mistake to roast +pheasants. For those who insisted on his roasting them he provided +himself with vine twigs (sarments), the fire made with them imparting a +subtle flavor to the meat. But the meat of a pheasant though delicious +was dry, and the method he had adopted was altogether the best for +bringing out the full meaning of the bird. The same was true of +ortolans. + +Theodore did not appear more than twice: at the opening ceremony of the +soup and at the climax--the newly created combination. While we were +partaking of this last, he told us of a great discussion that was about +to be settled as to the respective flavor of three kinds of mutton. He +had been enlisted on the side of the Long Island breed, and had that day +selected the sheep which was to have the honor of representing Long +Island interests. He explained that much depended on the choice of the +animal. In his selection he had picked out one upon whose hind legs were +the tooth marks of the shepherd dog, for these marks showed him to be +so keen on sweet pasture that it took an actual bite to drive him from +it. + +Theodore was a determined individualist and warm supporter of Chairo's. +It was insufferable, he said, that an artist like himself--and bowing +condescendingly to Anna, he added--"and our young lady, too"--should +have to work half the day for the state, when under individualistic +conditions thousands of rich men would have been delighted to cover him +with gold in recognition of his services. I could not help thinking of a +distinguished cook I had known in Paris once who, under these very +individualistic conditions, had struggled with debt all his life and +never escaped from it. + +After Theodore had served the birds he withdrew. We were enjoying the +dish when Anna surprised us by saying, as though she had just made the +discovery: + +"This is really quite nice!" + +"Why, my dear child," said her father, "it is a _chef d'oeuvre_! What +have you been thinking about all this time?" + +"I have been looking at Theodore; do you know, he has a good head to +sculpt." + +We all laughed at this view of Theodore, and Harmes said: + +"This kind of thing is rather a jump from what we have at the colony." + +"Is the food bad there?" asked I. + +"No, not bad; but nothing nice until we can afford to pay for it with +the wages we earn." + +This led to a long account by Harmes of how the colony was managed and +the system--often proposed in my day--for slowly restoring the inmates +of a reformatory to social life. + +Harmes spoke so freely of the whole subject that I ventured to ask him: + +"And Neaera--was it her fault or yours?" + +Harmes' eye flashed a moment, and then looking around the table, and +finally at Ariston, asked: + +"Can I speak freely?" + +"Certainly," said Ariston. "Our friend here knows, perhaps, more about +Neaera than you do." + +"Am I to condole with you, then?" asked Harmes. + +"No," I answered. "I had the advantage over you of age and experience." + +"She is a little devil," said Harmes. "And the devil of it is that if I +were to see her to-morrow I believe I should want to make love to her +again." + +"Harmes!" exclaimed his mother protestingly. + +"Oh, I have learned my lesson! I won't make love to her again; but the +amazing thing is that after all she has cost me I cannot make up my mind +to dislike her as I ought." + +"You needn't dislike her," said Ariston, "any more than you need dislike +a stone that breaks your leg." + +"I cannot but think, however," said Campbell, "that the punishment was +out of proportion to the offense." + +"No," said Ann, to my great surprise. "You must not say that. No one has +suffered more from Harmes' confinement in the colony than I, and yet I +am bound to say that violence is to my mind--and to the mind of all of +us women--so dangerous a thing that I prefer my son should be an +innocent victim than that it should go unpunished." + +We had a delicious bottle of California Burgundy with our birds, and I +asked whether this was provided by the state. + +"Fortunately," said Campbell, "the state has never taken the vineyards +out of the hands of those who owned them at the time of the new +constitution. It monopolizes the distillation of liquor, but all wines +not containing more than six per cent alcohol are produced by individual +enterprise. The owners have to contribute a stipulated quota to the +state, as in the case of all agricultural products. The surplus belongs +to them; but as the money they get from the state has no value two years +after issue, we find in this very class the best customers for our +bank." + +We had by this time finished our dinner; the coffee and cigars were +before us, and the company settled themselves for a long talk on the +working of their system, all of which was of great interest to me, a +traveller from the past. + +The minutes passed rapidly in this interesting exchange of experiences +until Anna and Ann, who had long shown signs of _ennui_, arose to +depart, and Ariston, noting their desire to leave, paid the bill and we +left. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE + + +Meanwhile, the investigating committee had been appointed, and the day +came when witnesses were to be examined. The committee sat in the +afternoon only, so as to make it possible for all to attend without +sacrificing their state work. Masters, of course, was there, Chairo, +too, and Ariston, who continued to act for Chairo. Ariston had consulted +with me as to the wisdom of preparing Masters for the testimony +implicating Neaera, which we knew would be elicited. But I preferred to +allow events to take their course. + +The first witness called was one of those who had attacked the House of +Detention and been wounded. He had clearly remained devoted to Chairo; +for to every question put to him, which tended to implicate Chairo, he +displayed astonishing forgetfulness; but as soon as the examination bore +upon my interview with Balbus, at which he had been present, he stated +every circumstance exactly as it had happened, except that he was, +perhaps, more severe on Neaera than she deserved. + +"She would not allow Balbus to speak," he said. "She walked right over +from the corner where she was writing and wouldn't allow Balbus to say a +word." + +He even insisted that it was Neaera who had ordered my arrest, and +personally supervised the act of binding me to the chair. + +Masters' brow grew dark at this attack on Neaera, and he undertook to +cross-examine the witness, but did it clumsily and ineffectually. His +principal effort was to induce the witness to admit that Neaera had +already received orders from Chairo that an attempt at rescue was to be +made whatever apparently contradictory messages might be received, +whether purporting to come from him, Chairo, or from others. + +This line of cross-examination incensed Chairo who was indirectly +charged by it with having sent me on a message for the purpose of +assuming an air of innocence, when he all the time intended the attempt +at rescue to be made. + +Ariston with great difficulty kept Chairo from angry interruption; and +on redirect examination, which he was allowed in Chairo's interest to +conduct, strengthened the evidence of Chairo's good faith. + +The next witness was clearly of Hibernian descent, for he at once took +the entire committee and audience into his confidence. "I'll tell you +all about it," he said. "I'm the janitor of the 'Liberty' offices, and I +know all about it from the beginning." + +He then proceeded to give a complete history of his own life from the +earliest years he could remember, and he assured us that he would go +still further back if he could; that he had nothing to conceal from the +committee, and would tell them "all about it from the very beginning." + +Over and over again he was interrupted by the committee, who complained +of the irrelevancy of his testimony. "And would you have me hold +anything back?" he said indignantly. "Haven't I sworn to tell the whole +truth as well as nothing but the truth?" + +"We only want to hear you in connection with the organization and arming +of forces by Chairo with a view to violence and the subsequent attempt +upon the House of Detention." + +"And haven't I known Chairo all my life," responded the witness +triumphantly, "and isn't that just what I'm telling you? Just leave me +quiet," he added, "and I'll tell you the whole thing from the +beginning." + +The committee, thinking time would in the end be saved, gave the witness +rope, of which he was not slow to take advantage, for he interlarded his +narrative with stories so comic that the committee was at last obliged +to interfere again. But his wit was equal to every emergency, and after +an hour spent in the futile effort to extract information from him, he +was released. A broad wink at Chairo as he left the witness box set the +audience in a roar, but did not help Chairo's case. + +The third witness was another of the party which had attacked the House +of Detention, and he clearly was actuated by no desire to shield Chairo, +for he testified to details so damaging to him that no one had any +longer any doubt as to Chairo having organized a vast conspiracy against +the State. He had himself been one of Chairo's lieutenants, and he gave +the names of the men that had joined him, the weapons that had been +secured, the date of his first instructions from Chairo, and their +tenor; in fact, nothing was left untold. He was not present when I +carried Chairo's message to Balbus. + +Ariston cross-examined him with great skill, tripped him up as to some +of his dates and details, and even threw some confusion into his +testimony regarding the character of the instructions. But as to the +main facts his testimony was unshaken. + +The examination and cross-examination of these three witnesses occupied +the whole of the first day; and as Chairo, Ariston, and I returned +slowly to our quarters we found it difficult to speak. Chairo was still +angry with Masters, and expressed himself on the subject in a few +explosive sentences. Ariston reminded Chairo that Masters was an old +admirer of Neaera's, and I felt almost guilty at withholding from them +that he had actually married her. + +After our plunge, Ariston and I brightened up a little, but Chairo +remained profoundly depressed. + +"The fact is," he said, "I am beginning to look at things from a +different point of view. This military organization of ours was a +gigantic mistake." + +"Violence can only be justified," said Ariston, "by some public +necessity or injustice; no isolated personal grievance can possibly +justify it." + +"We thought that this whole Demetrian cult had become a social evil, but +others evidently do not." + +Chairo's manner had so changed from what it was when I first met him +among the hills of Tyringham that my mind was set upon inquiring as to +the cause, and I could not help suspecting that his misgivings were for +the most part due to Lydia. + +I felt that I was _de trop_ and found some excuse for leaving them. + +Later Ariston told me that although Chairo was profoundly discouraged, +strange to say, he had expressed little concern about himself or his +political aims; what he used to describe as "The Cause," and really +meant his own ambition, seemed to have entirely passed out of his mind; +his whole concern now was for Lydia. + +The examination of witnesses during the next few days resulted in a +confirmation of all the facts brought out on the first day; Chairo had +clearly undertaken a vast and dangerous conspiracy against the state; he +had, in good faith, sought at the last moment to prevent violence, and +Neaera was wholly responsible for the attempt at rescue. Masters and his +following alone persisted in endeavoring to shield Neaera. According to +them, instructions had been given by Chairo to both Balbus and Neaera +that in case of any accident happening to himself, the attempt was to be +made to rescue him, and that this attempt was to serve as an excuse for +the violence which they felt indispensable to the defeat of the +Demetrian cult. + +As the examination was drawing to a close, Ariston pointed out to me +that I was probably the only man who could persuade Masters of his +mistake; he also urged that not only Chairo's fate hung in the balance +but Lydia's also. + +Ariston told me that Lydia's letters to him plainly showed that her own +hopes as to the passage of the amnesty bill had come to an end, and that +the subject under discussion between them now was what they should do in +case the amnesty bill was not passed. + +While we were talking over the matter in our apartment, we were +astonished to receive the visit of Masters, for of late Masters had +failed to recognize any of our party in the courthouse, and we feared +that the issue regarding Neaera's responsibility had occasioned a +permanent break in the ranks of the opposition. + +When Masters entered the room he made no pretense of cordiality; he +apologized conventionally for intruding, and explained that his visit +was due to a letter received from Neaera that day, in which she had +urged him to see me, as she was convinced I could set his mind at rest +regarding her innocence. + +I perceived without difficulty that Neaera must have been reduced to +desperate straits in order to have recourse to such a reckless measure, +and that the correspondence between Masters and her must have betrayed +considerable doubt in Masters's mind as to the truth of her statements +concerning her connection with the