IF TO-DAY BE SWEET

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17879, 22 June 1926, Page 14

IF TO-DAY BE SWEET

“ STAR’S ” NEW SERIAL

By

DOROTHY ROGERS.

CHAPTER IV.—(Continued.) Derek, on the contrary, appeared to be quieter even than usual. He complained of an incessant and very bad headache, attributing it to the unaccustomed roar and restlessness of crowded streets. But Gentian noticed how he shaded his eyes frequently pushing away the gay little lights on the table; and even in the theatre, glancing at him, she had seem that his eyes were often closed, as though he could not endure the glare from the stage. More than once did she upbraid him for trying his eyes over books and cuneiform script, but he always gave her a tender and illuminating smile, looking down at her with his curiously unfocussed gaze. “I must do it, dear,” he said on the first occasion. “Professor Jackson, who is the greatest authority on Babylonian and Assyrian history, is in town. As you know, I have corresponded with him for some time, and he has taken a great interest in the book, but it makes an enormous difference having him on the spot to talk to and discuss all these things with.” So Gentian had to content herself with extracting a promise that he should go to a good occulist before they returned to Ashton. She thought his glasses needed changing and in any case it was a long time since his sight had been tested. One day he offered to take her to the Assyrian rooms at the British Museum, and Gentian, who had managed to grasp a smattering of information on the subject that meant so much to her fiance, was very pleased to go. Mrs Hewiing, who had already been with him once in the da\ r s before he had even met Gentian, declined firmly when they tried to induce her to accompanj’ them. “My dear. I'm not a bit interested in all those bird-headed gods, or demons, or whatever they are, carrying handbags. Derek says they arc not really handbags, but I feel sure they are. After all, there is nothing new under the sun, and we must have got the idea of them from somewhere. Derek thinks I am flippant about his old g6ds, but you are so clever, Gentian; you will understand all about them. I shall do some shopping ! ” So Hewiing and the girl went by themselves. Gentian saw in her fiance, .as she sometimes laughingly told him, the makings of a real old professor. Always shyly unassuming and reticent even when alone with her. he developed an authoritative alertness and selfconfidencc only when intent upon the subject of his work. As they walked up the many wide steps to the British Museiun. she was interested in all the people who were going in Or coming out, in those who sat on the seats along the front, even in the pigeons who strutted and paused, tilting their heads to study her sideways with their hard bold eyes. Derek, on the other hand, ran quickly up with the air of his labours. There was in his manner a businesslike briskness not to be observed at any other time. As they went through she gazed in astonished admiration at the colossal winged bulls with bearded human heads, which guarded the approach to the Assyrian rooms. “They had those winged bulls, and also carved lions, to keep watch over the entrance to their palaces,” Derek told her. In response to a remark she made concering their five legs, he took her arm and led her round to get a side view of one of the monstrous beasts. “Do you sec how straight and close together those forelegs are? From here it looks as if there were only one. Well, that was the idea. When they looked at the thing sideways they thought it seemed as though the creature had only three legs, and as that seemed all wrong they added another to give the right effect.” Her eyes lit up with amusement. “What children they were! ” she laughed softly. “Ah, but wait.,” he replied, “I’ll take you through the gcllerics now and show you the bas-reliefs.” Her unfeigned and intelligent interest in everything she saw delighted Hewiing and stimulated him to tell her many of the legends and stories attached to the various deities and kings of those ancient peoples. They descended the curved staircase into the desert room below. A custodian, glancing down at them from t.he surrounding gallery, and recognising the tall gentleman in glasses who so frequently came to study the basreliefs, decided that for once he was giving himself “a day off” and had, like many other lo\'ers before him, brought his young lady for a quiet flirtation in an almost invariably secluded spot* Being sympathetic by nature he withdrew from the gallery, and his fiat footsteps echoed to silence as he moved discreetly out of sight and earshot. But Hewiing was much too absorbed in his subject to make good use of his opportunities. In fact, from what would possibly have been the caistodian’s point of view, especially had he caught sight of Gentian’s charming face, the opportunitv was entirely wasted. Holding his fiancee’s arm affectionately with his long thin fingers, he. guided her slowly round, demanding her appreciation of the wonderful carvings of cities and rivers and palm trees, of horses, and fine bearded men, handsome and dignified, with their wide eyes and Semitic features, and of all the weapons and implements they used. lie told her legends of Tiawath, the sea., from whom all things came; of Ami, god of the heavens; and Merodach, king of all the gods and creator of mankind, and of how he fought and slew the sea-dragon Tiawath in terrible combat. He told her, too, of the temple-tower of Esagifa in Babylon, which was the Tower of Babel of the scriptures, and of the great King Hammurabi, who built up a code of laws for Babylonia as Babylonia had built up the temple-tower. Once he stopped to point out to her a fragmentary tablet in one of the cases. "There.” he said, “is the story of the birth and childhood of Srrgon I, King of Agade—a more ancient version of our Bible story of Moses. It says that, he was found in an ark of reeks, floating on the River Euphrates. A man called Akki, a water.carrier, found him and brought him up. Then the goddess. Ishtar, fell, in loj;e with him and made him king 'Over all that country. lie was founder of the j first Babylonian Empire.”

