The Conquest of Olympus.

Otago Witness, Issue 2727, 20 June 1906, Page 78

The Conquest of Olympus.

By Frank Mortow.

(For the They sat on the lower slopes of Olympus \ and, however marvellous or incredible this may seem in this age of minor poets and serious librettists, there was not a human creature in sight except fhemselves. The carriages were away below. Picnic baskets and rugs had been brought up. Only one servant was there, that imperturbable automaton, the butler of the Nell. As they ate, he ministered to them, and his gravity was as irreproachable as his clothes. The Butler made no concessions. He always wore the raiment and insignia of "his caste and office, and if Jupiter himself had criticised that suit, the Butler would have been profoundly convinced that Jupiter blasphemed. Lenton had a perverted appetite for pate de foie gras, which he consumed wholesale ; and he washed it down with Bass — a combination shockingly incongruous. Mortimer also- had bis peculiarities. Just now he assured them that he was dieting himself. It was necessary that he should tell them, or they would never have discovered it, for the breezes of Greece sharpened appetite, and Mortimer had recovered his health. Rathbone ate solidly all the time and everywhere. The ladies enjoyed their lunch, and more than that never could be said of ladies in any age, anywhere. Nobody aboard the Nell had evei seen the Butler eat, and it was a tradition of the ship that h? subsisted on his memories. Nesta had invented a romance for him, and though it did not seem to fit him at any particular point, it was generally accepted for purposes of -easy reference. "When shall we ascend Olympus?" raked Nesta. "All this loitering in the sun h very well, but one does not precisely come to Greece to frivok" "We shall ascend Olympus later," said Rathbone. "The gentleman with the kink in his name says that the weather up above is not good to-day." "So I suppose we have just to stay around here and catch butterflies?" Nesta was really anxious to feel Greece, as she expressed it, and the conquest of 01ympu6 she yearned for specially. These delays piqued her. "But, dear miss, since butterflies are so beautiful and so plenty, why not?" Banerji came round the corner by a bigboulder as he spoke, and with Banerji was a very beautiful girl in a costume that was eloquent of Paris. The men glanced at each other with a curious lift of the eyebrows. Nesta's eyebrows went up higher still. No pretty girl is really delighted at a rival's advent, and beside this girl's beauty Nesta's grace and sweetness paled into insignificance. ■"Reall^ I don't know why not, Mr Banerji," she said. '"But you — why, we thought'you were in India." "Ah, no. I travel very much now. ft is for my studies. _ I am interested, yo« know, in what you call psychic science. Will you permit me to introduce to you my niece, Srina?" Mrs Rathbone and Nesta bowed. The matron frankly admired the brilliant brunette at once. The maid was less enthusiastic, as befitted a good daughter of Eve unattached. JThe men, be it 6aid, bowed also. The men felt somewhat embarrassed, if the truth be told. It had not been thought desirable to relate to the ladies any account of those strange adventures in which Srina figured, and the facts concerning the Wand of Sa'aba they knew only in slight part. "Mj r niece also," said Mr Banerji, "is I interested in psychic science, and — cr — j butterflies. She shall show you the way i to catch them." i Srina smiled, and with a gracious gesi ture of assent, sat on the crisp grass at i Nesta"s side. Despite th-e Parisian costume i and the top exquisitely becoming hat — things not altogether easy to be borne — Nesta felt that there was in this dark j beauty a something odd that called for wonder, a strange elusive dignity, a cer- , tain litliencs*. . i '• They ars everywhere." she paid ; and ,it the first sound of the enthralling voice, Mr S. Rathbone thrilled as though in exultation, and Nesta felt her jealousy slip from her like a reil. '"They are everywhere, but not always visible. They fly far, and are sometimes very coy. See!" j She look a little- flower n! the grass and ' a I' •.*,- stray <><yap% of herbage ; andi they saw frio marvel shape itself in her hands and t>ke life as a butterfly of delicate green and gold. She held it out to Nesta, and wuh a rapid flutter of its shimmering wing* it flew to the young girl's hand. A mom-nt it paused there, and then flitted away. They saw it recede, a shining point of colour, along the path of the sun. '' That," said Mr Banerji, smiling, "is psychic science, as applied to entomology. Do you not think, dear Lenton, that you had better introduce my niece?" Lenton looked at the others, hesitated a moment, groped for his words, and foundi speech. He told briefly of the excursion into the nearer night and the flight among the worlds. The ladies listened eagerly, and when he finished they were looking on the immortal with shining eyes. The pearly fabric she wore was now a gleaming iridescence, and as they watched the pearl softened into quiet grey, and so passed gently to a tender harmony of green. Srina smiled up at them. The inimitable hat had gone, and) the opal again throbbed luminously on her forehead. " And voa are not really a gU'l at all?" said Nesta, shyly. " Not really, ' Srina replied, "and yet more truly than you can know. Many lives ago I was a girl like you, as comely and as" fragile. The eoul that thrilled me then burns in me now full fed 1 . Only. I vaiarc^pt the messages earth-ftirls send to |