business. I was determined to learn +from Masters as far as possible what was his present attitude to Neaera. +So I asked: + +"You have heard the witnesses; what is your own impression of the +matter?" + +"You could not expect me to believe them, could you?" + +There was an expression of agony on Masters's brow which made me feel +strongly drawn to him. + +"Shall Ariston stay while we talk about this?" asked I. + +"Yes," said Masters, turning to Ariston. "It is well that you should +know that Neaera is my wife." + +Ariston put up both hands with an involuntary expression of dismay, the +significance of which Masters did not fail to take in. He looked at me +half in despair, half in inquiry. + +"Ariston understands now," I said, "why you have undertaken to vindicate +Neaera." + +"I should have undertaken to vindicate her in any event," answered +Masters. "She is a woman, and a concerted effort is being directed +toward making a scapegoat of her." + +"The witnesses," I answered, "are certainly unanimous on the subject." + +"From what you say," Masters said, "I gather that you do not disbelieve +them." + +The veins in Masters's forehead were swelling with the effort he was +making to hide his indignation. + +"I have been at great pains to be released from the obligation of +testifying," I answered, "because I have not wished to injure her, +because, above all," I added, "I have not wished to injure you." + +We had remained standing during this conversation, but when I said +this--and in saying it I tried to make Masters feel that I was sorry for +him--he turned away a little and sank sideways upon a chair. He leaned +one arm on the back of it, bowing his head upon his hand, and after a +moment's pause turned to me again; his face was white now. + +"If that is your reason for not testifying I am obliged to you," he +said. "But which is your real reason--to spare Neaera or to spare me?" + +"I have no more reason for sparing Neaera than that she is a woman; I +have every reason for sparing you." + +Masters looked at me inquiringly. + +"I have nothing to conceal from you," I continued. + +"Then tell me just what happened," answered Masters. + +I took a seat and so did Ariston, and thought for a moment how I could +tell the facts in so far as they concerned the attempt at rescue without +disclosing Neaera's designs upon myself. I confined myself to the part +she played when I gave Chairo's message to Balbus. + +"Might not this have been done by Neaera," asked Masters, "in compliance +with a prior understanding with Chairo?" + +"I cannot believe," said I, "that there was any such understanding; +indeed, I am convinced that if Neaera was not herself the cause of +Chairo's capture, she was a party to it." I told then the story of the +tampering with Chairo's carriage. + +"Could not this, too, have been a part of the plot?" pleaded Masters +desperately. + +"A part of Neaera's plot, not a part of Chairo's. No one can talk ten +minutes with Chairo now without being convinced that his first object +was to get possession of Lydia; the political intrigue in the latest +stage of the affair became altogether a secondary matter." + +"Neaera was not," interrupted Ariston, "pleased with the role Lydia +played in the matter. At one time there was no small intimacy between +Chairo and Neaera; Neaera is not a woman to see her place taken by +another without vindictiveness. In preventing the escape of Chairo she +was serving a double purpose; she kept the issue alive, and she +satisfied a personal pique." + +Masters looked at me as though to learn my opinion on this view. + +"I gathered this: from a few words Neaera dropped after she had set me +free," I said; "she told me that all Chairo wanted was Lydia." + +Masters jumped up from his chair. + +"Then you would have me believe," said he, "that my wife is a vixen!" + +At this I jumped up too. + +"Masters," I said, "I have told you the facts because I felt you were +entitled to them. If you cannot stand hearing the facts you should not +have asked for them." + +There was a moment when it seemed doubtful whether we might not come to +blows; but the flash went out of Masters's eye as he looked at me, and +presently he held out his hand to me and said: + +"I am sure you have intended to render me a service, and I suppose in +the end"--he paused a moment as he shook my hand, and added--"in the end +it will prove to be so." + +Then, taking up his cap and cloak, he said: + +"At any rate there need be no hard feeling between myself and Chairo, +but I am a little dazed by what I have heard, and so I shall ask you +both to keep this interview confidential for a time. In a few days I +shall know better just how to act." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +"TREASONS, STRATAGEMS, AND SPOILS" + + +But as Masters walked homeward his irresolution disappeared. He saw that +his love for Neaera and his _amour propre_ had blinded him to the real +significance of the testimony elicited by the investigating committee. +Taking together the unanimity of this testimony, the breaking down of +Chairo's carriage, the _tendresse_ that Neaera had certainly once +entertained for Chairo, the duplicity with which he had over and over +again heard Neaera charged, certain ambiguities in some of her own +statements, and this last barefaced appeal to me, there could be no more +doubt. He rehearsed the interview at which he had asked her to marry +him; he had been trapped by a show of indignation and a tearful eye. + +By the time he reached his rooms his mind was made up. He sat down and +wrote the following letter: + + "DEAR NEAERA: I am afraid that the facts which have come to my + knowledge leave no doubt as to your being responsible for the + attack on the House of Detention. You are charged, too, with having + tampered with Chairo's carriage in order to prevent his escape with + Lydia. Shall I investigate this matter, or would it not perhaps be + better for you to turn over the leaf and start a clean page + somewhere else? I am prepared to do what is needful in order to + make this easy to you, and send you by the messenger who hands this + to you money for your immediate necessities. Should you wish your + mother to accompany you, I shall provide for her also. Meanwhile, + of course, we can arrange to undo the marriage that was somewhat + hastily celebrated. + +"Yours, + + "MASTERS." + + +Neaera was not far from New York. She and her mother were both occupying +a cottage belonging to Masters in New Jersey, behind the Palisades. Her +mother was a widow and a cipher. She had been a helpless spectator of +her daughter's too brilliant adventures, and was accustomed to sudden +changes. + +When Neaera received Masters's letter she sent word to him she would be +in New York that night. Masters on receiving the message packed a small +portmanteau and went to Boston, leaving word with his aunt, who kept +house for him, to receive Neaera should she arrive. + +Masters was unwilling to subject himself to a scene with Neaera. While +his messenger was away evidence had been presented to him which left no +doubt as to Neaera having tampered with Chairo's carriage; and this was +more than sufficient as a last straw. He felt he had been unaccountably +weak in his previous personal encounters with her and that she was now +counting upon this weakness. It is not easy for a man to turn a woman +out of his house, nor to hand over to the authorities a political +refugee who has entrusted herself to his care. To keep Neaera in his +rooms under the circumstances would have been consistent neither with +what he owed the state nor with what he owed himself. He trusted, +therefore, to Neaera's intelligence to conclude from his departure that +his decision was irrevocable. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, Lydia had left Tyringham and returned to New York. This had +not happened without considerable negotiation, for it had been part of +the understanding upon which Chairo had been released on parole that +Lydia was to remain away from New York. The intention of this +arrangement was to prevent Chairo from further compromising Lydia, +pending the determination of his case. But Lydia had been of late so +much disturbed by Chairo's letters that she had come to a decision which +she proceeded at once, if possible, to carry out, and as a first step +toward doing so, it was indispensable that she should go to New York. + +She sent, therefore, to Irene the letter from Chairo which had +particularly exercised her and asked Irene whether, under the +circumstances, she could not once more be received at the cloister, no +longer as a Demetrian but as one in retreat, in order that she might +concert with Irene and other members of the council as to the course she +proposed to pursue. + +The letter from Chairo--or rather the extract from it--which she sent to +Irene ran as follows: + + "I could ask no one but you to believe how differently my own acts + appear to me when I looked back upon them some weeks ago with the + glamour that self-deception threw around them and when I hear them + to-day coldly recited in the witness box. During the examination I + have asked myself whether the witnesses I have heard testifying + before the investigating committee were really telling about me, or + were not rather telling of events which have happened only in a + nightmare. And when I push my self-examination further, I see that + the difference lies in this: At the time I prepared our forces for + violence I was thinking of myself; now, I am thinking of you. + + "I do not disguise from myself that the story narrated by more than + a dozen witnesses regarding my actions prior to your acceptance of + the mission, condemns me to an extent that makes the passage of an + amnesty bill--so far as I am concerned--difficult if not + impossible. The question, therefore, arises, What am I to do? I am + perfectly prepared to take my punishment myself, but it almost + makes me die to think that I am dragging you with me into disgrace. + I have thought that probably I am at this moment the chief + difficulty in the way of a conclusion of this business; that if I + were not fighting for my own release, the others would be pardoned + easily enough. I would willingly bear the brunt of it all were it + not for you. My perplexity is, that in fighting for you I am + fighting also for myself." + +Irene discussed the possibility of Lydia's return to the cloister with +her colleagues, and the extract from Chairo's letter was read to them. +Masters, also, was consulted; for his effort to defend Neaera's +reputation had enlisted him against Chairo on the side of the cult, and +he had, therefore, been occasionally admitted to their counsels. It was +finally decided that in view of Chairo's present attitude--the sincerity +of which very few were disposed to doubt--and in view of the course +Lydia proposed to adopt, she should be readmitted to retreat in the +cloister, though it was deemed wise to give as little publicity to this +return as possible. + +Masters, however, had told Neaera of it, and when Neaera arrived at +Masters's rooms to find that he had left New York, her agile and +vindictive mind immediately set itself to a combination of "treasons, +stratagems, and spoils," in which somehow or another she wanted Lydia +and Chairo to play a part--a part that would give some satisfaction to +her spite. Then, too, there was somewhere in her mind the possibility +that if, as she understood, Chairo was hard pressed, and if, as she +hoped, Lydia was to any degree alienated from him through the influence +of the cloister, Chairo might be induced to share her evils with her. +There were chapters in their past that he might not find it distasteful +to rehearse. + +Neaera on arriving in New York found Masters's aunt fussily desirous to +be useful to her, and yet very anxious at the thought that she was +harboring a political runaway. Neaera had arrived after dark, so veiled +as to escape recognition. She was nerved for an encounter with Masters, +in which she was by feminine dexterity to dissipate the suspicions to +which he had fallen too easy a prey, and the news that he was gone had +for first effect to make her restlessly anxious to do something. She +therefore asked whether two notes could be delivered by private +messenger that night, one to Lydia and one to Chairo. After inquiry, +arrangements were made to do this, and Neaera sat down to contrive her +little plot. The first part of it was simple enough. She wrote to Lydia +that she had come to New York at great personal risk expressly to see +her on a matter of vital importance, and asked her to come the next +morning punctually at ten. To Chairo she showed less solicitude: she +confined herself to the bare statement of her whereabouts, and that she +would be alone next morning at a quarter past ten till half past. The +messenger was directed not to wait for an answer to either note. + +The next morning, punctually at ten, Lydia, to Neaera's delight, was +shown into Masters's study. + +"I had to see you," said Neaera, kissing her. She dismissed the aunt, +begging her not to admit any other persons without announcing them, and +put Lydia down on a sofa. She sat next to Lydia and took her hand. + +"I am afraid you don't like me," she said. + +"On the contrary," answered Lydia, "I like you, but I differ from you." + +"Yes, I know; we differ on almost everything; on the cult, on state +employment, on personal liberty, etc., etc., but then, we have one thing +in common, we