"It is the answer to your question, none the less. Now do you tell
me your name, my dear, so that I may know who in reality is the
loveliest of all the ladies I have ever seen."
The Hamadryad told him that her name was Chloris, and that she
always looked a fright with her hair arranged as it was to-day, and
that he was a strangely impudent fellow. So he in turn confessed to
her he was King Jurgen of Eubonia, drawn from his remote kingdom by
exaggerated reports as to the beauty of Queen Helen. Chloris agreed
with him that rumor was in such matters invariably untrustworthy.
This led to further talk as twilight deepened: and the while that a
little by a little this pretty girl was converted into a warm
breathing shadow, hardly visible to the eye, the shadow of Jurgen
departed from him, and he began to talk better and better. He had
seen Queen Helen face to face, and other women now seemed
unimportant. Whether or not he got into the graces of this Hamadryad
did not greatly matter, one way or the other: and in consequence
Jurgen talked with such fluency, such apposite remarks and such
tenderness as astounded him.
So he sat listening with delight to the seductive tongue of that
monstrous clever fellow, Jurgen. For this plump brown-haired
bright-eyed little creature, this Chloris, he was honestly sorry.
Into the uneventful life of a hamadryad, here in this uncultured
forest, could not possibly have entered much pleasurable excitement,
and it seemed only right to inject a little. "Why, simply in justice
to her!" Jurgen reflected. "I must deal fairly."
Now it grew darker and darker under the trees, and in the dark
nobody can see what happens. There were only two voices that talked,
with lengthy pauses: and they spoke gravely of unimportant trifles,
like children at play together.
"And how does a king come thus to be traveling without any retinue
or even a sword about him?"
"Why, I travel with a staff, my dear, as you perceive: and it
suffices me."
"Certainly it is large enough, in all conscience. Alas, young
outlander, who call yourself a king! you carry the bludgeon of a
highwayman, and I am afraid of it."
"My staff is a twig from Yggdrasill, the tree of universal life:
Thersitês gave it me, and the sap that throbs therein arises from
the Undar fountain, where the grave Norns make laws for men and fix
their destinies."
"Thersitês is a scoffer, and his gifts are mockery. I would have
none of them."
The two began to wrangle, not at all angrily, as to what Jurgen had
best do with his prized staff. "Do you take it away from me, at any
rate!" says Chloris. So Jurgen hid his staff where Chloris could not
possibly see it; and he drew the Hamadryad close to him, and he
laughed contentedly.
"Oh, oh! O wretched King," cried Chloris, "I fear that you will be
the death of me! And you have no right to oppress me in this way,
for I am not your subject."
"Rather shall you be my queen, dear Chloris, receiving all that I
most prize."
"But you are too domineering: and I am afraid to be alone with you
and your big staff! Ah! not without knowing what she talked about
did my mother use to quote her Æolic saying, The king is cruel and
takes joy in bloodshed!"
"Presently you will not be afraid of me, nor will you be afraid of
my staff. Custom is all. For this likewise is an Æolic saying, The
taste of the first olive is unpleasant, but the second is good."
Now for a while was silence save for the small secretive rumors of
the forest. One of the large green locusts which frequent the Island
of Leukê began shrilling tentatively.
"Wait now, King Jurgen, for surely I hear footsteps, and one comes
to trouble us."
"It is a wind in the tree-tops: or perhaps it is a god who envies
me. I pause for neither."
"Ah, but speak reverently of the Gods! For is not Love a god, and a
jealous god that has wings with which to leave us?"
"Then am I a god, for in my heart is love, and in every fibre of me
is love, and from me now love emanates."
"But certainly I heard somebody approaching through the forest--"
"Well, and do you not perceive I have withdrawn my staff from its
hiding-place?"
"Ah, you have great faith in that staff of yours!"
"I fear nobody when I brandish it."
Another locust had answered the first one. Now the two insects were
in full dispute, suffusing the warm darkness with their pertinacious
whirrings.
"King of Eubonia, it is certainly true, that which you told me about
olives."
"Yes, for always love begets truthfulness."
"I pray it may beget between us utter truthfulness, and nothing
else, King Jurgen."
"Not 'Jurgen' now, but 'love'."
"Indeed, they tell that even so, in such deep darkness, Love came to
his sweetheart Psychê."
"Then why do you complain because I piously emulate the Gods, and
offer unto Love the sincerest form of flattery?" And Jurgen shook
his staff at her.
"Ah, but you are strangely ready with your flattery! and Love
threatened Psychê with no such enormous staff."
"That is possible: for I am Jurgen. And I deal fairly with all
women, and raise my staff against none save in the way of kindness."
So they talked nonsense, in utter darkness, while the locusts, and
presently a score of locusts, disputed obstinately. Now Chloris and
Jurgen were invisible, even to each other, as they talked under her
oak-tree: but before them the fields shone mistily under a gold-dusted
dome, for this night seemed builded of stars. And the white towers of
Pseudopolis also could Jurgen see, as he laughed there and took his
pleasure with Chloris. He reflected that very probably Achilles and
Helen were laughing thus, and were not dissimilarly occupied, out
yonder, in this night of wonder.
He sighed. But in a while Jurgen and the Hamadryad were speaking
again, just as inconsequently, and the locusts were whirring just as
obstinately. Later the moon rose, and they all slept.
With the dawn Jurgen arose, and left this Hamadryad Chloris still
asleep. He stood where he overlooked the city and the shirt of
Nessus glittered in the level sun rays: and Jurgen thought of Queen
Helen. Then he sighed, and went back to Chloris and wakened her with
the sort of salutation that appeared her just due.
28.