Dipnoi

“ Doris was asleep, a warm comfortable bunch, with its round head in the hollow of Daphne’s arm.
“She had all the keys, the big keys and the little keys and the middle-sized keys,” said St. Hilary, “and she counted them, and counted them, and counted them, and—— The dear’s asleep. Now we can talk—about everything in the world—can’t we?”
They did talk. Daphne talked as she had never talked before. You can’t pour out a pint of wine, without silly waste, till you find a pint measure to pour it into. Daphne had found the measure, and the measure rejoiced at the pure new wine that filled it. ”

“ Seddon’s voice went on and on. A spout of hot scented smoke came from the mouth of the bronze dragon. “And the supreme moment,” he was saying, “when we can bow the head before your work, and offer, in silence, the tribute of the wine-god to the divine in man—the transcendent in human genius.”
“You are an excellent old ass,” said Henry, without moving his lips, and so low that only two heard him.
Seddon smiled with his lips only, as one who must smile or burst into tears. Daphne smiled—but only with her eyes. ”

“ For a moment there was a look in the Captain's eye which seemed to indicate annoyance, but the next instant he smiled.
"As if there were any parallel!" said he. "Matters of love are absolutely different, my good friend." Then he went on very carelessly, "The candle 's low. Why don't you light your lantern?"
"That rascal Paul threw it away, and I had n't time to get it." No expression, save a mild concern, appeared on Captain Dieppe's face, although he had discovered a fact of peculiar interest to him. "The candle will last as long as we shall want it," pursued Guillaume. ”

“ Finally, the moment for candour had slipped by: you cannot allow a man to explain a locality by means of forks and knives and pieces of bread and then inform him that you were all the while acquainted with its features. Dieppe was silent, and the Count, who was obviously upset by the recital of his grievances, presently withdrew to his study, a room on the upper floor which looked out on the gardens at the back of the house. ”

“ In drawing a contrast between the Countess and this shameless woman the last remembrance of the Countess's peccadilloes faded from his indignant mind. He quickened his pace a little, as a man does when he has reached a final decision. He crossed the bridge, ascended the hill on which the Castle stood, and came opposite to the little gate which the Count himself had opened to him on that first happy—or unhappy—night on which he had become an inmate of the house.
Even as he came to it, it opened, and the Count's servant ran out. In a moment he saw Dieppe and called to him loudly and gladly. ”

“ For an instant the Captain hesitated. But Guillaume lay very still; and Guillaume had no quarrel with the Countess. His indecision soon ended, Dieppe ran, as if for his life, up the slope to the top of the hill. He disappeared; all was left dark and quiet at the hut; Guillaume did not stir, the lady did not stir; only the door, released from its confinement, began to flap idly to and fro again. ”

“ But come, though I don't think you a beggar, you shall be sure that I am one." He rose and laid his hand on Dieppe's shoulder. "Stay with me for to-night at least—and for as much longer as you will. Nobody will trouble you. I live in solitude, and your society will lighten it. Let me ring and give orders for your entertainment?"
Dieppe looked up at him; the next moment he caught his hand, crying, "With all my heart, dear host! Your only difficulty shall be to get rid of me."
The Count rang, and directed his servant to prepare the Cardinal's Room. ”

“ But now—well, in the first place, Dieppe was evidently not a humane man, and in the second, here was this pestilent river flooded to the edge of its banks, and presenting the most doubtful passage which had ever by the mockery of language been misnamed a ford. He was indeed between the devil and the deep sea—that devil of a Dieppe and the deep sea of the ford on the road from Sasellano. What was to be done?
The days of chivalry are gone; and the days of hanging or beheading for unnecessary or unjustified homicide are with us, to the great detriment of romance. ”

“ In the Vale of Tempe, which lies far north of Delphi, there lived a young girl whose name was Daphne. She was a strange child, wild and shy as a fawn, and as fleet of foot as the deer that feed on the plains. But she was as fair and good as a day in June, and none could know her but to love her.
Daphne spent the most of her time in the fields and woods, with the birds and blossoms and trees; and she liked best of all to wander along the banks of the River Peneus, and listen to the ripple of the water as it flowed among the reeds or over the shining pebbles. ”