are both women." + +Lydia looked a little puzzled. This abstract conversation was not what +she had been prepared by Neaera's note to expect. + +"I am not at all sure," she said, "that it is not just about womanhood +that we differ most." + +"Lydia!" answered Neaera reproachfully. + +"I did not mean to wound you," said Lydia quickly. "There is so much +room for honest difference of opinion that I do not undertake to set my +opinion against yours, or indeed anyone's. But is it not dangerous for +you to be here?" + +Neaera smiled consciously, and said: + +"I am not thinking of that. I came to see you because I felt you ought +to be put right, and I want to do right; in the first place, you will be +misled if you believe the wicked falsehoods that are being circulated in +order to put the whole blame for what has occurred upon me. I should +never have left New York of my own will. Masters forced me to go, and I +am occupying his cottage at Englewood. I am prepared at any time to +return to New York and set things right, and I can; I can testify to the +message sent by Chairo, to my efforts to induce Balbus to give up the +attempt at rescue, to Balbus's refusal to listen to me, to his having +arrested Xenos and bound him, to my having released Xenos--and Xenos +will, I am sure, if I ask him, confirm my testimony. This will set +Chairo right before the committee; only I don't want to see Chairo. He +has been imploring me for an interview. I don't want to complicate +things; you have suffered enough, you shall not suffer any more through +me----" + +Lydia was about to rise and leave the room; she would not by word or +gesture admit the inference to be drawn from Neaera's words--admit the +possibility of inconstancy on the part of Chairo; but at the moment she +was about to rise a ring was heard at the door, and presently the aunt +appeared excitedly, and announced that Chairo was there. Neaera jumped +up and shut the door. + +"You must not see him here," she said to Lydia. "Come into this room," +and she beckoned her into an adjoining parlor, separated from the study +only by a curtain. Lydia, who was under a promise not to meet Chairo, +had no option but to follow Neaera, but she followed with a cheek +flushed with indignation. She sat stiffly in a chair while Neaera left +her to receive Chairo. She heard the door of the study open and +Neaera's voice in the adjoining room say: + +"Chairo, my poor Chairo!" + +Then she buried her face in her hands and her fingers in her ears so +that she should not be an unwilling listener. She would be staunch to +her faith in Chairo, for this was the one rock under the shelter of +which in the shifting and stormy skies she felt there was any longer any +safety for her. + +Lydia heard in spite of herself Neaera's cooing treble and the rich +vibrating notes of Chairo's voice; she heard them laugh once, and then +there came what seemed to be a silence that was terrible to her. Later, +the voices resumed again. She passed a half hour of anguish, striving to +listen and striving not to hear, and during that half hour she thought +she heard the voices in the adjoining room pass through every gamut of +emotion; they were sometimes raised as though each was striving to outdo +the other, then they would sink into silence again. Would it never come +to an end--this interview between the man she loved and a woman she +despised? At last she heard a door close; she removed her hands from her +head and tried to look composed. + +Neaera came to her with her cheeks flushed. + +"Did you hear anything?" asked she. + +Lydia arose. + +"I have been here too long," said Lydia. "You have nothing else to say, +I think," and she moved out of the parlor into the study and was moving +out of the study into the hall when Neaera stopped her, and said: + +"You are not mistaking Chairo's visit, are you?" There was the prettiest +little dimple in Neaera's cheek as she said this. "Nothing but +politics," she added, and the dimple deepened. + +"Good-by," said Lydia, without holding out her hand. + +Neaera burst out now into a little laugh, for Lydia had passed her and +was at the door. + +"Nothing but politics," laughed Neaera, as Lydia shut the door behind +her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A LIBEL + + +As Lydia hurried back to the cloister she had a humiliated sense of +having been in contact with something foul. Indignant at the trap which +had been laid for her, sore at the struggle neither to listen nor to +doubt, one thought only occupied her: to get back to the cloister and +wash her mind and body clean of the whole concern. + +She had not been allowed to respond to Neaera's invitation without a +long discussion with Irene and the Mother Superior. The compact upon +which she had come to New York was that she was not to meet Chairo +there; to insure this, it had been the unexpressed understanding that +she would not leave the cloister until Chairo's case was judged--or at +least not leave it without the permission of the Demetrian authorities. +So when Neaera's message was received, Lydia at once showed it to +Irene. + +Neaera's role in the whole matter was such an important one, and so much +depended on what it could be proved to have been, that the Mother +Superior judged it worth the risk to allow Lydia to visit Neaera. When, +therefore, Lydia returned to the cloister, Irene at once questioned her +as to the result of the interview. + +But Lydia was not prepared to lay bare even to Irene all she had +suffered at Masters's rooms. It was already pitiful enough that her love +for Chairo had become a subject for public discussion, and, indeed, a +matter of political concern. This last agony she would keep to herself; +she felt unable to talk about it to others, so she answered Irene +imploringly: + +"Do not ask me. Nothing has come of it which can be of the slightest +importance to the cult or to any one. Neaera is a worse woman than I +thought." + +Irene hesitated. She did not wish to intrude on Lydia, and yet she knew +the Mother Superior would not be satisfied with this answer. But there +was no reason for forcing an answer from Lydia at once, so she +accompanied her to her room. + +"I want a bath," said Lydia. "I feel contaminated." + +"Physically contaminated?" asked Irene, smiling. + +"The mere presence of that woman is a physical contamination," answered +Lydia. + +"Well, let us go down and take a plunge together," answered Irene, +laughing. + +"Will you?" asked Lydia. "And then we can go to the temple afterwards. +That will be the best of all." + +The two women stepped down to the swimming bath and donned their +swimming dress. + +Lydia stood on the plunging board, and as she raised her beautiful arms +above her head and straightened herself for the plunge, she said: + +"Ah! Irene, if life were all as simple and as wholesome and as +delightful as this!" + +Reinvigorated by the fresh salt plunge, they resumed their draperies and +walked slowly to the temple. The service was coming to an end and they +knelt to hear the closing chorus of the Choephoroi. The words came with +refreshing distinctness to Lydia, and the hopefulness of them filled her +heart with strength. They told of the beauty of women, of their +devotion. Beauty was a snare, but it was also a sanctuary. For the +goddess gave beauty to the good and to the evil alike--so had the Fates +decreed. And the evil would use it to the undoing of man, but the good +to the building of him up. And the goddess loved good and hated evil. + +Then came the prayer of the women; they prayed to Demeter to give them +charm to delight and courage to renounce, that love and moderation bring +in the end happiness and peace. + +And the priest lifted his hand in benediction: + +"Go forth, for the goddess hath blessed you, and hath bidden you take +heed that, pitiless though be Anagke, even her empire may at last be +broken by the fruit of your womb." + +The congregation knelt at these words and remained kneeling while the +choir marched out singing a recessional, solemn and strong. Then came +the novices, the Demetrians, and, last of all, the high priest bearing +the sacred emblem. + +When Lydia and Irene left the temple and followed the arcade to the +cloister, all doubts and fears seemed to have fallen from Lydia, as +scales from eyes blinded by cataract. + +"How beautiful the cult of Demeter is!" exclaimed Lydia, "and how +strengthening." + +Irene passed her arm round Lydia's waist. "You know now," she said, "how +easy my sacrifice has become! Oh, we have to pass through the fire, but +once the ordeal is over, happiness comes unbidden and unexpected. Come +to my boy--my boys, I should say. I left them at work and I shall +probably find them at play; but they are truthful and innocent. Their +innocence is a daily delight to me." + +And the two women returned to their duties. Lydia forgot that she had +heard Neaera whispering to Chairo. She had taken in a draught of +strength, and she needed it, for another trial was at hand. + + * * * * * + +Lydia was allowed to sleep that night the sleep of the innocent, but the +next morning while she was engaged in the hospital ward, Irene came to +her with an expression of agitation on her face that was unusual. She +carried in her hand a newspaper, which Lydia was not slow in +recognizing, and asked Lydia when she would be through her work, as she +had an important word to say to her. + +Lydia promised to hurry and be back in her room within ten minutes. +Irene said she would go at once to her room and wait there. The moment +Irene left the room the probable contents of the newspaper flashed upon +her, and she saw the folly of her reticence. She was putting the last +bandage about the leg of a child when suddenly, at the thought of the +false construction that might be placed upon her silence, a weakness +came over her that made it almost impossible for her to finish her task. + +"What is the matter, Aunt Lydia?" asked the child; "you look pale." + +Lydia collected herself. "Nothing," she said, "I shall be all right +presently." She passed her unoccupied hand over her eyes and was able to +resume and complete her work. + +When she had sewn up the bandage she put back the small wounded limb +into the bed, tucked in the sheets, and, preoccupied as she was with her +new concern, was moving away without giving the child the customary +kiss. + +"Aunt Lydia!" cried out the child, holding out its little hands. + +"Darling," answered Lydia, and as the soft arms closed around her neck +and she felt innocent lips upon her cheek, tears gushed from her eyes, +of which--relief though they gave her--she was nevertheless ashamed. + +The child looked wonderingly at her, and she said: + +"It is nothing at all, and Aunt Lydia is very grateful for a sweet +little kiss." + +The child patted her cheek with a dimpled hand as she bent over him, +and Lydia left, wondering how often she would have to be reminded that +happiness did not depend only upon the satisfaction of our own desires. +She had left the temple full of this thought, and yet a suspected +attack, directed by a newspaper against her own particular designs, had +in a moment blackened her entire horizon. When she reached her room and +found Irene there she was once more calm and strong. + +She found Irene sitting down, with the newspaper open on her knees. It +was published by a few devotees in vindication of the cult, although +lacking its support. The cult had, indeed, often tried to suppress its +publication but had not succeeded. It had been able only to compel the +publishers to change its name, for it had been published at first under +the title "The Demetrian." The cult had pointed out that this title gave +the impression that it was an authorized organ, whereas it was not only +unauthorized but published in a spirit opposite to that taught by the +cult. So the name had been changed to "Sacrifice," this word having been +selected in opposition to the word "Liberty"--the title of its rival. + +In the issue of that morning was the following paragraph: + +"We are incensed to learn that although Chairo was given his liberty on +the express understanding that he was not to use it in order to +consummate his outrage on Lydia, and although Lydia was allowed to come +to New York only on the condition that she was to remain confined to the +cloister and not to see Chairo, these two, who have already scandalized +the cult and the whole community beyond endurance, managed yesterday to +meet clandestinely at the rooms of Masters, between ten and eleven in +the morning. Masters is not in New York, so he cannot be held +responsible for this assignation; and Masters being out of town it is +hardly necessary to point out that on this occasion the guilty couple +were quite alone." + + * * * * * + +Lydia thought when she entered her room that she was braced to endure +anything, but when she came to the closing words of the paragraph the +blood rushed to her face. She managed, however, to avoid further +expression of her indignation. + +"It is false, of course?" said Irene. + +"No," answered Lydia, and with burning cheeks she turned her tired eyes +on Irene. "It is not false--and it is not true." + +"What do you mean?" asked Irene anxiously. + +"Chairo was there." + +"And you saw him?" + +Irene was bending over her breathlessly. + +A fearful agitation tormented Lydia. Must she indeed renew the anguish +of that hour--nay, treble it, by laying it bare to all the world? She +could have told it to Irene, but to tell it to her as a vindication of +herself would involve the telling of it to the Mother Superior and to +the rest. And who would believe that she had not seen or spoken to +Chairo, that far from seeing him, she had crouched in an adjoining room +with her fingers at her ears in agony lest she should hear and lest she +should not hear? + +She remained silent, with her head bowed over the offending sheet. + +"You _must_ tell me," Irene pleaded; "I need not tell it to any one--at +least I think I need not," added she, hesitating, "but I know you have +done no wrong; you must clear yourself, Lydia; for the love of the +goddess, tell me." + +"For the love of the goddess," repeated Lydia slowly; she paused a +moment, and then, mistress of herself again, she said: + +"I neither saw Chairo nor spoke to him. _You_ will believe this, but who +else will?" + +"Your word is enough for me," answered Irene, "and I shall make it +enough for them all." + +The women arose and embraced each other, then Lydia said: + +"Too much has been already said about the most secret as well as the +most sacred matters of a woman's life. It belongs to us women to +preserve the dignity that we derive from Demeter, and that we owe her. I +shall say no more on this matter. Am I not right?