gh up, where they sat at the
window and watched the human lights, and listened to the human music.

Never had it been so wonderful to be together.

For a week Antony lived in heaven. Never had Silencieux been so kind, so
close to him.

"Let us be little children," he said. "Let us do anything that comes
into our heads."

So they ran in and out among pleasures together, joined strange dances
and sang strange songs. They clapped their hands to jugglers and
acrobats, and animals tortured into talent. And sometimes, as the gaudy
theatre resounded about them, they looked so still at each other that
all the rest faded away, and they were left alone with each other's eyes
and great thoughts of God.

"I love you, Silencieux."

"I love you, Antony."

"You will never leave me lonely in my dream, Silencieux?"

"Never, Antony."

Oh, how tender sometimes was Silencieux!

Several nights they had the whim that Silencieux should masquerade in
the wardrobe of her past.

"To-night, you shall go clothed as when you loved that woman in
Mitylene," Antony would say.

Or: "To-night you shall be a little shepherd-boy, with a leopard-skin
across your shoulder and mountain berries in your hair."

Or again: "To-night you shall be Pierrot--mourning for his Columbine."

Ah! how divine was Silencieux in all her disguises!--a divine child. Oh,
how tender those nights was Silencieux!

Antony sat and watched her face in awe and wonder. Surely it was the
noblest face that had ever been seen in the world.

"Is it true that that noble face is mine?" he would ask; "I cannot
believe it."

"Kiss it," said Silencieux gaily, "and see."

* * * * *

Then on a sudden, what was this change in Silencieux! So cold, so
silent, so cruel, had she grown.

"Silencieux," Antony called to her. "Silencieux," he pleaded.

But she never spoke.

"O Silencieux, speak! I cannot bear it."

Then her lips moved. "Shall I speak?" she said, with a cruel smile.

"Yes," he besought her again.

"I shall love you no more in this world. The lights are gone out, the
magic faded."

"Silencieux!"

But she spoke no more, and, with those lonely words in his ears, Antony
came out of his dream and heard the rain falling miserably through the
wood.

CHAPTER X

SILENCIEUX WHISPERS

So Antony first knew how cruel could be Silencieux to those who loved
her. Her sudden silences he had grown to understand, even to love.