|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 50
The smile refreshed her courage, for she came nearer and made a
sideways movement with her arm, apparently with the expectation that
it would pass through the stalwart young man as readily as through the
air. On encountering solid substance, she drew startled back, half in
alarm and wholly in surprise. Balder had felt her touch, first as a
benediction; then it chilled him, through remembrance of a deed
forever debarring him from aught so pure and innocent as she. The
subtleties of his philosophy might have cajoled him anywhere save in
her presence. There, he felt unmistakably guilty; yet from irrational
dread that she, whose intuitions seemed so swift and deep, might grasp
the cause of his discomposure, he strove to hide it. Last of all the
world should she know his crime!
Scarce two minutes since their meeting, yet perhaps a large proportion
of their lives had meanwhile been charmed away. No word had been
spoken,--eyes had superseded tongues. Nay, was ordinary conversation
possible with a young goddess such as this? So perfect seemed her
mastery over those profounder elements of intercourse underlying
speech, which are higher and more direct than the mechanism of
articulate words, that perhaps the latter method was unknown to her.
Nevertheless, one must say something. But what?--with what sentence of
supreme significance should he begin? Moreover, what language should
he use? for she, whose look and bearing were so alien to the land and
age, might likewise be a stranger to modern dialects. But Aryan or
Semitic was not precisely at the tip of Balder's tongue!
In the midst of his embarrassment, the startling note of the hoopoe
pierced his ear, and precipitated him into asking that great elemental
question which all created things are forever putting to one
another,--
"What is your name?"
XVIII.
THE HOOPOE AND THE CROCODILE.
"Gnulemah!" she answered, laying a finger on the head of her golden
serpent, and uttering the name as though it were of the only woman in
the world.
But the next moment she found time to realize that something
unprecedented had occurred, and her wonder trembled on the brink of
dismay.
"Speaks in my language!" she exclaimed below her breath; "but is not
Hiero."
Until Balder's arrival, then, Hiero would seem to have been the only
talking animal she had known. The singularity of this did not at first
strike the young man. Gnulemah was the arch-wonder; yet she so fully
justified herself as to seem very nature; and by dint of her magic
reality, what else had been wonderful seemed natural. Balder was in
fairy-land.
He fell easily into the fairy-land humor.
"I am a being like yourself," said he, with a smile; "and not dumb
like your plants and animals."
"Understood!--answered!" exclaimed Gnulemah again, in a tremor. As
morning spreads up the sky, did the sweet blood flow outward to warm
her face and neck. As the blush deepened, her eyelids fell, and she
shielded her beautiful embarrassment with her raised hands. A pathos
in the simple grace of this action drew tears unawares to Balder's
eyes.
What was in her mind? what might she be? Had she lived always in this
enchanted spot, companionless (for poor old Hiero could scarcely serve
her turn) and ignorant perhaps that the world held other beings
endowed like herself with human gifts? Had she vainly sought
throughout nature for some kinship more intimate than nature could
yield her, and thus at length fancied herself a unique, independently
created soul, imperial over all things? Since her whole world was
comprised between the wall and the river, no doubt she believed the
reality of things extended no further.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|