wn warm breast; and gathering
handfuls of pungent mint and the sweet-scented henna, he crushed them
and held them to the boy's nostrils. And these devices failing, he sat
disconsolate, the curves of his mobile face falling into unwonted lines
of half-weary, half-sorrowful dejection. "I know not how it may be," he
said to himself, smiling whimsically, "but I seem to have caught upon my
lips the bitter human savor of repentance."

Utter silence held the little glen. The child lay unconscious, and the
man sat with his head in his hands, as one brooding. When the sun at
last neared the place of his setting, the boy's eyes opened. His gaze
fell upon his companion, and crowded and confused thoughts surged
through him. For some time he lay still, finding his bearings. And at
length the hatred that had all day, and for many days, filled his young
breast, melted away in a divine pity and tenderness, and the tears of
that warm melting rolled down his cheeks. The man near him, who had
watched in silence, gently put a questioning finger upon the wet cheeks.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Repentance," said the boy.

"I pity thee. Repentance is bitter of taste."

"No," said the boy. "It is warm and sweet. It moves my heart and my
understanding."

"What has become of thy hatred?"

"I shall never hate again."

"What wilt thou do, then?"

"I shall love," said the boy. "_Love_," he repeated softly. "_How came I
never to think of that before?_"

"Wilt thou love tyranny and forbear to kill the tyrant?"

The boy rose to his feet, and his young slenderness was full of strength
and dignity, and his face, cleared of its sombre brooding, was full of a
bright, untroubled decision. The cypresses upon the hilltops stood no
more resolutely erect, the hills themselves were no more steadfast.
"Nay," he said, laughing a little, boyishly, in pure pleasure at the
crystal fixity of his purpose. "Rather will I love the tyrant, and the
tyranny will die of itself. Oh, it is the way! It is the way! And I
could not think of it till now! Not till I saw thee killing and him
bleeding. Then I knew." Then, more gravely, he added, "I will begin by
loving thee."

"Thou hast the appearance of a young god," said the man slowly, "but if
thou wert a god, thou would'st crush thine enemies, not love them." He
sighed, and his face strengthened into a semblance of power. "I was a
god once myself," he added after some hesitation.

"What is thy name?" asked the b