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +NEAERA AGAIN + + +Neaera's attempt on Chairo had proved a humiliating failure, and when +she confronted Lydia her cheeks were flushed, not with success as might +have been imagined, but with the effort to escape without disgrace from +a situation for which she had no one to thank or blame but herself. +Chairo had certainly at one time been attracted by Neaera beyond the +limits of mere companionship, but he had not taken long to discover that +the glances that tended to bewitch him were no less bewitchingly turned +on others, and he soon put Neaera where she deserved in his +acquaintance. + +She was extremely useful to him in his political plans and on the staff +of "Liberty"; and although he was dimly conscious that Neaera would to +the end--at every moment that the strain of the actual work was +relieved--endeavor to bring into their intimacy the element of coquetry +of which she was a past master, Chairo treated this disposition with +something of the amused sense of her charm that would be elicited by a +pet animal. And this willingness to be amused by her Neaera understood +to mean a tribute to her attractiveness that might on a suitable +occasion lead to an exchange of vows at the altar of matrimony. + +But she little understood Chairo when she attempted to force the +occasion of their meeting at Masters's into a channel so opposite to his +present disposition. When he entered the room where Neaera awaited him +the lines in his face and the fatigue in his eye elicited from Neaera an +ejaculation in which, strange to say, there was some real sincerity. She +was truly sorry for him, and she was woman enough to guess that the +weary face before her was due to no mere political reverses, for the +face was not only that of a tired man, it was also that of a man who had +been chastened. She was restive under the thought that the chastening +influence could be his love for Lydia, and the problem before her grew +complicated when she guessed how difficult it would be for her to elicit +from Chairo any word that could sting the woman whom to that particular +end she had secreted in the adjoining room. Then, too, although she was +mistress of her own voice, she was not mistress of Chairo's, and the +possibility that Lydia might close her ears was one that did not enter +within the scope of Neaera's imagination. + +After having expressed her sympathy for Chairo and found that it +elicited little or no response from him, but, on the contrary, that he +was eager to know the reason of her presence in New York and of her +message to him, she launched upon a highly imaginative account of her +relations to Masters, and with her command of humor very soon got Chairo +laughing over the success with which, according to her story, she had +pulled the wool over Masters's eyes. Chairo had no reason to love +Masters, and he had long ceased to regard Neaera as a responsible +person; the immorality of her proceeding affected him, therefore, no +more than if he had observed it in a monkey or a cat. + +Neaera told her story in words so rapid and a voice so low that Lydia +could hardly have understood it had she tried, and Neaera felt that she +had scored a point when she had made Chairo laugh. Then, anticipating +the effect of silence on Lydia, she had handed Chairo some selected +passages from Masters's letters to read, and as Chairo burst again into +laughter over certain passages in them, Neaera began to feel she might +venture farther. Laughter, especially over an unrighteous matter, tends +to make all righteousness seem superfluous, but when Neaera got near +Chairo, in a pretense of reading over his shoulder, a very slight and +almost unconscious movement of Chairo away from her made her understand +that any further effort in this direction would be a mistake. + +So Neaera set herself to discussing very seriously the situation with +Chairo, assured him that she was prepared to sacrifice herself, and with +a tear in her eye admitted to him, almost in a whisper, that she had +tampered with his carriage. + +"I knew it," said Chairo. + +"But did you guess why?" asked Neaera, very low. + +Chairo did not answer, but looked inquiry. + +"Then you shall never know," continued Neaera. + +This was the psychological moment of the interview. She had intended, +had Chairo given her the least encouragement, to throw herself into his +arms and confess to him that she had never loved any man but him, that +so great was her love for him that she was prepared now to face the +investigating committee, tell the whole story, and telling the story by +so much exonerate him. She had expected that if there was a spark of +affection in Chairo's heart for her, his chivalrousness would be roused +by this offer, and he would share her fortunes rather than permit her +sacrifice to assure his. + +But the possibility of this imagined scene had been dissipated by that +little unconscious movement of Chairo's away from her. Then, too, she +knew that Lydia was in the next room, and she almost regretted now that +she was there, for if Lydia had not been there she might have risked the +venture. But that Lydia should witness a humiliating rejection was a +risk she could not take. So she had spoken very low and rapidly in the +hope that although Lydia might not hear any specific word that would +hurt, she might gather a general impression that would sufficiently +torment her. She little knew how completely she was, to this extent at +any rate, succeeding. + +"My dear Neaera," answered Chairo, "you are a very charming and +complicated person and I do not pretend to guess why you chose to thwart +my plans. But you have done me a great wrong in many ways. Should you +decide now to repair them--in so far as this is possible--you will be +behaving in a manner which, though proper, would hardly be consistent." +He smiled a little as he said this; Neaera wished he would not speak so +loud, and was even betrayed into a gesture which he interpreted as a +gesture of protest, but was really an instinctive effort to induce him +to lower his voice. + +"You are very cruel to me," said Neaera, and she lowered her eyelids so +that her long, black lashes swept her cheek. + +"And you are a charming little _comedienne_," laughed Chairo, "and you +ought to have devoted yourself to the stage." + +"The world's my stage," she said, raising her eyes with a flash of +indignation. "And there is upon it every kind of character. But while I +have made a fool of many I have always respected you, and this is how +you pay me for it!" + +Chairo was not deceived by her pretty little air of indignation, but he +said to himself that though it was a part she was playing, she played it +well; so he arose, and, taking her hand, said: + +"I do not mean to be unkind, Neaera, and for anything you do to help me +I shall be profoundly grateful." + +"What shall I do, Chairo?" she asked, looking up appealingly to him. + +"Ah! that is in your hands," he answered. + +"You can count upon me," she said, holding his hand in both of hers. + +Chairo did not wish to prolong the interview, so by way of farewell he +lifted her hands to his lips. Then she fell upon her knees, kissed his +hands not once but many times, and bathed them in her tears. He lifted +her gently and put her in her chair. + +"Good-bye, little woman," he said gently, "and be sure that whatever you +may do, I shall feel kindly toward you," and disengaging himself from +her, he left the room. + +Neaera saw him leave with something like real affection in her heart. +"He is the best of them all," she said, "and I might have loved him +really." And whether it was that there was in her something that might +have responded to him had he love to give her or whether it was mere +reaction from her own trumped-up distress, there was a moment as Neaera +sat there when the little woman did sincerely think herself in love. + +But the recollection that Lydia was in the next room came to her, and +she wondered how much Lydia had heard. She looked in the mirror and saw +there the reflection of the very agitation she wished Lydia to suspect, +and so before the trace of it could disappear, she hurried to her +victim. Perhaps, thought she, Lydia had heard something without hearing +too much. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE LIBEL INVESTIGATED + + +Chairo was sitting at the head of one of the tables in the hall of our +building, and Ariston and I were on either side of him, when the morning +papers were brought in. Since the disappearance of "Liberty," only two +morning papers were daily published in New York: the state paper, +entitled "The New York News," and "Sacrifice." Chairo rapidly perused +"The News" and handed it to me. I was absorbed half in consuming the +oatmeal, with which our breakfast usually closed, and half in reading +"The News," when I was suddenly aware of an agitation in my neighbor +which caused me to look up at him. + +I was surprised at the shape this agitation took; Chairo was a choleric +man; as I first remember him, very slight causes of annoyance sent the +blood to his face and found expression at once in a few violent +sentences. This morning, the first impatient gesture over, he sat very +still, pale, and with beads of cold perspiration on his forehead. + +"What is it?" asked Ariston. + +Chairo pushed the paper to him. + +Ariston, after reading the passage indicated, said: + +"Of course I understand that publicity of any kind on such a subject +must be odious to you; but after all, it is a lie, and can be easily +proved to be such." + +"It is not altogether a lie," answered Chairo. "I was at Masters's rooms +at the hour indicated, but Lydia was not there--at least," he added, +correcting himself, "I did not see her there." For already he began to +suspect that Neaera had been at her tricks again. + +"I shall go to the editor at once," continued Chairo, "and insist on the +publication of an apology." + +The paper had by this time been handed to me and I had read the libel. + +"Don't go to the editor now," urged Ariston. "You are justly indignant, +and you have a man to deal with, in the editor, who will only add to +your exasperation. Write a simple denial of the fact that you have seen +or spoken to Lydia at any time or place since your arrest." + +"I won't drag her name into the paper again," exclaimed Chairo. "If I +write anything it must be so contrived as not to introduce her name. I +have a right to insist that my private affairs be no more discussed in +the paper." + +"You have the undoubted right under our law to demand this, but don't be +impatient if I answer you that this matter is not a purely private one; +it is a matter of grave public interest." + +Chairo flashed a look at Ariston that we both understood; it meant a +sudden revival of his aversion for the cult, which made of this private +matter one with which the public had a right to meddle; but the look +died away, and Chairo's face resumed the settled expression of +discouragement which had marked it since the sessions of the +investigating committee began. + +"Let me see," said Ariston, "if I cannot draw up a letter which the +paper will have to publish," and he scribbled on the newspaper band that +Chairo had torn off and thrown aside. Very soon he produced the +following: + + THE EDITOR OF "SACRIFICE." + + "SIR: I avail myself of my right under the law to insist on your + publishing this letter in the same place and in the same type as + the paragraph to which it refers. + + "The statement that I have in spirit or in letter violated the + compact under which I was released is not true. I was at Masters's + rooms at the hour indicated, but I met no one there. + + "Should you add anything to the libel already published, by way of + comment, head line, or otherwise of a nature to cast a doubt upon + the contradiction herein contained, I shall at once have you + prosecuted with the utmost rigor of the law. + + "I beg also to inform you that I shall regard any further reference + to this incident as an improper meddling with my private affairs, + and shall proceed accordingly." + +Chairo glanced at the proposed letter, and said: + +"It is quite satisfactory except as to one statement in it. I did not +meet Lydia at Masters', but I did meet another