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156ARIADNE.looked neither toright nor left,but into vacancyalways, for she saw nothing that was around her,or at the least cared not for it, becauseallmemories of the art she had adored seemed tohave perished inher. Ilaid my hand upon hershoulder,andmade her pausebefore the Mercury.Isaid to her:"Look. He was a friend to you once.you pass him by "now?AA'illShe lifted her eyes with an effort, and restedthem on the pentelic stoneof the statue.Hermes' head was slightly bent downward,likethat most beautiful Hermes of the Belvidere.His gaze seemed to meet hers.A thrill ran through her. She stood andlooked upward at the calm, drooped face."It is your Greek god! " she said, and thenwas still, and there seemed to fall on her thatstrange,mystical, divine tranquillity which doeslie in the glance of all great statues, whetherfrom the rude sphynx that lies couchant in thedesert, or the perfect godhead that wasbroughtto Rome from the seashore by Antium.Its owncalm seemed to fall uponher.
ARIADNE. 157Then hot tears filled her eyes, and fell slowlyclown her pale cheeks." OnceItoo coidd make the marbles speak!"she murmured; and her fainting soul stirredin her, and awoke to a sense of its own lostpower.She did not ask howit was that Hermes washere in the palace of the pope — not then; shestood looking at the statue, and seeming, as itwere,slowly to gather fromit remembrance andstrength, and the desires of art,and the secretsof art's creation.That desire of genius which in the artist neverwholly dies, and makes the painter in the swoonof death behold goldenhorizons and lovely citiesof the clouds, and the musician hear the musicof the spheres, and the poet rave of worldsbeyond the sun; that desire, or instinct, orpower, be it what it wiU, woke inher at the feetof Hermes; Hermes, who had seen all hereffort and watched all her dreams, and beenthe silent witness of those first kisses of passionwhich had burned away her genius beneaththem.
- Page 113 and 114: ARIADNE. 105now become equally abso
- Page 115 and 116: ARIADNE. 107and the naked there wer
- Page 117 and 118: ARIADNE. 109saw them. He had been,
- Page 119 and 120: ARIADNE. 111their goodnight's sleep
- Page 121 and 122: ARIADNE. 113her feel she wasliving
- Page 123 and 124: ARIADNE. 115Spring had come,Isay, a
- Page 125 and 126: ARIADNE. 117nightingales, and so pi
- Page 127 and 128: ARIADNE. 119foul patrician jade wru
- Page 129 and 130: ARIADNE. 121aburied village when th
- Page 131 and 132: ARIADNE. 123But for mypromise to he
- Page 133 and 134: ARIADNE. 125parts of Rome; a turn o
- Page 135 and 136: ARIADNE. 127seek to go away. He sto
- Page 137 and 138: ARIADNE. 129speak the truth. Yetit
- Page 139 and 140: ARIADNE. 131seems to me that you ar
- Page 141 and 142: ARIADNE. 133beauty against the gran
- Page 143 and 144: ARIADNE. 135Hilarion laughed ahttle
- Page 145 and 146: ARIADNE. 137that mirroredhim." That
- Page 147 and 148: ARIADNE. 139to be always seeing hea
- Page 149 and 150: ARIADNE. 141He laughed a httle, par
- Page 151 and 152: ARIADNE. 143ThenIturned,and woulcl
- Page 153 and 154: ARIADNE. 145other gain from her a m
- Page 155 and 156: ARIADNE. 147dead things none are so
- Page 157 and 158: ARIADNE. 149sometimes, and knew tho
- Page 159 and 160: ARIADNE. 151her; she was vaguely op
- Page 161 and 162: ARIADNE. 153She stayed aU the summe
- Page 163: ARIADNE. 155of tlie Nonii, to the s
- Page 167 and 168: ARIADNE. 159A Divine City indeed, h
- Page 169 and 170: ARIADNE. 161open air of the gardens
- Page 171 and 172: CHAPTER XThat verynightImade a scul
- Page 173 and 174: ARIADNE. 165silent andlookinginto v
- Page 175 and 176: ARIADNE. 167never touched Maryx onc
- Page 177 and 178: ARIADNE. 169coidd not end the phras
- Page 179 and 180: ARIADNE. 171" Iwoulcl notpromise,"
- Page 181 and 182: ARIADNE. 173that are vile canbe fai
- Page 183 and 184: CHAPTER XLThe months went on, and s
- Page 185 and 186: ARIADNE. 177Hilarion: the man made
- Page 187 and 188: ARIADNE. 179" Is that aU that you k
- Page 189 and 190: ARIADNE. 181and the apes away. IfIc
- Page 191 and 192: ARIADNE. 183would change places wit
- Page 193 and 194: ARIADNE. 185to her. Youlook strange
- Page 195 and 196: CHAPTER XII.AVhex he had goneaway t
- Page 197 and 198: ARIADNE. 189you ? Imean simply and
- Page 199 and 200: ARIADNE. 191AlmostIlonged to teU he
- Page 201 and 202: ARIADNE. 193the ways of the world a
- Page 203 and 204: ARIADNE. 195" Take my life away wit
- Page 205 and 206: ARIADNE. 197talked of; it took a ti
- Page 207 and 208: ARIADNE. 199pale Carrara marble, an
- Page 209 and 210: ARIADNE. 201bit his tired senses in
- Page 211 and 212: ARIADNE. 203pure a breath of heaven
- Page 213 and 214: ARIADNE. 205before the world, and h
156ARIADNE.looked neither toright nor left,but into vacancyalways, for she saw nothing that was around her,or at the least cared not for it, becauseallmemories of the art she had adored seemed tohave perished inher. Ilaid my hand upon hershoulder,andmade her pausebefore the Mercury.Isaid to her:"Look. He was a friend to you once.you pass him by "now?AA'illShe lifted her eyes with an effort, and restedthem on the pentelic stoneof the statue.Hermes' head was slightly bent downward,likethat most beautiful Hermes of the Belvidere.His gaze seemed to meet hers.A thrill ran through her. She stood andlooked upward at the calm, drooped face."It is your Greek god! " she said, and thenwas still, and there seemed to fall on her thatstrange,mystical, divine tranquillity which doeslie in the glance of all great statues, whetherfrom the rude sphynx that lies couchant in thedesert, or the perfect godhead that wasbroughtto Rome from the seashore by Antium.Its owncalm seemed to fall uponher.
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