Witness.) the stars. Sometimes that gives me plea- ; sure, and somethimes it gives me pain. You have pleased me, my Nesta — nearly always. One night you pained me much. : Do you remember the night of the Marlowes' dance?' ; " Ah, yes," said Nesta, blushing. "Did that pain you?' " That was an .11 message,' said the Immoital. "Yes." Nesta paused shyly. "But then I—l1 — I did not know." "Your henchman," said Banerji — "your I monotone in black, has gone to the j carriages,^ and will ruminate in wisdom till you come. The weather, you see, has cleared, and Srina carries the sunshine with her. We shall go, if you still wish it, to the crest of Olympus." They commenced "the ascent, choosing no path, and it was less fatiguing than a walk across a Devonshire pasture. Srina walked between the ladies, and held each ! of them by the hand. Mrs Eathbone's charming x£ace glowed with a new and quiet joy, which seemed to make her almost wistful whenever her glance fell on the American. Nesta was radiant and shy. and she only looked at Srina. Beside , a little grove high up the slope they found the genial, shaggy god. All of them bowed instinctively, but Srina knelt before him and placed her forehead on 1 the ground between his hoofs. "Dear children of my earth," said Pan "you are welcome all;" and you especially, O Srkia. We gods bo short of company of late, and sport doth lag so that it becomes almost pleasant to hide from a peering tourist. Of men there be few, ■ but of tourists many. They bathe in the iEgsean, and they chatter through the valleys of oui delight. They lit like oracles anent the wolves and boavs upon Cithseron. They have overrun oM \ Sunjum and dropped their silly litter on the Alpheus. A year or two of your time has scarce passed since they paused here on their quarrels, and spilt some silly ' blood. Now and again I have grown ' aweary since the hilly story of my ti>?ath [ stirred addled brains in Paxos. The gods ' ccme hither but eeldom, and only I remain that have work to do. But- even work grows hard to come at now. These modern improvements are sad hindrances ; in the path of a tired old god. It is an ' over- furnished world, and I have not seen Aphrodite these many days. Her they hare banished) from their counsels, and .is ' for me — why, look you, even when they j make their 'marriages they seldom call me j [ now. Their old women- terrify the little ' children with my name." ''But, great Pan," said Lenton, "there are still the gods your peers." "I am a humble deity," said Pan, "one ' of the originals, and no peer of the new white gods. I love this eartli and its childien that once were mine. How shall they ever reach us and their rest if the gods turn from them now? But lead for- < ward our guests, my Srina." j They left the shaggy !^cd, and went etiii j higher up the mountain. There were no \ tourists uo-.v, but all things were as all i things had been in the golden days. A ' shy wood-nymph stepped out of a little copse they passed, and walked for some fejv minutes behind Srina, whispering. A < bashful young centaur blushed as they passed, an'l then raced acioss the slope I before them, tossing glaJ heels. Front far below there came of a sudden the ■warm appeal of Pan's pipes. The jocund sun, just veiled with cloudlets, shone golden ; through a mist of gold. They were far \ out of reach of petty social observances ar<l ' distinctions, the gadflies of the mind. Below them, seen dimly through the hazo,' was the fair land of Greece ; above theni, the mountain-top and the soft, impenetrable sky. A faun laughed richly in a thicket as they passed, and from a bough of yellow blossom that he carried scattered largesse of golden dust ; and as the dust j fell they heard other laughter, silvery and i sweet. The crisp air was laden bow •with immemorial fragrances. Around them was a whispering drowse of Found. Mrs Rathbone walked with her hand in her husband's, and Nesta tripped on lightly holding Lenton's arm. Srina walked with Mortimer and Brnerji. They came on I Apimdito near the summit. She was sit- ! tiiifj lazily on the ground, weaving garlands of field-flowers for the head of a stalwart young Tbracian shepherd who sat by her. Agairit the bronze of his shoulder her hair shont golden. She looked up at them a littl'i impatiently, smiled at Srina, and went on with her weaving. The shepherd glanced covertly at Nefcta, but said nothing. As they passed on, tQiey heard the golden geddess speak to him. "There is neither time nor place," she cooed, "neither cause nor purpose. There is neither pain nor pleasure, neither gain nor loss. There is neither fear nor hope, neither tears nor gladness. All things have blended in the thing tihat is one and all, and' there have perished of their own delight. There is nothing, sweetheart — nothing but eternity, and thee, and me." A royal dragon flew overhead, with music laughing mad in every rattle of his 6cales. His eyes were oceans of amethysts, and his breath a ruby of flame ecstatic. As he saw Aphrodite he iiung with pinions poised — great wings of translucent pearl that stretched from horizon to horizon — but the Queen kept her eyes on the shepherd's face, making no sign, but murmuring still "eternity, and thee, and me" ; and the kingly dragon sped into the sun. The company of doves fluttered around her, crooning, but she paid no heed. The leader of all her sparrows, perched jauntily on her gleaming knee, twitted a challenge to her; but she paid no heed. [ On the bleak summit thej£ came on

laid no

twisted Vulcan. The beetle-browed arti- ' ficer of the gecta sat gnawing 1 his nails, and the chains he had forged stretched multitudinous from liis feet across the world of men. He looked pre-eminently purposeful and gloomy. "Ha«t chanced to see the Queen?" bo asked gruffly of Srina. "She is attending a bridal in Xormanby," said Srina smoothly. "A maker of mischief always," growled Vulcan. Then, turning with a dark smile to Rathbone, " How sped v that ship of yours t'other night?" Rathbone smiled in his turn. "She sped too w-ell for our nerves," lie said. ''There was the devil in her. "Xarnes so bitter are the wifely jnxrlege/' said Vulcan. "In any case, lam still of Olympus. Still, as for your ship, I drove her well, I grant you." "* "And now," said Ifmerji, "for joaio more rapid travel. You like that — yes.-s?" Srina- nodded ar« moved 'her hardo, and 10, they were back at the luncheon spot, and the Butler, dull of his eye, was coming up the slope." "How marvellous of you!" said Nesta, turning to thank the Immortal. But Srina had gone, and BaneTji was not to be foundNesta laughed strangely, and challenged Lenton to race her to the carriage.