woman there." + +Ariston and I looked at one another in surprise. + +"An indiscretion?" asked Ariston. + +"Not at all," said Chairo, "but a secret." + +This was very awkward. + +"I need not hesitate to tell you as my counsel, in confidence," +continued Chairo. "But I think it must go no further." + +We looked our inquiry. + +"It was Neaera," said Chairo very low. + +Ariston and I opened our eyes. + +"That woman again!" exclaimed Ariston. + +But Chairo rose, suggesting that it would be more prudent to discuss the +matter in our rooms, and we followed him there. + +Chairo then told us of his interview with Neaera, leaving out of it all +that might have explained or reflected on her motives. Both Ariston and +I felt certain he was leaving out something. + +"Well, we must modify our letter," said Ariston, and after some +discussion it was decided to leave out the statement that Chairo had +been at Masters's rooms altogether, and to confine the letter therefore +to a bare denial. + +Ariston advised Chairo to go at once to Arkles and explain the facts, so +as to put the cult in a position to write a similar denial. Ariston and +I proceeded to the office of "Sacrifice." + +On our way there we discussed Chairo's interview with Neaera. + +"You may depend upon it," said Ariston, "she has lost Masters, and is +making a desperate effort to get back Chairo." + +"And she had Lydia secreted in an adjoining room," guessed I. + +"That's it," said Ariston; "she is a devil!" + +"But can Chairo insist on the publication of his letter?" asked I. + +"Certainly," said Ariston. "In this we have but copied an admirable +provision of the French law in your time. We have added to it a right +for every man to prohibit any paper from publishing any matter regarding +his private movements or his private affairs. The effect of this rule is +that as every paper wants to be free to publish what is known as society +news, and it can only do so with the tacit consent of those who make up +society, it has to take care to publish nothing that even borders on +libel. Libel and slander, I think I have told you, we regard as one of +the greatest of social crimes." + +We found the editor of "Sacrifice" in a condition of sanctimonious +self-satisfaction. His article had produced a sensation, and he was +triumphant in the thought that he was accomplishing for the cult what +the cult itself was too feeble to accomplish for itself. He assumed an +air of portentous gravity when he learned the object of our visit. + +"I hold Chairo in the hollow of my hand," said he, "and I do not mean to +let him off." + +"You will have to publish his letter," insisted Ariston. + +"I shall publish his letter and I shall brand it as a lie," retorted the +editor. + +"You will do so at your peril," answered Ariston. + +"I fear no consequences," said the little man, straightening himself in +his editorial chair. "When Chairo denies that he was at Masters's rooms +between ten and eleven yesterday morning, and Lydia denies that she was +there at the same hour, it will be time to resume investigation. So bare +a denial as this"--and he threw Chairo's letter contemptuously down on +his desk--"is not worth the paper it is written on." + +"What is your proof of the correctness of your statement?" asked +Ariston. + +"I need not produce it," said the editor pompously, "but I have nothing +to conceal," and after looking among the papers on his desk, he found +and handed us a typewritten statement of the fact constituting the +alleged libel. I was pretty sure that I detected here the hand of +Neaera. + +"Before publishing this anonymous statement," continued the editor, "I +was careful to confirm it. The janitor of the building, upon being +questioned by me in person as to who had passed his lodge during the +hour in question, mentioned, of his own accord, both Chairo and Lydia. +They arrived each alone and at an interval of a few minutes. It was an +assignation. There is no doubt of it." + +"You had best not tell Chairo so," said Ariston. + +"Don't threaten me, sir," exclaimed the editor. "Your own role in this +matter will not bear investigation." + +Ariston rose suddenly and advanced on the editor, but I interfered. + +"You have come here," said I, "on an errand as counsel for Chairo, +because you feared he would not control his temper. Are you going to +lose yours?" + +I had clutched Ariston by the arm, and at first he tried to extricate +himself from me, but he saw the force of my argument, and, looking a +little mortified, he said: + +"Xenos is right. I have no right to prejudice Chairo's case by taking up +a quarrel of my own. Xenos, however, is a witness to the words you have +used and the animus you have shown. Now publish a word of comment if you +dare!" + +Then, turning abruptly to the door, we both left the room. + +As soon as we were out of the building Ariston, who was trembling with +suppressed passion, said: + +"This man has to be scotched! He means mischief and is in a position to +do mischief unless we can make Chairo's innocence in this matter clear +as day. Let us summon the janitor at once before an examining magistrate +and get _all_ the facts from him. You understand me--_all_!" + +I understood him, and appreciated the value of a procedure that enabled +any citizen to demand at any time the examination of any other citizen +before a magistrate--subject, of course, to a heavy penalty in case the +proceeding turned out to be unreasonable and vexatious. Had either of us +gone to the janitor ourselves we would have been accused of having +influenced him, so we addressed ourselves directly to a magistrate who +sent a messenger for the janitor and secured his attendance within half +an hour. + +The janitor answered rapidly under interrogation as to the attendance of +both Chairo and Lydia at the hour named. + +"Now tell us," asked Ariston, "who was in Masters's apartment at the +time." + +"Masters's aunt." + +"Was no one else there?" + +"Yes, a messenger of Masters went backward and forward several times." + +Ariston demanded the name of the messenger, and the magistrate at once +sent for him. + +Ariston continued the examination. + +"Was no one else in Masters's apartment besides his aunt?" + +"I do not _know_ of any one else being there." + +He emphasized the word "know." + +"When did Masters leave?" + +"About two in the afternoon." + +"Did no one else go to his rooms from two in the afternoon to the +arrival of Lydia next morning?" + +"Not to my knowledge." + +Again he emphasized the word "knowledge." + +"You do not know of your knowledge just where every one who passes your +lodge goes?" + +"No." + +"Who passed your lodge and went to Masters's staircase on the day before +Chairo and Lydia went there?" + +The janitor mentioned here a large number of persons, and then added: + +"There may have been others; I don't see every one who passes the +lodge." + +"Did any one that night gain admission after dark?" + +"A great many." + +"Did you get the names of all?" + +"Yes--of all--at least, there was one I did not get." + +At last the janitor hesitated, and it seemed clear that Ariston was on +the right scent. + +"Who was it?" + +"I don't know. I was sleepy, I did not insist." + +"Did no one pass out next day whom you had not admitted on the previous +night?" + +"I did not notice any one particularly; I could not distinguish; so many +come and go." + +The janitor seemed to think a little and hesitate. + +"Go on," said Ariston. "Of whom are you thinking?" + +"A veiled woman passed out that day and put a piece of money in my +hand." + +"Over-astute Neaera!" thought I. + +"Did you not recognize the woman?" asked Ariston. + +"No, she was veiled." + +"Would you be surprised if I could guess at what hour she passed out?" + +The janitor looked at Ariston stupidly. + +"She passed out within an hour after Lydia." + +"Yes," nodded the janitor, "just about that." + +"Have you seen or talked with Masters's aunt since that day?" + +"No." + +Ariston then asked the magistrate to send for the messenger and +Masters's aunt. + +The janitor was asked to wait in case he should be needed, and we +adjourned for lunch. While lunching Ariston and I agreed that we were +going to get at the facts, and that it would be better not to let the +editor know them till after to-morrow morning. "I mean to give him +rope," said Ariston. "He'll hang himself, I think." + +The messenger arrived shortly, and from him the identity of the veiled +lady was very soon elicited. He had evidently received his piece of +money also, and endeavored to avoid a direct admission, but Ariston got +the fact out of him with but little difficulty, and his hesitation to +admit it only brought out the more clearly the means Neaera had adopted +to cover her tracks. + +Masters's aunt arrived a little later in a state of utmost trepidation. +She came up to Ariston at once and implored him to tell her what the +matter was; had she done anything wrong; she would tell anything that +was wanted, but there were some things she could not tell; really, was +Ariston going to ask her to tell things she really could not tell? + +But Ariston calmed her, and told her the magistrate was there to protect +her. + +She bustled up to the magistrate, who stopped her by handing her the +Bible, upon which she was told to take her oath. + +The judicial severity of the magistrate subdued her at once; she took +the oath and sat down. Ariston whispered to the magistrate, begging him +to conduct the examination, and pointing out that the object of it was +to elicit what occurred at Masters's rooms and whether or not Chairo and +Lydia had actually met there. + +The magistrate asked her a few leading questions, and as soon as the +witness had recovered from the subduing effect of the magistrate's +presence the floodgates were opened, and she poured forth the whole +story, leaving a strong presumption that Lydia had not seen Chairo, and +that Chairo had ignored the presence of Lydia. + + * * * * * + +It was late in the afternoon before the examination was closed. We found +Chairo resting after his bath. He told us that he had seen Arkles, shown +him a copy of the letter Ariston had drawn, and agreed with Arkles that +a similar letter be written by Lydia. + +Ariston told Chairo that we had not been idle, but that we judged it +wiser for the present not to disclose to him what we had done. It would +be advantageous later to be able to say that we had acted upon our own +responsibility. We took Chairo after dinner to hear some music, and +tried to make him forget the dreadful incidents of the day, suspecting, +as we did, that a still more bitter dose was awaiting him next morning. + +And the editor did not disappoint us. We breakfasted earlier than usual +in order to receive the papers in our rooms. "Sacrifice" contained +Chairo's letter just as Ariston had submitted it. Next came a shorter +letter from Lydia to the following effect: + + "SIR: It is not true that I have met Chairo since his release, + clandestinely or otherwise, whether at Masters's rooms between ten + and eleven day before yesterday, or at any other time or place. + +"LYDIA SECOND." + +But an editorial carried out the editor's threat of the day before. It +stated that in compliance with the law, letters signed by Chairo and +Lydia respectively had been that day published denying the truth of the +charge made against them on the previous day, but that a sense of the +duty which the paper owed to the public made it impossible to comply +with Chairo's order to refrain from further comment on the matter. It +was not of a private nature. On the contrary, it was a matter of the +gravest public concern. "No one," it went on to say, "is less interested +in Chairo's private affairs than ourselves, and we fully appreciate the +reasons why he should prefer that his private affairs be not at this +moment, or any other, exposed to public scrutiny; but he is charged with +having violated the sanctity of the cloister, with having outraged a +Demetrian, and with having, in violation of his oath, sought to +consummate the crime, the perpetration of which had been prevented by +the vigilance of the Demetrian cult. Is this a matter of purely private +concern?" + +The editorial then proceeded to explain the carefulness with which it +had verified the truth of the statement published, compared the +circumstantial evidence produced by themselves with the bareness of the +denial published by the parties incriminated, and closed with the +following words: + +"We have always stood, and we stand to-day, for peace, purity, and +cleanliness of life. Chairo stands for violence, lust, and turpitude. We +shall not allow ourselves to be intimidated by him or diverted from our +plain duty to brand his contradiction as a lie." + +It was a paper containing this outrageous attack on Chairo that Ariston +brought into our room, flourishing it over his head with an air of +triumph, and crying: + +"We have him--we have him. Good-bye, 'Sacrifice'"; and making a +semblance of blowing it into the air, he handed it to Chairo, but before +Chairo could read it he held it away from him and said: + +"This is going to exasperate you--but believe me it is the best thing +that could happen. We have already secured sworn evidence taken before a +magistrate that vindicates both you and Lydia--don't ask us what it +is--I shall be responsible for all I do. The intemperance of the +language you are going to read is going to do you more good than all the +eloquence you can command in yourself or in others." + +When