Max Beerbohm

“ He must wear it all his life. And so, as days went by he grew reconciled to his mask. No longer did he feel it jarring on his face. It seemed to become an integral part of him, and, for all its rigid material, it did forsooth express the one emotion that filled him, true love. The face, for whose sake Jenny gave him her heart, could not but be dear to this George Heaven, also.
Every day chastened him with its joy. They lived a very simple life, he and Jenny. They rose betimes, like the birds, for whose goodness they both had so sincere a love. ”

“ Centuries ago, Vulcan tired of making so very many masks. And so Apollo sent Mercury down to Athens, to the shop of Phoron, a Phœnician mask-maker of great skill. Phoron made Apollo’s masks for many years, and every month Mercury came to his shop for a new one. When Phoron died, another artist was chosen, and, when he died, another, and so on through all the ages of the world. Conceive, my lord, my pride and pleasure when Mercury flew into my shop, one night last year, and made me Apollo’s warrant-holder. It is the highest privilege that any mask-maker can desire. ”

“ They laugh to the sound of flutes. On their long couches they lie down at last and sleep comes to kiss their eyelids. None of these things may I see. Wherefore the brightness of my beauty is even as a curse to me and I would put it from me.’ And as he wept, Vulcan said to him, ‘I am not the least cunning of the gods, nor the least pitiful. Do not weep, for I will give you that which shall end your sorrow. Nor need you put from you the brightness of your beauty.’ And Vulcan made a mask of dull silver and fastened it across his brother’s face. ”

“ Then she came back, flushed and merry under her tumbled hair, with her arm full of buns. She began to put them back in the paper bag.
“Dear husband,” she said, looking down to him, “why do not you smile too at my folly? Your grave face rebukes me. Smile, or I shall think I vex you. Please smile a little.”
But the mask could not smile, of course. It was made for a mirror of true love, and it was grave and immobile. “I am very much amused, dear,” he said, “at the fall of the buns, but my lips will not curve to a smile. Love of you has bound them in spell.” ”

“ Lord George asked.
Mr. Aeneas drew himself up to his full height, such as it was. “In Olympus, my lord,” he said, “they have no currency. For any mask-maker, so high a privilege is its own reward. Yet the sun-god is generous. He shines more brightly into my shop than into any other. Nor does he suffer his rays to melt any waxen mask made by me, until its wearer doff it and it be done with.” At this moment Julius came in with the Ripsby mask. “I must ask your lordship’s pardon, for having kept you so long,” pleaded Mr. Aeneas. ”

“ Aeneas added, with a smile, “his bright countenance made light all the darkness. Men rose from their couches or from their revels, wondering that day was so soon come, and went to their work. And Apollo sank weeping into the sea. ‘Surely,’ he cried, ‘it is a bitter thing that I alone, of all the gods, may not watch the world in the hours of night time. For in those hours, as I am told, men are even as gods are. They spill the wine and are wreathed with roses. ”

“ At this speech the Signora flushed angrily, for she was indeed no longer young, and the Dwarf had a childish face. She thought he mocked her; her eyes flashed. Lord George’s twinkled rather maliciously.
“Great is the experience of youth,” he laughed. “Pray, are you stricken with more than twenty summers?”
“With more than I can count,” said the Dwarf. “To the health of your lordship!” and he drained his long glass of wine. Lord George replenished it, and asked by what means or miracle he had acquired his mastery of the bow. ”

“ And that night, thus masked, the sun-god rose from the sea and watched the doings of mankind in the night time. Nor any longer were men abashed by his bright beauty, for it was hidden by the mask of silver. ”

“ When the operette was over, his love-sick lordship snatched up his cloak and went away without one word to the lady at his side. Rudely he brushed aside Count Karoloff and Mr. FitzClarence, with whom he had arranged to play hazard. Of his comrades, his cynicism, his reckless scorn—of all the material of his existence—he was oblivious now. He had no time for penitence or diffident delay. He only knew that he must kneel at the feet of Jenny Mere and ask her to be his wife.
“Miss Mere,” said Garble, “is in her room, resuming her ordinary attire. ”

“ As the sweet days went by, her spectre, also, grew fainter and less formidable. She knew his mask indeed, but how should she find him in the cottage near Kensington? Devia dulcedo latebrarum! He was safe hidden with his bride. As for the Italian, she might search and search—or had forgotten him, in the arms of another lover.
Yes! Few and faint became the blemishes of his honeymoon. At first, he had felt that his waxen mask, though it had been the means of his happiness, was rather a barrier ’twixt him and his bride. ”

