Dian

“ I’m sorry that I left the cellar when you trusted me to stay,” he said.
Dian held him at arm’s length, smiling the smile that seemed to transfigure him, bringing a radiance to his face.
“Yes, you did wrong. We all do. It is true that you are like the first Lisle. Listen, my child, there are great things for you to know. Awake to them! Think of the protection that has been with you and yours. You will see.” As he spoke, Dian went to the panel, and kneeling, opened it. ”

“ In the pleasant after-midnight we embark, and when the dawn reddens in the sky we land." Dian had not merely an artistic eye to his well-formed darling, but also a tender interest in him, because he had often, in Blumenbühl, where he had business as public architect, been the friend and guide of his childhood and youth, and because now on the island he must tear himself from his arms for some time and be absent at Rome. ”

“ Dian shut his eyes and stood for a few moments with his head bowed over his clasped hands. He was giving thanks for the long, warm summer days, the comfort of the stars at night, and the confidence of his sheep as he led them home at sundown. The noise of the city was all about him. Wild voices were singing the “Ça Ira,” the song of the revolution, rough, ragged groups of men and women in scarlet caps jostled past him. There were sounds of pounding and hammering everywhere, and he could hear the clanging of anvils from near-by forges. ”

“ You and your young tramp of a friend can keep inside. You’d never have gotten through to-day if I’d been on guard.”
Dian never knew how he passed the next few minutes. His Little Mademoiselle, the wildest, dirtiest little vagabond imaginable, was hugging him, whispering through soft sobs, “Dian, Dian, Dian.” Jean Barbette, a dusty, smutty-nosed boy, if ever there was one, held tight to his hand, fairly jumping for joy. Dian felt his heart give a great leap when he heard the guard call out “Vivi.” He himself had thought at first that Marie Josephine was Vivi. ”

“ Then he turned to the market gardener. “I know a boy who will drive your cart to-morrow, if you like. He lives in a cellar, and is in dire straits. He will be only too glad of earning even a few coins, for he has a journey before him, and a mother and sisters dependent upon him. I’d like to do him the good turn.”
Now Dian was a prime favorite with the market gardener, who was constantly wrangling with the men he knew in the city, though he cared not a fig for any of them except the seed shopman. He admired Dian’s bulk and his free, fearless ways. “There’s a man for you,” he would say. ”

“ Do you remember when Dian rescued him and brought him to the sheepfold? I can just see him now, lying on the shelf with his funny beak open.” Marie Josephine stroked the crow gently, and Pince Nez winked impudently.
Jean was sitting in the shadow, and as Marie Josephine went on speaking, his eyes grew rounder and rounder!
“We must always remember what friends we have been and be happy about it. You will grow to be a fine man, Jean. I am sure of that. You must always help Grigge. Dian would wish you to.” ”

“ Well, it's no use telling you how you look, Dian, for I am sure you know it so well yourself; the fact of your own magnificent charm is so apparent that it is nonsense for anyone to try and flatter you. ”

“ She was now sitting; and he beside her. Mechanically she had taken up some embroidery--to shield her eyes. He examined the reds and blues of the pattern, the white fingers, the bending cheek. Suddenly, like Sir James Chide or Hugh Roughsedge, he was struck with a sense of change. The Dian look which matched her name, the proud gayety and frankness of it, were somehow muffled and softened. And altogether her aspect was a little frail and weary. The perception brought with it an appeal to the protective strength of the man. What were her cares? Trifling, womanish things! ”

“ It is awful to think of the winter’s coming. What shall I do without you, Dian! No one will have aught to do with me but you.” Grigge turned up the frayed collar of his poor jacket as he spoke, for the chill air swirled about him unmercifully.
“You are to be a man while I am away. Try to be brave and to add a little comfort to the lives of your poor mother and your brothers and sisters. Go to your aunt for counsel. She is a good woman and means well by you all.” Dian lifted his sack as he spoke and threw it over his shoulder. ”

