"Does she say that to
live and fulfill destiny as the beautiful year does is the only good? It
is wiser not to question and weigh the worth, for even though we would
not drink, perhaps we cannot escape--since there is Fate."
John Derringham pulled himself together with an effort. He felt he was
drifting into wonderland, where the paths were too tenderly sweet and
flowered for him to dare to linger, for there he might find and quaff of
the poison cup. So he said in a voice which he strove to bring back to
earth:
"Where did you get the beautiful thing? She is of untold value, of
course you know?"
Halcyone took the marble into her hands lovingly.
"She came to me out of the night," she said. "Some day I might tell you
how--but not to-day. I must put her back again. No one knows but Cheiron
and me--and now--you--that she is in existence, and no one else must
ever know."
He did not speak; he watched her while she wrapped the head in its folds
of silk.
"Aphrodite never had so true a priestess, nor one so pure," he thought,
and a strange feeling of sadness came over him, and he thanked her
rather abruptly for showing him her treasure, and they went silently
back through Sir Timothy's rooms, and down the stair; and in the Italian
parlor he said good-by at once, and left.
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