“ Diccon, standing behind him, bit his nails and stared at the floor.
“For myself I care not overmuch,” ended the minister. “I scorn not life, but think it at its worst well worth the living; yet when my God calls me, I will go as to a gala day and triumph. You are a soldier, Captain Percy, you and Diccon here, and know how to die. You too, my Lord Carnal, are a brave man, though a most wicked one. For us four, we can drink the cup, bitter though it be, with little trembling. ”

“ There shall ye find the bitch-fox and the nee'le together.
Do as I bid you, man, come on your ways hither!
Doctor Rat. Art thou sure, Diccon, the swill-tub stands not hereabout?
Diccon. I was within myself, man, even now, there is no doubt.
Go softly, make no noise; give me your foot, sir John,
Here will I wait upon you, till you come out anon.
[D. Rat creeps in.
Doctor Rat [calling from within] . Help, Diccon! out alas! I shall be slain among them!
Diccon. If they give you not the needle, tell them that ye will hang them. ”

“ Dieppe began.
"The kindness will be yours. Company is a favour to one who lives alone."
And the Count proceeded to give the necessary orders to his servant. Then, turning again to Dieppe, he said, "In return, pray let me know the name of the gentleman who honours my house."
"I can refuse nothing to my host—to anybody else my name is the only thing I should refuse. I am called Captain Dieppe." ”

“ Come where I can see you; come into the light.”
“It is my cousin,” said Daphne; and Miss Claringbold moved forward. “You met her at my rooms, don’t you remember?”
“How are you?” she said.
“I am ill,” he said pitifully. “I suffer. But—who is this—it is not your cousin. This woman has been in prison—I have been in prison, and this woman also.”
“Daphne,” said Miss Claringbold on a note of horror.
“Sh!” said Daphne. “Don’t you see how ill he is?”
“You think I do not know?” said Vorontzoff—“I who have passed so many years shut out from the free sky. I see the look in her eyes. ”

“ The house was comfortably furnished, the room she shared with Doris had none of the chill shabbiness of that lodging-house room. But the atmosphere almost choked her. It was like a prison, she thought.
“Nasty, nasty house,” said the Dormouse, as her hands were being washed. “Nasty aunts, nasty uncle. Daffy, let’s elope or go back to school.”
“I wish we could,” said Daphne’s heart. But Daphne said: “It will be all right when we’re used to it, my Dormouse. You see if it isn’t.”
“Cousin Jane may be,” said the Dormouse, “but not Aunt Emily. She’d never be nice, however used to her you got.” ”

“ Dieppe answered with a smile. "It is not, I believe, your garden?" His emphasis on "your" came very near to an assertion of proprietorship in himself. "Pray, sir, to what am I indebted for the honour of this meeting?" The Captain was enjoying this unexpected encounter with his supposed pursuer. Apparently the pursuer did not know him. Very well; he would take advantage of that bit of stupidity on the part of the pursuer's superior officers. It was like them to send a man who did n't know him! "You wish to see some one in the house?" he asked, looking at Paul's angry and puzzled face. ”

“ The Captain stood and looked up, and Monsieur Guillaume, who had overheard his little soliloquy and discovered from it a fact of great interest to himself, seized the opportunity of rising from behind his bush and stealing off down the hill after Paul de Roustache.
"Ah," thought the Captain, as he gazed at the window, "if there were no such thing as honour or loyalty, as friendship—"
"Sir," said a timid voice at his elbow.
Dieppe shot round, and then and there lost his heart. One sight of her a man might endure and be heart-whole, not two. ”

“ Daphne jumped out, pushed much more than his fare into the hand of the man as he stood rubbing his forehead and cursing his horse and his luck, put up the umbrella, and started to walk what was left of the way. It was much longer than she had thought it would be. The drive had been such a horrible drive—so long, so long, so long. The last time she had come that way she had travelled by the District Railway, and the distance had been nothing. She plodded on through the rain. Her ankles were wet now, so were the skirts that flapped against them. ”