“ Are you so good that you deny yourself all the vanity and pleasure that most people love? It is wonderful not to know what buns are! The round, brown, shiny cakes, with little raisins in them, are buns.”
So he bought two beautiful buns, and they sat together in the shop, eating them. Jenny bit hers rather diffidently, but was reassured when he said that they must have buns very often in the cottage. Yes! he, the famous toper and gourmet of St. James’s, relished this homely fare, as it passed through the insensible lips of his mask to his palate. ”

“ Aeneas.
“Proud to have served your lordship,” said that little worthy, pocketing his fee of fifty guineas, while he bowed his customer out.
When he reached the street, Lord George nearly uttered a curse through those sainted lips of his. For there, right in his way, stood La Gambogi, with a small, pink parasol. She laid her hand upon his sleeve and called him softly by his name. He passed her by without a word. Again she confronted him.
“I cannot let go so handsome a lover,” she laughed, “even though he spurn me! Do not spurn me, George. Give me your posy of wild flowers. ”

“ It seemed to cure the feverish maladies of his soul and consecrate his love. In the fair light of the dawn he began to shape the means of winning Jenny Mere, that he had conceived in the desperate hours of the night. Soon an old woodman passed by, and, with rough courtesy, showed him the path that would lead him quickest to the town. He was loth to leave the wood. With Jenny, he thought, he would live always in the country. And he picked a posy of wild flowers for her. ”

“ Bravo Saggitaro!” murmured Lord George, in the language of La Gambogi, who was at his side. Finally, the waxen figure of a man was carried on by an assistant and propped against the trunk of a tree. A scarf was tied across the eyes of the Merry Dwarf, who stood in a remote corner of the stage. Bravo indeed! For the shaft had pierced the waxen figure through the heart or just where the heart would have been, if the figure had been human and not waxen. ”

“ His lordship came straight towards the mask-shop. Once he glanced up at the Signora’s window and looked deeply annoyed when he saw her sitting there. He came quickly into the shop.
“I want the mask of a saint,” he said.
“Mask of a saint, my lord? Certainly!” said Mr. Aeneas, briskly. “With or without halo? His Grace the Bishop of St. Aldreds always wears his with a halo. Your lordship does not wish for a halo? Certainly! If your lordship will allow me to take his measurement———”
“I must have the mask today,” Lord George said. “Have you none ready-made?” ”

“ I will leave his lordship in their hands. But my plea for him will not be based upon that Candour of his, which some of his friends so much admired. There were, yes! some so weak and so wayward as to think it a fine thing to have an historic title and no scruples. “Here comes George Hell,” they would say, “How wicked my lord is looking!” Noblesse oblige, you see, and so an aristocrat should be very careful of his good name. Anonymous naughtiness does little harm. ”

“ They sat silently.
“Jenny, what is it?” he whispered suddenly. For Jenny, with wide-open eyes, was gazing over his head, across the lawn, “Why do you look frightened?”
“There is a strange woman smiling at me across the palings,” she said. “I do not know her.”
Her husband’s heart sank. Somehow, he dared not turn his head to the intruder. He dreaded who she might be.
“She is nodding to me,” said Jenny. “I think she is foreign, for she has an evil face.”
“Do not notice her,” he whispered. “Does she look evil?”
“Very evil and very dark. She has a pink parasol. Her teeth are like ivory.” ”

“ Old men love merrier company than that. Oh! I shall die in the snow with my faggots on my back. A poor life here!”
“I will give you gold tor your cottage and whatever is in it, and then you can go and live happily in the town,” Lord George said. And he took from his coat a note for two hundred guineas, and held it across the palings.
“Lovers are poor, foolish derry-docks,” the old man muttered. “But I thank you kindly, sir. This little sum will keep me cosy, as long as I last. Come into the cottage as soon as can be. It’s a lonely place and does my heart good to depart from it.” ”

“ Jupiter granted so reasonable a request, and when next Apollo had passed over the sky and hidden in the sea, and darkness had fallen on all the world, he raised his head above the waters that he might watch the doings of mankind in the hours of night time. ”

“ And he went back and asked the old man if he were not unhappy, living there alone.
“‘Tis a poor life here for me,” the old man answered. “No folk come to the wood, except little children, now and again, to play, or lovers like you. ”

“ It is pleasant to record that many persons were unobnoxious to the magic of his title and disaproved of him so strongly that, whenever he entered a room where they happened to be, they would make straight for the door and watch him very severely through the key-hole. ”