“ This would be an easy enough task if the comtesse were at home, but something told Dian that she was not.
It was so dark by the time he reached its gates that he could see the house only vaguely. A fine sleet was falling, and there was something sad about the aspect of the whole place. Dian walked up the marble steps to the great iron door and pulled the silken cord. He heard a loud clang echoing through 155 the great house, but, although he waited for a long time, no one opened the door. ”

“ They burned down the château of the Comte d’Veraux night before last. They have this place in mind. The people do not love Les Vignes. Your own cousins are with the rabble!”
Grigge stood with the note in his hand, looking up at Champar.
“He says to consult with you in case of danger,” he gasped. It was more than for a moment he could sense or understand. Here was word from Dian. He was trusted to fulfill a mission—trusted! Dian had chosen him. He had written, “I trust you!” Whatever he did he would do like Champar, for Dian’s sake! ”

“ Dian and Humphrey had passports, being citizens, one of France, the other one of England. There had been no trouble about them. Dian’s parents, who were not living, were known to have been good, honest citizens in their day, who had been oppressed by the aristocrats. He himself was a shepherd. Humphrey was a farmer who had been in France on a holiday. They would pass out at the gates after the children had gone through.
And how was that to be done? The little Vivi again. Georges Fardou, her friend, was on guard at sundown. ”

“ What would those who trusted him say if they knew that he had sent this important note to the miserable boy who lived in a hovel at the gates of Les Vignes? Dian, in his wisdom, knew that he had done well. He had spent many a night in Pigeon Valley, when his eyes were blurred with weariness, teaching Grigge to read and write. He had kept up the boy’s courage when he had been in despair, and had given him a hold on life. He had strengthened his love for young and helpless animals. He trusted him now to do this one great service.
“The little Vivi is late. ”

“ She is waiting for a man as great, as noble and as pure-minded as herself. A great many men, as well as a great many women, are virtuous in action because they fear society or God's punishment. But Dian is pure in every thought and every act. Nothing low or vile could so much as reach her outer personality. She is well-educated and as intelligent as a girl of her age could well be. ”

“ Raoul ran on up the steps three at a time, just as Dian had said he would. When he was well on in front, Dian took a small notebook and a piece of charcoal from the inner pocket of his cloak and, placing the book against the tapestry wall at the side of the stairs, wrote these words:
“Tear this after reading. Lisle is imprisoned in the bakery shop at rue Saint Honoré. I shall find a way to save him and to save you. Mademoiselle de Soigné is safe with friends. Keep up your courage. Dian.” ”

“ In the waste Pontine marshes, wherein only buffaloes thrive and men grow pale, Dian sought for all sorts of amusement, and even drew forth his letter-case, in order to get over the last fishing-water of the papal territory, out of the reach of Peter's fisherman successors, without falling into a deadly sleep. ”

“ Towering behind them, his grey cloak wrapt close about him, hatless, and with the breath of fields and woods that seemed always to hover mysteriously about him, was Dian!
“I’ve brought in a man from the farmlands. He met up with the boy, Raoul. He’s a shepherd and he’s new to the city. He went to a sitting of the convention last night and spoke some good words, but those fools wouldn’t listen to him,” said the 190 market gardener. Having donated the pigs and potatoes and the cake for the feast, he felt at liberty to bring in whom he pleased to partake of it. ”

“ He hesitated a moment and then he colored all over his honest face as he went on, “I’m none too proud of taunting the funny fat man at the West Barricade.”
Dian smiled. “It was not a thing of which to be proud, that I’m bound to say. One can go far if one 233 has Humphrey Trail for a friend. The best thing for you to do, if you are sorry, is to tell him so. Mayhap you’ll be able to do something to atone for it one day! As for a walk, I’ll be glad to go out with you. There’s too much talking here, words that do nothing and mean less.” ”

