o loved never--now ye
who have loved, love anew!"

"Why do I translate this stuff? Why, but for the sake of a child who
will never see it--who if she read it, would not understand a word?"

"Lo! Behold ye the bulls, with how lordly a
flank they besprawl on the broom!
--Yet obey the uxorious yoke and are tamed
by Dione her doom.
Or behear ye the sheep, to the husbanding
rams how they bleat to the shade!
Or behear ye the birds, at the Goddess'
command how they sing unafraid!--
Be it harsh as the swannery's clamour that
shatters the hush of the lake;
Be it dulcet as where Philomela holds
darkling the poplar awake,
So melting her soul into music, you'd vow
'twas her passion, her own,
She chanteth--her sister forgot, with the
Daulian crime long-agone.
Hush! Hark! Draw around to the circle . . .
Ah, loitering Summer, say when
For me shall be broken the charm, that I
chirp with the swallow again?
I am old: I am dumb: I have waited to
sing till Apollo withdrew.
--So Amyclae a moment was mute, and for
ever a wilderness grew.--
Now learn ye to love who loved never--now ye
who have loved, love anew!"

"_Perdidi musam tacendo_," murmured Brother Copas, gazing afield.
"Only the young can speak to the young. . . . God grant that, at the
right time, the right Prince may come to her over the meadows, and
discourse honest music!"

_Splash!_

He sprang up and snatched at his rod. A two-pound trout had risen
almost under his nose.

CHAPTER XXIV.

FINIS CORONAT OPUS.

The great day dawned at last: the day to which all Merchester had
looked forward for months, for which so many hundreds had been
working, on which all must now pin their hopes: the opening day of
Pageant Week.

I suppose that never in Merchester's long history had her citizens so
frequently or so nervously studied their weather-glasses.

"Tarbolt, of all people!" murmured Brother Copas one afternoon in the
Venables Free Library.

He had just met the Canon coming down the stairs, and turned to watch
the retreating figure to the doorway.

"I am suffering from a severe shock," he announced five minutes later
to Mr. Simeon, whom he found at work in Paradise. "Did you ever know
your friend Tarbolt patronise this institution before?"

"Never," answered Mr. Simeon, flushing.