et the beaming
countenances of the goddesses, their sparkling eyes and rosy lips, the
haunts of sweet, seductive smiles.

"Long live the gods and goddesses of Olympus! No earthly memories cleave
to them; if perchance they have borne earthly names, who knows it, who
remembers it? The present only belongs to the gods--this hour is one of
precious joy."

Only those two sitting there at the table of the gods, arm linked in arm,
only they remember, for not alone the present but the future, too, belongs
to them. The gods and goddesses call the two Venus and Endymion, but they,
in tender whispers, call each other Ludovicka and Frederick. No one
disturbs himself about them, no one notices the happy pair, and they
observe and regard no one, for they are thinking only of themselves.

"Oh, my beloved," whispers the Prince, "how stale and insipid seems this
fantastic feast to me to-night! Once it would have charmed me, and would
have been to me as embodied poesy. But to-night it leaves me cold and
empty, and I feel that the true and real contain in themselves the highest
poetry."

"You are indeed right, my Endymion," says she softly--"you are indeed
right: love is the highest poetry, and he who possesses the true and real
needs not the fantastic semblance. Still, this is a feast of gods;
therefore let us enjoy it with glad hearts and swelling joy. For is it not
our wedding feast, and are not all these gods and goddesses unwittingly
solemnizing the hymeneal of our love? Rejoice then, my darling, rejoice
and sing with the convivial, open your heart to the ravishing hour, drink
into thy soul the delight and rapture of the gods!"

A shadow stole over Endymion's high, clear brow, and he gently shook his
head. "I love you so deeply and truly that I can not be merry in this
hour," he said thoughtfully; "and this wild tumult and this uproarious joy
seem not to me like a glorification of our love, but rather its
profanation. Ah! my dear love, would that I were alone with you in the
open air, beneath the broad high arch of heaven, instead of here beneath
this artificial one; would that we sat hand in hand in one of those quiet
shady spots in your park, where I could pour into your ear the holy
secrets of my heart and tell you sweet stories of our love, and you should
listen to me with tranquil, reverent heart, and you and I would solemnize
together a glorious feast divine, more glorious than this mad joy can
furnish us! He who is happy