“ When at length the knowledge of what had occurred came over her, Diane looked round the familiar room, as though to bring her senses back out of the realm of the incredible. When her eyes rested on him it was simply to include him among the common facts of earth after this excursion into the impossible. She said nothing, and her face was blank; but the little gesture of the hands—the little limp French gesture: the sudden lift, the sudden drop, the soft, tired sound, as the arms fell against the sides—implied fatality, finality, inexplicability, and an infinite weariness of created things. ”

“ It would not be the truth to say that dignified Dian felt no inner pang of jealousy as she uttered these generous sentiments. There stirred in her heart a very indistinct wish to know the exact condition of her friend John Stevens' affections. Curiosity in a woman is not always a common thing, but if once roused, it is apt to be a very strong motive.
That night there rode into Provo the Governor of Utah, accompanied by a strong posse of Utah militia. He had come to expostulate with Brigham Young, and to induce him to return to Salt Lake City. ”

“ The time has come to go to the Church, Diane; allow me to escort you to the great gallery, Madame, and then I will see you again at the tilting, and at the games in the afternoon. And if you are not too much incensed with me for my tyrannical conduct, perhaps you will condescend to applaud my strokes with the lance, and my passades, my fair umpire. ”

“ And you'd be her first flying man."
Even as I spoke I had a misgiving. It came like a cramp in the heart. Di's nickname seemed to whisper itself in my ear: "Diana the Huntress—Diana the Huntress!" I didn't want her to shoot her arrow through this man's heart, because—well—just because. But they would have to meet if he were not to be lost to me, since he refused to be a partner in fibs. The idea seemed exactly the chance I had been looking for; and if the invitation came through me, provided I were included by the ambassadress, I didn't see how Di and Father could leave me out. ”

“ She was on that day the most popular music-hall artist in Paris. Like Jean, she was Diane and yet not Diane. Her beautiful, mysterious dark eyes were unchanged, her frank, sweet smile was the same, but she was Mademoiselle Dorian, not merely Diane, or worse still, Skinny; that expressed it all. She had eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; she knew the great, ugly, beautiful, laughing, weeping, snarling, generous, wicked, pious world; she was able to take care of herself; she could stand upon her feet and look the ferocious human race in the eye as Una faced the lion. ”

“ Diane, however, so long as she had it in her power—that is to say, until 1559, when the King died—did everything she could to introduce a taste for magnificent and sumptuous bindings into France; to eclipse once and for all time the efforts of every book-lover who had preceded her. In a measure she succeeded, and certainly no good books come to us, when they come at all, which is but seldom, breathing more of romance than these volumes which Diane treasured till her dying day, in spite of Court frowns and persecution. ”

“ Sweet scents were in the air; faintly from far away he heard the music of a horn, and then a beautiful voice spoke close to his ear:
“‘Fear not, Dinocrates,’ he heard, ‘for thou hast ever been a worshipper of all the truth and beauty thou hast known. Thou hast striven to place me in a seat of honour, and thy work has not been in vain. The day will come when another god shall reign in that last temple, the work of thy hands—a merciful god who shall triumph over the false Diana worshipped by the Ephesians. And I, too, the Diana thou hast adored, shall be no more a goddess worshipped by men. ”

“ They continued to stand staring into each other's eyes—the width of the room between them. A red azalea on the long mahogany table, strewn with books, separated them by its fierce splash of color. The apathy of Diane's voice was not that of worn-out emotion, but of emotion which finds no adequate tones. The very way in which her inquiry ignored all other subjects between them had its poignancy.
"What do you think?"
"Oh, I suppose he did. Every one says so; then why shouldn't it be true? ”

“ For to-day she sang with all that tender, unaffected sweetness, all that passionate intensity that was part of her strange self.
"Diana," said his lordship gravely, "God has entrusted you with a great and beneficent power; you have a rare and wonderful voice such as might stir mankind to loftier thought and nobler ideal and thus make the world a better place. ”