A Thorny Path | Page 5

felt better, and so I ought properly to be in my usual frame of
mind. But the skeleton at life's festival has been shown to me. What
sort of thing is that? It is an image--the image of a dead man which was
carried round by the Egyptians, and is to this day by the Romans, to
remind the feasters that they should fill every hour with enjoyment,
since enjoyment is all too soon at an end. Such an image, child--"
"You are thinking of the dead girl--Seleukus's daughter--whose portrait
you are painting?" asked Melissa.
Alexander nodded, sat down on the bench by his sister, and, taking up
her needlework, exclaimed "Give us some light, child. I want to see
your pretty face. I want to be sure that Diodorus did not perjure himself
when, at the 'Crane,' the other day, he swore that it had not its match in
Alexandria. Besides, I hate the darkness."
When Melissa returned with the lighted lamp, she found her brother,
who was not wont to keep still, sitting in the place where she had left
him. But he sprang up as she entered, and prevented her further
greeting by exclaiming:
"Patience! patience! You shall be told all. Only I did not want to worry
you on the day of the festival of the dead. And besides, to-morrow
perhaps he will be in a better frame of mind, and next day--"
Melissa became urgent. "If Philip is ill--" she put in.
"Not exactly ill," said he. "He has no fever, no ague-fit, no aches and

pains. He is not in bed, and has no bitter draughts to swallow. Yet is he
not well, any more than I, though but just now, in the dining-hall at the
Elephant, I ate like a starving wolf, and could at this moment jump over
this table. Shall I prove it?"
"No, no," said his sister, in growing distress. "But, if you love me, tell
me at once and plainly--"
"At once and plainly," sighed the painter. "That, in any case, will not be
easy. But I will do my best. You knew Korinna?"
"Seleukus's daughter?"
"She herself--the maiden from whose corpse I am painting her portrait."
"No. But you wanted--"
"I wanted to be brief, but I care even more to be understood; and if you
have never seen with your own eyes, if you do not yourself know what
a miracle of beauty the gods wrought when they molded that maiden,
you are indeed justified in regarding me as a fool and Philip as a
madman--which, thank the gods, he certainly is not yet."
"Then he too has seen the dead maiden?"
"No, no. And yet--perhaps. That at present remains a mystery. I hardly
know what happened even to myself. I succeeded in controlling myself
in my father's presence; but now, when it all rises up before me, before
my very eyes, so distinct, so real, so tangible, now--by Sirius! Melissa,
if you interrupt me again--"
"Begin again. I will be silent," she cried. "I can easily picture your
Korinna as a divinely beautiful creature."
Alexander raised his hands to heaven, exclaiming with passionate
vehemence: "Oh, how would I praise and glorify the gods, who formed
that marvel of their art, and my mouth should be full of their grace and
mercy, if they had but allowed the world to sun itself in the charm of

that glorious creature, and to worship their everlasting beauty in her
who was their image! But they have wantonly destroyed their own
masterpiece, have crushed the scarce-opened bud, have darkened the
star ere it has risen! If a man had done it, Melissa, a man what would
his doom have been! If he--"
Here the youth hid his face in his hands in passionate emotion; but,
feeling his sister's arm round his shoulder, he recovered himself, and
went on more calmly: "Well, you heard that she was dead. She was of
just your age; she is dead at eighteen, and her father commissioned me
to paint her in death.--Pour me out some water; then I will proceed as
coldly as a man crying the description of a runaway slave." He drank a
deep draught, and wandered restlessly up and down in front of his sister,
while he told her all that had happened to him during the last few days.
The day before yesterday, at noon, he had left the inn where he had
been carousing with friends, gay and careless, and had obeyed the call
of Seleukus. Just before raising the knocker he had been singing
cheerfully to himself. Never had he felt more fully content--the gayest
of the gay. One of the first men in the town, and a connoisseur, had
honored him with a fine commission, and the prospect of