Chairo read the article he insisted on Ariston's telling him what +evidence we had, and Ariston explained the proceedings of the previous +day at length; he added that he knew Chairo would object to bring home +the responsibility to Neaera, but that what Chairo might have reasons +for not doing he, Ariston, had no reason for not doing, and that he +proposed to make it clear that he, Ariston, was responsible for the +whole proceeding and not Chairo. + +"Well," said Chairo, "you have gone beyond the point where I can either +stop or help you." + +"Exactly," argued Ariston, "and this is exactly where I wanted to put +you. This last attack upon both you and Lydia--for, of course, she is as +much included as yourself--leaves you no alternative but to prosecute +the editor. I propose to present to-day's article to the magistrate who +took the testimony yesterday. He will grant me an order of arrest +against the editor for libel, and both you and Lydia will be vindicated +as you deserve." + +As Ariston spoke, a note was handed to me from Anna of Ann begging me +urgently to go and see her that afternoon at tea time. I showed it to +Ariston, and we wondered what new development things were taking that +could include Anna of Ann. + +"Harmes!" exclaimed Ariston. + +I was puzzled. + +"What do you mean?" asked I. + +"Neaera is playing her last card." + +Then it flashed upon me. + + * * * * * + +That afternoon I went to see Anna of Ann and found her in profound +dejection. Ariston had guessed right. A few days before Harmes had +received a letter from Neaera and absented himself the whole afternoon. +He had returned much absorbed, and the next afternoon he had absented +himself again. Anna had asked him if he had not heard from Neaera, and +he had answered indignantly that all were conspiring to make a scapegoat +of her. Anna had protested, but every word she said had only contributed +to increase his indignation. He was evidently caught in the siren's +meshes and hopelessly under her influence. What, asked Anna, should be +done? + +I pointed out to Anna that Ariston was much better able to help her in +such a matter, and asked to be allowed to send Ariston to her the +following day, but she demurred. I guessed at the reason of her +objection and suggested her father calling on Ariston. But her father +knew nothing of the matter and Anna thought it unwise to let him know. + +"Then let your mother call on Ariston at his office," suggested I. + +"That would be better," answered Anna. + +And I arranged to let her know next day when Ariston would be at his +office. + +Ariston was much interested to learn that he had guessed right, and very +willingly gave an appointment for the next day. + +Meanwhile, the district attorney had obtained an order of arrest against +the editor, and next day's issue was edited by a new man. It contained a +statement of the arrest of the editor, professed to suspend judgment +until after the trial, and submitted under the circumstances the wisdom +of silence on the subject. + +But the affair had made a profound impression upon the public and the +legislature, and although Chairo's guilt as to conspiracy was clear, it +was felt to be equally clear that he had sincerely done what he could to +prevent the attack upon the House of Detention. Moreover, he was now +being unfairly treated and this created a revulsion of feeling in his +favor. Ariston was much encouraged, for he did not conceal from me his +conviction that, as matters stood before this incident, the feeling of a +large majority of the legislature was that an example ought to be made +of Chairo. So long as this feeling prevailed, no amnesty bill could have +been passed that included him, and there was no reason to believe that +he could expect anything less than the full penalty of the law at the +hands of the courts. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE ELECTION + + +I often heard Chairo and his friends discuss their plans for the coming +electoral campaign, but have not set these things down because there was +in them nothing that was necessary to my story or very different from +the political campaigns of our day. There was less corruption, for there +were no needy persons in the state; but corruption was by no means +unknown, especially since the development of private industry had +created a private and transferable money system, and the relatively +large wealth of such men as Campbell and Masters caused them to be +feared. Campbell, however, had no political aspirations; his hoarding +instinct occupied his time and devoured his ambition. Masters, on the +other hand, had a large fund at his disposal which it was feared he +might use in his unreasoning desire to vindicate Neaera. But when +Masters returned from Boston and read the testimony taken by the +magistrate he called on Chairo to express regret at the attitude he had +taken and to agree with him as to the coming campaign. + +Masters was still in favor of the amnesty bill, but he saw that a +general bill that would include Neaera could not, and ought not, to be +passed. He doubted the possibility of pushing through the legislature +one that would altogether protect Chairo, and frankly told Chairo so. He +was surprised to hear Chairo admit his own concurrence with this view. + +"I cannot play a conspicuous part," said Chairo, "in a campaign in which +I am so deeply involved; I propose to stand for the legislature in my +own district, but I shall address my constituents only once, and then I +shall make it clear to them that I shall not regard my election as a +vindication of the course I have adopted in setting myself against the +state, but as evidence that upon my frank avowal that I was wrong I +still have their sympathy and confidence." + +Masters suggested that they should attend on the governor, who was +standing for reelection, and agree with him as to the course to be +taken, with a view to diminishing to the utmost possible the chances of +a serious collision between the government and the opposition on the +amnesty question. + +I was very much surprised one day to find both Masters and the governor +dining at our table in our hall, and to learn that although the governor +had offices in the capitol he lived with his family in the same +apartment in which he had always lived, and, except when he was actually +engaged in the duties of his office, there was nothing to distinguish +his manner of living from that of the humblest of his fellow citizens. + +He was a man of an extremely simple exterior, though his head was +distinguished and his language chosen. We conversed about the political +outlook, and over our coffee, which Ariston made himself in our rooms, +the governor summed up the position as follows: + +"The country districts will send us a large majority hostile to Chairo, +because they are conservative and abhor violence. Chairo will have from +the city and most of the large towns a small but staunch and intelligent +following. Masters will influence a large number of votes, as will also +the Demetrian cult. I don't myself think the state can afford to allow +any man to organize an armed rebellion--not even Chairo--without putting +upon him some mark of its authority, and I think it would be unwise in +Chairo's interests to ask that he should escape without censure and even +punishment. I propose in my electoral address to advise pardon for all +who have been led by others into rebellion, severity for those who led +them into it, and for those leaders who can plead extenuating +circumstances, moderation." + +We all felt that the governor's attitude was not only wise on general +political grounds, but also from the narrower point of view of Chairo's +personal interest. + +The nomination of candidates at the primaries evinced a political +animosity against Chairo of which we were altogether unaware. To our +amazement the notion that Neaera was the victim of a concerted effort to +exonerate Chairo at her expense had so widely prevailed that neither +discussion nor argument was any longer of any avail. All who defended +Chairo were hounded down as the persecutors of a defenseless woman, and +were it not for the votes of the women, who were less obtuse on the +question than the men, neither Chairo nor any of his following would +have received a nomination. As it was, Chairo was nominated only by a +dangerously narrow majority, and most of his party were dropped +altogether, But the very women who were not deceived into vindicating +Neaera went far beyond the limits of wisdom in their defense of the +Demetrian cult. Although Arkles and Irene did their utmost to keep the +enthusiasm of their supporters within reasonable bounds, the belief that +the cult was attacked caused the nomination of a class of candidates +who, if elected, were likely to do Chairo scant justice by their votes. + +For some weeks I lived in a turmoil of political campaigning. It was a +relief to be wakened on Christmas by a peal of Cathedral bells, and +these over, to hear in the distant corridors an approaching hymn swell +its note of praise as it passed our door and die away as it disappeared +in the distance. We were all glad to feel that the electioneering was +over, for Christmas Day is devoted entirely to the morning ritual and +afternoon family gatherings; the 26th is devoted to final athletic +competitions, the crowning of the victors, and public balls; and the +27th to the silent vote. + +I am ashamed to say that although I had often delighted in the exterior +of the Cathedral from a distance, I had never entered it till Christmas +morning, for our quarters were some distance from it, and such religious +exercises as I had attended with Ariston were held either in a +neighboring chapel or at the temple of Demeter. The scene as I +approached the Cathedral reminded me of what my imagination had +sometimes constructed out of mediaeval chronicles around the spires of +Chartres. It was a cold day and all the approaches to the Cathedral were +crowded with men, women, and children, covered with outer garments that +far more resembled those we see in the thirteenth century tapestries +than the Greek dress that had first surprised me at Tyringham and in the +interiors of New York. I learned that even in summer it was usual to don +a special dress when attending a church service, not only out of respect +for the church, but out of a sense of the artistic inappropriateness of +a Greek dress in a gothic Cathedral. + +The gigantic doors of the main entrance were thrown wide open, and as I +mounted the long flight of steps that led to it, I was delighted and +bewitched by a facade, wide as Bourges, richly sculptured as Rheims, and +flanked by spires more beautiful than those of Soissons. From the deep, +dim Cathedral itself came the pealing notes of the organ which, as we +entered, made the air throb; I was rejoiced to find that the secret of +old glass had been rediscovered, but so great a blaze of light came from +the five great western portals that I did not fully appreciate the +mystic colors of the _vitraux_ till the doors were closed. Thereupon, +from an entrance in the south transept there marched in a procession +which, though more familiar than that I had already witnessed in the +temple of Demeter, far exceeded in splendor and impressiveness anything +I had seen before. Less graceful, perhaps, than in the Demetrian cult +but more solemn and devout, marched in the acolytes, swinging censers; +they were followed by the choir, singing a Gregorian chant, than which +assuredly nothing more subtly conveying the Christian idea has ever been +composed. In order came after them the great officials of the city and +state, including the mayor and the governor, a full representation from +the priests and priestesses of Asclepius and from those of Demeter; the +procession was closed by the lesser ecclesiastics bearing the cross, the +canons, and, last of all, the bishop. The ritual did not differ much +from that of the Roman and Anglican churches, except that the music was +rendered with as much care and effect as at Munich or Bayreuth. + +The sermon did not last more than ten minutes, and closed with an +earnest reminder that in casting our votes we were exercising the +highest act of sovereignty of which man is capable, and an entreaty so +to cast them that the church--and all that the church stood for--might +feel itself strengthened in the legislature as well as in the hearts of +the people. + +Whether on emerging from the Cathedral this solemn exhortation left as +little trace in the shape of actual conduct as in our day I, of course, +cannot tell, but I think the language of the headstrong during the +succeeding days was less violent and the animus evinced less bitter for +it. + +The Christmas dinner which followed the service was held in the common +hall, for it was deemed an occasion when all should join and contribute +to make the day a happy one. Families either arranged to dine at +separate tables or united to dine at one, and on this great festival +wine flowed in abundance at the expense of the state. + +Our own party consisted for the most part of the Tyringham colony, to +which, however, were added many new city friends. Ariston sat between +Anna of Ann and Irene. We missed, however, Chairo and Lydia; the one +dined alone from discretion, the other remained at the cloister. We were +not a merry party, for the prospect for both of these two was dark, and +when we drank the toast of "absent friends" there was a tear in many an +eye. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE JOINT SESSION + + +Election day passed quietly; it resulted in an overwhelming majority in +favor of the government, and the character of the majority was clearly +animated by the intention to visit heavily upon Chairo the consequences +of his actions. + +We had all understood that Lydia's return to New York was due to some +determination on her part, but what that determination was not even +Ariston knew. The first session of the legislature on the 1st of +January, '94, was attended by the deepest misgiving on the part of all +Chairo's friends; nothing could be determined by the proceedings of that +day--which were purely formal--but on the next an incident occurred +which showed how matters stood. The previous Speaker of the Senate who +would, if reelected, preside at the joint session of both houses, was a +man of moderate views, who had for years impartially administered the +duties of his office. It was a matter of course that he should be +renominated as the candidate of the government, and a motion to this +effect was duly made by Peleas. But it was seconded by Masters, and this +produced the effect of an understanding between the government and +Chairo's men which exasperated the irreconcilables; one of them, +therefore, in a moment of impulse nominated a distinguished Asclepian +priest, who had been elected on the platform of war on Chairo; his +nomination was hotly seconded by a chorus of voices, and although he was +opposed by the government party and by the supporters of both Chairo and +Masters, he was beaten only by a dozen votes. + +The situation looked critical for Chairo when Masters stood up to bring +the amnesty bill before the joint session; he was received in a manner +signally different from that which usually greeted him; the applause of +his own particular adherents sounded faint and hollow and only served to +accentuate the silence of the rest. He did not speak at length, +reserving himself till after the report of the investigating committee +had been read. He was followed by several speakers, who repeated the +unreasoning vituperation which had marked the electoral campaign, all of +them opposed to the passage of an amnesty bill of any kind. + +The real incident of the day was the reading of the report of the +investigating committee, which, for the first time, officially brought +out the facts as they were. The chairman of the committee who read the +report concluded by a brief expression of personal opinion to the effect +that after the reading of the report it was impossible for any one duly +conscious of his duties to the state to approve of the amnesty bill as +read. Doubtless many--perhaps, indeed, most of those concerned--had been +unduly influenced by others, and for these he was himself prepared to +cast a vote of pardon. But all the guilty parties were not before them. +He was interrupted here by a loud murmur of approval and by a counter +demonstration of those who still believed in Neaera's innocence. He did +not propose to try any one in their absence (applause), but assuredly it +was not proper to pardon any one in their absence either (loud +applause). There was one case which demanded particular attention; he +referred to the man who had organized the whole conspiracy. (There was a +deep silence here, and many involuntarily turned to where Chairo sat +erect and immovable with his arms crossed.) There was evidence to show +that after he had effected the particular personal end he had in view, +he had sent a message intended to put an end to further violence. He +asked the legislature to consider how far this tardy, unsuccessful, and, +as it appeared to him, half-hearted effort at reparation deserved to be +taken into account in mitigation. + +This conclusion was greeted with the wildest applause; members stood up +and, with vociferating gestures directed at the corner where Chairo sat, +demanded justice and the full measure of the law. + +It was expected that Masters would take the floor, but in the heated +condition of the house he judged it wiser that Arkles should be heard +before him. So Arkles slowly rose, and straightening himself to his full +height, addressed the speaker. The disorder which had followed the +speech of the chairman of the committee immediately subsided, and the +spokesman of the Demetrian cult was listened to in respectful silence. +"It is my honor," he said, "to address you on behalf of a religious cult +which has been outraged, upon the question whether this outrage shall go +unpunished or whether the cult shall be vindicated by the visitation on +the guilty of the full measure of the law." + +He used advisedly the very catchword "full measure of the law," which +had never failed to secure applause at the meetings held by the +indignant supporters of the cult, and his purpose was fulfilled, for he +at once got them on his side, as the approval that greeted his opening +fully showed. He then reviewed the history of the cult, its principles, +the benefit it had bestowed; he dwelt upon the earnestness of its +devotees, and contrasted the social conditions that prevailed where the +cult was strong with those that prevailed where it was non-existent. For +two hours he kept the unflagging attention of the audience with the most +carefully reasoned exposition of what the cult stood for that that +generation had heard. Clearly the conclusion to be drawn from his +argument was, that an institution so essential to public welfare was +entitled to the further protection of the state, and that an outrage +upon it must be so punished as to render any repetition of the offense +to the highest degree improbable. Sure of this conclusion, the +irreconcilables joined with the government ranks in loud approval of +Arkles's discourse. But here Arkles turned an unexpected corner, for +after having demanded justice, in tones that filled the house with a +reverberation of applause, he suddenly asked the question: "And in this +case, what is the justice we have a right to ask?" + +He turned at this point to the desk by him, filled a glass with water, +drank it, and continued: + +"The Demetrian cult is not founded on legal enactment. It is not propped +by any state authority. It derives all its strength from the appeal it +makes to reason and morality. So long as it finds support in the public +conscience it is strong; the moment it appeals from conscience to the +state it confesses a weakness of which the cult is not to-day aware. +Nay, there never was a day when the cult was more strong than now, never +when it was better able to vindicate its rights upon its own merits, +that is to say, not by appeal to the state for protection, but by appeal +to every man and woman in the commonwealth for support. + +"And here it is essential to make a careful distinction between acts +committed in violation of the law of the land and those committed in +violation of our sanctuary. As to the first, he, as spokesman of the +cult, had nothing to say; the state alone could deal with them. As to +the last, they had received the prayerful deliberation of the Demetrian +council, and he was instructed now to read the following resolution: + + "'Inasmuch as the exercise of our duties can be justified only by + the extent to which this exercise is approved, not merely by the + worshippers of Demeter but by the community at large; + + "'Inasmuch as such exercise deals with the most sacred and intimate + passions of the human heart; + + "'We now solemnly declare that we count only upon devotion to the + cult for protection, and deem it wiser to suffer sacrilege to go + unpunished than by retaliation to keep alive in the hearts of the + guilty or of those who support them, a spark of hostility or + resentment.'" + +A profound silence followed the reading of this resolution, and Arkles +concluded as follows: + + "It has been the policy of our commonwealth to abandon the + principle of punishment for crime. Those who are unfit for social + life we remove from social life and try to make them fit; until + they are fit for it, we keep them isolated. Do not let us depart + from a salutary rule in the interests of the cult, which the cult + itself has largely contributed to introduce and which it is deeply + interested in keeping alive. There are contingencies, Mr. Speaker, + when the highest justice is mercy." + +When Arkles sat down he left the session in a state of suspended +judgment. There was applause, but it was the applause of men convinced +against their will, and the irreconcilables remained absolutely silent. +The day was drawing to a close, and the session adjourned almost in a +state of confusion. + +As we walked home to our quarters we none of us were inclined to speak. +"That speech of Arkles will bear fruit," said Ariston. But Chairo was +gloomily silent, and I did not have the heart to speak words of +encouragement I did not feel. We were joined at the bath by quite a +number of our house, who seemed anxious to cheer us up by the gossip of +the day. All were much exercised by the result of the four-mile race +which had just been run. It was the first time a woman had ever entered +for this race, and she had succeeded in making a dead heat of it. +Chairo, who had excelled in these sports, was gradually aroused from his +discouragement, and, without much reason for it, we returned to the +session next day in a better humor than circumstances warranted, for the +whole day was taken up in violent harangues against the incriminated +parties, some attacking Chairo not only as a conspirator but as a coward +for treachery to Neaera, others attacking Neaera without vindicating +Chairo. + +That evening Chairo left us to dine with a few of his followers, who, +feeling the situation desperate, advised a conference with Peleas, +Masters, and Arkles, with a view to suggesting an amendment to the +amnesty bill that would secure a majority without going to the extremes +demanded by the irreconcilables. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +LYDIA TO THE RESCUE + + +Political offenses, such as the one with which Chairo was charged, were +punished not by confinement in farm colonies but by imprisonment in a +fortress, and had this disadvantage that, whereas the term in the former +case could be diminished by good conduct, in the latter case it was +fixed for a number of years and was generally of inordinate length. This +was the remnant of a code prepared at a time when social crimes were not +much feared, whereas political crimes were regarded as of utmost danger +to the commonwealth. The maximum term of imprisonment was fifty years, +and this for Chairo would be practically equivalent to imprisonment for +life. The irreconcilables clamored for nothing less than this. It was no +small credit to Chairo's character in the community that with so heavy a +sentence impending over him, it occurred to no one--not even his worst +enemies--to ask that special precautions be made to prevent his escape. +That he would keep his parole was never for a moment doubted. + +The difficulty attending any conclusion arose from the heterogeneous and +unorganized character of the irreconcilables; they were split up into a +number of factions, agreed only upon one thing--the "full measure of the +law" for Chairo; in every other respect they differed, some demanding +what they called justice, on grounds which they could not explain, but +the reasonableness of which they made a matter of conscience and +morality; others declared themselves to be vindicating "principles" +which, upon examination, turned out to be pure assumptions built upon +prejudice and temper; others professed to be acting as champions of the +cult, too helpless to be able to defend itself, and although willing and +anxious to discuss and explain their attitude, could never be brought to +any other conclusion than the "full measure of the law"--a phrase which +had obtained as complete a mastery over them as the "sleep" of a +hypnotizing doctor over a hypnotic subject. + +The third day of the session opened in as great uncertainty as before. +Peleas had not spoken, and was unwilling to speak, until some amendment +could be hit upon which had a reasonable chance of uniting a majority. +The debate was, therefore, left almost entirely in the hands of the +irreconcilables, who vied with one another in the application to Chairo +of epithets that were picturesque and vituperative. Toward the close of +the session, however, an incident occurred that was unexpected and +startling: Arkles arose and asked that the courtesy of the floor be +extended to Lydia Second. Chairo half rose in protest, but Masters, who +sat beside him, whispered a word in his ear and he resumed his seat, +burying his chin in his breast. A loud murmur of excitement filled the +chamber; the motion was put, and it was carried without a dissenting +voice; the house sat wrapt in silence awaiting the entrance of the +speaker. Soon Irene was seen coming down a side aisle, and by her side, +shrouded by a veil, a figure, which all immediately recognized as +Lydia's. When they reached a point half way down the aisle they paused; +Irene said a word to Lydia, and Lydia removed her veil. + +I had not seen her since we parted at Tyringham; as I looked at her +preparing herself to speak I experienced a conflict of emotion that +brought beads of perspiration to my forehead; my love for her now +kindled into admiration, the hopelessness of it, the fate of Chairo, an +undoubted admiration for him and yet a jealousy of