h.
| Seed
|
) ,
ised, and afraid of the great lady, would have refused, but when Em
) pha iersalf on the throne he forgot everything in the great joy 1 ‘
of his work. ma
"And now the statue was finished. The old carver, beside himself with ! t

: ished to make a solemn ceremony of the first showing of the sculp- N
ech he was certain was the finest on earth. So he had it carried NM
to the public square and mounted on a pedestal. A holiday was de- i
clared for the unveiling and all were there, ready for the great occasion
which was never to be, for word came that lady Marfa was ill.
The ceremony was postponed until she could be present, but in three
days her spirit had fled on the wings of the morning to the realm of the
Sun God.

"Then the young Marcus, unveiling the statue himself, would have

smashed it to pieces, but when the lovely arms had been broken, he
stopped short. ‘No, | cannot kill you again,’ he cried, and turning away, \
left the village. poe

"We heard a strange rumor of a boy found frozen in the snows of a high
mountain, beside him a beautiful face moulded in the snow. Whatever
was his fate, he was never seen again."

The old shepherd stopped talking and gazed into the glory of the heavens.

When he spoke again it was as though he witnessed before a spiritual
tribunal.

"She lives still in stone—my wife! Yes, my wife, for | wooed her in secret
and married her in secret in a distant village. Yet, because | feared her Na
father's wrath, | did not avow our marriage as | had pledged to when we 5
returned. | know | was and am yet a coward—frightened lest he kill me.

The boy who formed that Venus whom all the world shall know—he was
her son, my son, our son."

The ancient lowered his eyes as one who cannot withstand the gaze of

an accuser, and was silent. The unseen tribunal had passed a sentence
of too long a life.

“What strange things you talk of, uncle!" interrupted the boy.

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