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216 ARIADNE.the generosity of the man who loved her vainly;but itsmote him and made him feel humbled andashamed." No woman,Ithink, ever loved you as thiswoman does, whom you have left asIwould notleave aclog," saidMaryx,and somethingof his oldardent eloquence returned to him, and his voicerose and rang clearer as the courage in him consummatedthe self-sacrifice that hehad sethimself"for her sake. Have you ever thought what youhave clone? AVhenyouhavekiUedArtin anartist,you have done the cruellest murder that earthcanbehold. Other and weaker natures than hersmight forget, but she never.Her fame will beshort-lived as thatrose, for she seesbut your face,and the world will tire of that, but she wUl not.She can dream nomore. She can only remember.Do you know what that is to the artist ? —it is to be blind and to wear}' the world; theworld thathas nomore pity than you have! Youthink her consoledbecause her genius hasnot lefther: are you a poet and yet do not know thatgenius is only apower to suffer more and to rememberlonger ? — nothingelse. Yousay toyour-

ARIADNE. 217self that she will have fame, that will beguile heras the god came to Ariadne:perhaps:but acrossthat fame, let it become what it may, there willsettle for ever the shadow of the world's dishonour;itwiU be for ever poisoned, and cursed,and embittered by the scorn of fools, and the reproachof women, since by you they have beengiven their lashes of nettles, andbyyouhave beengiven then bye-word to hoot. She wdl walk inthe light of triumph, you say, and therefore youhave not hurt her:do you notsee that the fiercerthatlightmaybeat onher, the sharper wUl the eyesof the world search out the brand with which youhave burned her. For when do menforgive forcein the woman? and when do women ever forgivethe woman's greatness ? and when does every curfail to snarl at the- life that is higher than itsfellows ? It is by the very genius in her thatyou have had such power to wound, such powerto blight and to destroy. By so long as hernameshaU be spoken, so long wdl the wrong you havedone her cling round it, to make it meet for reproach.A mere woman dies, and her woeandhershame die with her, and the earth coversher and

ARIADNE. 217self that she will have fame, that will beguile heras the god came to Ariadne:perhaps:but acrossthat fame, let it become what it may, there willsettle for ever the shadow of the world's dishonour;itwiU be for ever poisoned, and cursed,and embittered by the scorn of fools, and the reproachof women, since by you they have beengiven their lashes of nettles, andbyyouhave beengiven then bye-word to hoot. She wdl walk inthe light of triumph, you say, and therefore youhave not hurt her:do you notsee that the fiercerthatlightmaybeat onher, the sharper wUl the eyesof the world search out the brand with which youhave burned her. For when do menforgive forcein the woman? and when do women ever forgivethe woman's greatness ? and when does every curfail to snarl at the- life that is higher than itsfellows ? It is by the very genius in her thatyou have had such power to wound, such powerto blight and to destroy. By so long as hernameshaU be spoken, so long wdl the wrong you havedone her cling round it, to make it meet for reproach.A mere woman dies, and her woeandhershame die with her, and the earth coversher and

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