“ Daphne gave her hand, at long arm’s length.
“Promise me,” he said, “that since I’m not to play at fairy princesses with you, no one else shall. For a year. Promise me that. I’ve no earthly right to ask it of you. And that’s why you’ll give me what I ask. You will, won’t you, my little-girl-princess?”
“No one else will ever want to,” said Daphne, because she could think of nothing else to say. ”

“ The key that Marie Thibault’s brother had got made from a wax impression of the key that blinked in the sun on the wall of the portress’s lodge lay in Daphne’s deep under-pocket. And her heart was glad every time she felt its secret weight jog her knee.
Madame’s surveillance was strict; she thought that she knew everything in her girls’ lives. And, indeed, she did know most things till Daphne came to her kingdom—Daphne, whose father was a bookworm, whose grandfather was an explorer, whose great-grandfather was a lieutenant at Trafalgar. ”

“ It is time for us to reveal what we have so long concealed. Whatever may become of our herds and all that belongs to us, though I myself be left without employment, like an old ox in the stall (as the saying is) , I swear by Pan and the Nymphs that I will no longer keep the history of Daphnis a secret. I will tell how and where I found him exposed, I will explain how he was nursed, and I will show the tokens which were left with him. That vile Gnatho shall be enlightened concerning the youth whom he would fain carry away. All that I ask of you is to have the tokens ready! ”

“ I’ve hardly seen anything of his, but I like the ones I have seen.”
“He must be pretty good if his work’s going to count for anything beside Vorontzoff’s,” said St. Hilary—“or perhaps our excellent Russian wants a foil.”
“I didn’t think you were like that,” said Daphne, simply.
“I’m not, of course,” St. Hilary obligingly explained. “Do you never say things just to annoy other people?”
“No,” said Daphne—“at least——”
“Exactly,” said he, “so you understand. Look here, princess, all the green chestnut dreams are shattered to bits, scattered to the winds. It’s all over. ”

“ They won’t be all dead of oldness before then, will they, Daffy?”
“Don’t.” Daphne put her hand over the child’s mouth, but the mouth wriggled itself away to shout: “You are nasty, all of you. Cats! And Uncle Harold is the cattiest cat of all!”
“Don’t cry,” said Daphne, setting the Dormouse down on the bed; “its own Daffy will come back almost directly, and you shall have all the pretty pretties to play with. Don’t cry!”
“I’m not,” said Doris, winking hard. “I’d scorn to. But you’ll come back soon. Oh, no! ”

“ Daphne pursued relentlessly. “It was too bad!”
“Well, all men are brothers, you know, especially if they’re English; and if a lie is a thing that deceives, that wasn’t a lie—your little sister took care of that? ‘Qui est-ce?’ It was a wonderful moment.”
“Qui est-ce?” said Doris again. She had explored, and would explore again, but in a whirling rest-moment she had come to lean on Daphne’s knee and pull at her collar with pinky-black fingers.
“How do you do?” said St. Hilary, gravely, holding out a large hand in which the pinky paw was swallowed up. ”

“ When you are as young as I am, you’ll understand and forgive me, Miss Carmichael. It was so delightful to play a part that wasn’t the English master’s.”
“Yes, I know,” said Daphne, eager to show that she deserved these confidences. “Life would be dreadful if one didn’t play at things.” ”

“ Guillaume smiled contemptuously at this useless bravado, for such it seemed to him. It did not occur to his mind that Dieppe had anything to gain—or even a bare chance of gaining anything—by protracting the conversation. But in fact the Captain was making observations—first of the candle, secondly of the number and position of the trusses of straw.
"Are you in a position to call any proposition impossible?" Guillaume asked.
"It's quite true that I can't make use of my revolver," agreed the Captain. "But on the other hand you don't, I presume, intend to murder me? ”

“ Someone who needs you, I mean, and that you’re fond of?”
“Yes, indeed,” said Daphne, heartily. “I’m awfully glad. I think it’s splendid. I didn’t know Russians had so much sense.”
“It isn’t as though we were the same age,” Cousin Jane insisted. “Why, he might almost have been my—my son, if I had ever been married.” And her face was warm and pink.
Daphne made a strong effort and said brightly and lovingly.
“It’s absolutely the one thing that was wanted to complete my happiness—to see you settled in life. And I think your Petia’s the luckiest Russian dog that ever was.” ”