he continued, "it's the same thing as
Christianity. It's what God means. Men try to separate things that are
all one. I feel that when I look at Hermes. Oh, how beautiful he is! And
his beauty is as much moral as physical. You know the Antinous mouth?"

"Of course."

"Look at his mouth. Could any one, comparing the two, honestly say that
purity doesn't shine like a light in darkness? Aren't those lips stamped
with the Divine seal?"

"Yes, they are."

"Dion, I'm so thankful I have a husband who's kept the power to see that
even physical beauty must have moral beauty behind it to be perfect.
Many men can't see that, I think."

"Is it their fault?"

"Yes."

After another long silence she said:

"Spirit really is everything. Hermes tells me that almost as plainly as
the New Testament. Lots of people we know in London would laugh at me
for saying so, the people who talk of 'being Greek' and who never can be
Greek. And he stood between Doric columns. I'm trying to learn something
here."

"What?"

"How to bring _him_ up if he ever comes."

Dion felt for her hand.

They stayed on for a week at Drouva. Each evening Rosamund shot with
the boy of the wilderness, and they ate any birds that fell, at their
evening meal. The nights were given to the stars till sleep came. And
all the days were dedicated to Hermes, the child, and the sweet green
valley which served as a casket for the perfect jewel which the earth
had given up after centuries of possession. Since Rosamund had told the
dear secret of her heart, what she was trying to learn, Dion was able to
see her go in alone to the inner chamber without any secret jealousy or
any impatience. The given confidence had done its blessed work swiftly
and surely; the spring behind the action, revealed so simply, was
respected, was almost loved by Dion. Often he sat among the ruins alone,
smoking his pipe; or he wandered away after the call of the sheep-bells,
passing between the ruined walls overgrown with brambles and grasses and
mosses, shaded here and there by a solitary tree, and under the low arch
of the Athletes' entrance into the great green space where the contests
had been held. Here he found the wearers of music feeding peacefully,
attended by a dreaming boy. With the Two in the Garden of Eden there
were happy animals. The sheep-bells ringing tranquilly in his ears made
Eden more real to him, and also more like something in one of the happy
dreams of a man.