him that tortured +me, willingness, nay, almost a burning desire to effect Lydia's +happiness at any cost--all these things struggled within me for mastery, +as with compressed lips I sat waiting to hear her speak. She was +obviously suffering from an emotion that made her eyes water and her +throat dry; she lifted her hand to her bosom once or twice in futile +agitation, but mastering herself, she stiffened, and, at last, as it +were by a supreme effort, lifting her head high, began: + +"I do not presume, Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the legislature, to +present myself before you trusting in my strength. I depend rather on my +weakness, for I am a woman, and because I am a woman who has +faltered"--she corrected herself--"who has suffered, you will hear me." + +She spoke very low but very distinctly, and there was in the chamber a +silence so complete that she could be heard at the utmost corner of it. + +"For him who has joined with me in this misadventure I do not presume to +speak at all. He is a man, and among men, able to hold his own. But you +cannot strike him without striking me, and it is for myself I plead." + +Chairo's chin buried itself deeper in his breast, but he controlled the +impulse to protest. Indeed, there was a note in Lydia's voice that +brought a lump into his throat. He could not have protested had he +dared. + +Irene had sent for a glass of water; Lydia partook of it, and then, +raising her voice, proceeded: + +"Ever since I was restored to my home I have kept silence, because I +felt--and I was so advised--that a moment would come when I should be +better understood than at a time when the public mind was inflamed by +revolution and bloodshed. As to these things, I have cruelly felt the +extent to which I was the occasion of them, but I ask you to consider +whether indeed I was the cause. And I ask you, too, not to confuse the +question raised by the cult of Demeter with those other questions for +which the rebels stood. In these last I have had no share and to them I +shall not again refer. They have no part in the question you have to +decide. To give them a part would be to do me a great wrong. + +"And as regards the cult of Demeter, there is no devouter daughter of +the cult than I; and that I should stand to-day, arrayed in the eyes of +some of you against the cult, chokes my utterance and fills my eyes with +tears. Nor should I have had strength to plead my cause with you to-day +had I not come to you leaning on one of Demeter's worthiest votaries." + +Here Lydia put her hand on Irene's shoulder, and Irene looked into her +face and smiled. + +"For in my heart there is a reverence for Demeter so profound that when +the mission was tendered to me, I felt that a cubit had been added to my +stature; I felt a strength grow in me to make what sacrifice was +needful, and as day passed day the sacrifice grew less and my strength +grew more. + +"But oh, fellow-worshippers of Demeter," and she looked here at the part +of the hall where the irreconcilables had grouped themselves, "do not +frown on me when I say that there was also in my heart another +reverence, another strength, of which I was not sufficiently aware; and +in your faith in the cult you serve, do not blind yourself to that other +cult to which, whether we will or no, we are all--yes, all--subject. We +may harden our hearts to it, we may bring it as a sacrifice upon your +altar, but if it has once grown deep enough, it overpowers all the +rest--I am not ashamed to say it here--before you who ask mercy for +Chairo and you who ask for his destruction, I am not ashamed to publish +it to all the world--stronger than reverence for Demeter, stronger than +the unutterable honor of the Demetrian mission--is the love of a woman +for a man." + +She paused; there was no applause, but the breathless silence that +reigned bore a higher tribute to the impression made than any spoken +word or gesture. + +"And when love came it brought with it a sense of duty to another, so +that I no longer stood merely between Demeter and my love, I stood also +between Demeter and Chairo"--a loud murmur of disapproval greeted these +words. Lydia, however, went bravely on. "But I looked with suspicion +upon an argument that so favored my own inclination, and believing duty +to lie in resistance to inclination rather than in consent to it, I +strangled my love, and with a pride in my own sacrifice that was false +and bad I accepted the mission." + +Again a murmur of disapproval filled the hall. This time Lydia +acknowledged it by turning to the corner whence it came. + +"Yes, I repeat it--with a pride in my own sacrifice that was false and +bad--for it gave me strength to do a thing that was wrong! What is +heroic in one is vanity in another. And I thank you for that expression +of disapproval that reminds me to distinguish those to whom it is an +ugly hypocrisy. There are women--and may their names be blessed--who, +before their hearts have been kindled by love, bear within them a +capacity for sacrifice and a longing for maternity which makes of them +fitting subjects for the Demetrian mission; but when a woman has once +harbored the young God Eros, when she has by implication, if not by +express promise, sanctioned the harboring of him in another, then the +strength that can disown her love and break that promise is drawn from a +vanity that is foolish, or a conceit that is contemptible; and as I look +back to the day when, after weeks of weakening struggle, I arose from +the bed of torment strangely endowed with a strength that enabled me to +make unmoved my final vows, I see that my strength came not from Demeter +but from self-righteousness and self-conceit. And I make this bitter +confession before you all that the fault may rest where it should, not +upon you, priests and priestesses of Demeter"--and here she looked up at +the gallery where they sat--"not upon him"--and she turned almost +imperceptibly to Chairo--"but upon me." + +Her voice sank as she said these words, and there broke from many of us +a murmur of sympathy. + +"But these things," she continued in a louder voice, "are of little +importance by the side of what I have yet to say. Pardon me, if I have +had to speak of myself; it is not often--and, indeed, it is distressful +that so private a thing as this should become matter of public concern. +But you have to decide an issue in which the conduct of one least worthy +of your attention has become set up, as it were, before you as the +conduct of all my sex. It is not I that am judged, but all who are +unworthy of the mission--or shall I not rather say--unfitted for it. For +though I am willing--nay, desire--to accept my full share of blame, yet +am I not willing that my sex shall in my person be judged less worthy +than it is. Believe me, that noble as is the mission of Demeter, noble +also is the love of a woman for a man, and though I bow my head as I +confess my unfitness for the one, in vindication of the other I hold my +head erect." + +She straightened herself at these words, and her stature helped to give +to this vindication both dignity and strength. There was something +splendid in the gesture, the emphasis, and the inflection with which +these words were said. For the first time Lydia's speech was here +interrupted by applause; it began far away from her and was soon caught +up by others, it swelled through the building, and feelings long pent +up in hushed attention to her now found relief in an expression of +triumphant approval; a few in their excitement rose to their feet, then +more, till all, except Chairo, who remained resolutely seated, stood +wildly gesticulating their admiration for the girl who had the courage +to face them in vindication of a love upon which some had wished to +throw disgrace, but which now she held up to universal honor. + +The applause lasted several minutes; if it died away in one corner it +was vociferously renewed in another, and when at last, out of very +weariness, it came to an end, Lydia resumed: + +"But all I have said is but a preface to what I have still to say: I +have spoken to you of myself, but what shall I say to you of Chairo? I +have told you of a duty I felt to him, but to every duty is there not a +corresponding right? And if Chairo had rights does he not stand, too, +for the rights of all his sex?" + +Once more the chamber rang with renewed applause, and Chairo for the +first time raised his head and looked at Lydia. Now at last she had +lifted the subject to a level which eliminated him. He was no longer the +issue; she was speaking for all men, for the rights universal of +manhood, which the cult had, in his case, ignored and must at last be +vindicated. + +"I have told you that by implication, if not by express words, Chairo +had reason to know I loved him; was he to stand by and see the rights I +had given him denied, rights for which he has stood, not for himself +alone, but for all men long before his own became involved? He stands +charged here with sacrilege and with violence. Mr. Speaker, and +gentlemen of the legislature, so far as I am concerned, he is guilty of +neither the one nor the other." + +A deep murmur passed through the chamber as Lydia's voice impressively +lowered on these final words. + +"Had the woman he snatched from Demeter's sanctuary been indeed fitted +for it, then he would have been guilty of both. But he knew I was not +fitted for it, he knew that I belonged to him, he knew that once I felt +his presence in my room I would consent--_and I consented_." + +Chairo, whose eyes had remained riveted on Lydia ever since he raised +them, now lowered them again, and he covered his face with his hands. +That so sacred a thing to him as Lydia and his love for her should be +dragged into a public discussion was cruel to him, but that the story +should be told as Lydia told it, filled his heart with a mixture of +triumph and bitterness he could not endure to show. + +"And so, Mr. Speaker, with my confession of consent, the charge against +Chairo of sacrilege and violence falls to the ground. As to those who +against his bidding sought to rescue their leader from his bonds I have +this to say: When there shall have disappeared from the hearts of men +the loyalty, devotion, and sacrifice that prompted an act of violence +forever to be deplored, then let this world and all that is in it +disappear from the constellations of God. They erred, but they erred in +a cause they believed to be righteous, and I protest--I plead the state +is strong enough to grant them pardon. + +"Every institution, human and divine, has to pay a price for the +blessings it bestows--_dura lex sed lex_. Eventually, perhaps, wisdom +may so increase among us that the price all pay shall grow less and +less; eventually, the mission may be neither offered to nor accepted by +those unfit for it; perhaps, indeed, the events of last month may +contribute to this wisdom, but to-day, O priests and priestesses of +Demeter, join with me in the prayer to our legislators that they do not, +by visiting on these men too severely the consequences of their errors, +bring discredit upon a cult so precious and so noble as that of the +goddess you serve. Great is Demeter! But great also is Eros. May wisdom +so guide your counsels that Eros, no longer tempted to destroy the +altars of Demeter, may strengthen them and build them up, and so, +through continence and sacrifice, remain for us as beautiful as he is +strong!" + +Lydia bowed her head over these words and gave her hand to Irene. We all +sat motionless; not a sound was heard as they slowly turned and +proceeded to leave the chamber. Then, with one accord, we rose, and in a +breathless silence the two women passed out. + +We resumed our seats, and for some minutes no one spoke. At last Arkles +moved that, in view of the remarkable and touching words they had just +heard, the joint session adjourn for the day. "For," he added, "neither +I, nor apparently any of my colleagues, are able or willing by any word +of our own to efface or modify the impression they have left upon us." + +"You have heard the motion," said the speaker. "In the absence of a +dissenting voice the session will adjourn for the day." Not a voice was +heard; we rose and left the chamber in silence. + + + + +CONCLUSION + + +My narrative has now come to a close: an amnesty bill was passed that +included every person charged, except Neaera, and deprived Chairo of his +political rights until the legislature should by a joint resolution +restore them; the editor arrested for libel was found guilty and +committed to a penal colony. + +Lydia married Chairo. And Anna of Ann did not visit on Ariston his +indifference too heavily, but her nuptials were darkened by the absence +of Harmes. Out of a bold and crooked game Neaera had secured this one +small satisfaction. + + + + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY A. BONNER, + 1 & 2, TOOK'S COURT, E.C. + + (_All Rights Reserved._) + + + Transcriber's Note: + _Underscores_ have been used to indicate _italic_ fonts. + Inconsistent hyphenation has been left as written. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Woman Who Vowed, by Ellison Harding + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMAN WHO VOWED *** + +***** This file should be named 37821.txt or 37821.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/8/2/37821/ + +Produced by Anna Hall and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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