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Page 68
Gnulemah was thus made the touchstone of Balder's morality. He stood
ready to abide by her decision. Her understanding of the case should
first be made full; then, if condemned by her look, he would publish
his crime to the world, and suffer its penalty. But should her eyes
absolve him, then was crime an illusion, evil but undeveloped good,
the stain of blood a prejudice, and Cain no outcast, but the venerable
forefather of true freedom.
Unsearchable is the heart of man. Balder had looked forward to
condemnation with a wholesome solemnity which cheered while it
chastened him. But the thought of acquittal, and at Gnulemah's hands,
appalled him. The implicit consequences to humanity seemed more
formidable than the worst which condemnation could bring upon himself.
So much had he lately changed his point of view, that only the fear of
seeing his former creed confirmed could have now availed to stifle his
confession.
But that fear did not much disquiet him; he trusted too deeply in his
judge to believe that she would justify it. In short, Gnulemah was in
his opinion right-minded, exactly in proportion as she should convict
him of being in the wrong. Balder resigned the helm of his vessel,
laden as she was with the fruits of years of thought and speculation,
at the critical moment of her voyage,--resigned her to the guidance of
a woman's unreasoning intuition. He might almost as well have averred
that the highest reach of intellect is to a perception of the better
worth and wisdom of an unlearned heart.
XXIII.
BALDER TELLS AN UNTRUTH.
By way of enheartening himself for what he was to do, Balder kissed
the posy of Gnulemah's fragrant footsteps. He kept his eyes down, lest
she should see something in them to distract her attention from his
story. He must go artfully to work,--gain her assent to the abstract
principles before marshalling them against himself.
Meanwhile Gnulemah had picked up a gold beetle, and was examining it
with a certain grave interest.
"I never told you how I came by this ring of Hiero's. It was the night
before I first saw you, Gnulemah."
"The ring guided you to me!" said she, glancing at his downcast
visage.
"Perhaps it did!" he muttered, struck by the ingenious superstition;
and he eyed the keen diamond half suspiciously. How fiercely the
little serpents were struggling for it! "But Hiero--he has lost it,
and you will see him no more!"
"You are with me!" returns she, shining out at him from beneath her
level brows. What should she know of death and parting?
Balder still forbore to raise his face. Gnulemah was in a frolicsome
humor, the reaction of her foregoing solemnity. But Balder, who deemed
this hour the gravest of his life, was taken aback by her unseasonable
gayety. Casting about for means to sober her,--an ungracious thing for
a lover to do!--he hit upon the gold beetle.
"Dead; the poor little beetle! Do you know what death is, Gnulemah?"
"It is what makes life. The sun dies every night, to get life for the
morning. And trees die when cold comes, so as to smile out in green
leaves again,--greener than if there had been no death. So it is with
all things."
"Not with everything," said Balder, taking her light-heartedness very
gravely. "That gold beetle in your hand is dead, and will never live
or move again."
But at that Gnulemah smiled; and bringing her hand, with the beetle in
it, near her perfect lips, she lent it a full warm breath,--enough to
have enlivened an Egyptian scarab�us,--and behold! the beetle spread
its wings and whizzed away. Before Balder could recover from this
unexpected refutation, the lovely witch followed up her advantage.
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