“How extraordinary ! ” sre exclaimed. “Aiid how long was this, Derek, before the time of Moses?” “It is supposed that Sargon reigned about 3800 8.C., but we have no exact proof yet," he told her. “Talking of Ishtar,” he continued, “I always like the legend of her and Tammuz—Tammuz the Adonis of the Greeks. I have told you before though, haven’t I?” He checked his speech and looked down at her, his kind peering eyes showing some contrition. “Perhaps you are tired of all this?” “N"o, no,” Gentian replied. “Don't stop, Derek. I like it. Please tell Apart from her own interest, she was glad to see her fiance free from his late somewhat dejected quietude, talking with real animation on the topic which interested him most. A gleam of gratification came into his eyes. They sat down together upon one of the long polished benches and he began the story. Well knowing his accustomed undemonstrative tranquility, she was surprised at the warmth of romantic emotion that vibrated in his tones. Whatever there was of true lyrical enthusiasm in Derek Ilewling’s composition was now manifested in his narration of this touching legend of love’s selfless endurance. “Ishtar, the Babylonian Venus and goddess of love, had lost her husband Tammuz, who, through sickness and death, had passed down into the dark underworld. Broken-hearted, she determined to find her way into Arali , and bring him back again. But when i she got to the gates she was refused admittance until, in a fury, she threatened to exert her powers and burst open the gates. Then the porter let | her in and told her that, after having performed certain ceremonies, she should go before Eres-ki-gal, or Allatu, the Queen of Arali, to make her petition. But the ceremonies were these: On her way into the innermost part of the country of the dead she had to go through seven portals, at each of which they took away from her one garment or ornament, so that, at ; last, passing through that land of fear and darkness, Ishtar stood before Allatu in all her unflinching love and beauty, stripped of everything that belonged to life, naked. And when Allatu saw her she hated Ishtar and kept her there and tormented her. “But neither heaven nor earth could go on without the goddess of love; so Shamask, the sun-god, and Ea, the god of destiny, sent down a messenger to Arali to demand her release. Allatu. filled with hatred and jealousy, was bound to obey. Ishtar was brought forth, sprinkled with the Water of Life and led up out of the land of the dead. At each of the seven terrible portals she was re-clothed in the garment or ornament that had been taken from her, until she emerged once more into the world above in all her lovely goddesshood again.” Gentian had listened spell-bound, not so much at the narration as at the manner of it. Absorbed in his representation of the legend, Derek had seemed to see what he was recounting. His introspective gaze appeared actually to follow the misfortunes and dread wanderings of the goddess until she stood naked, “in all her unflinching love and beautj-,” before her enemy. And when he told of her return to earth, his face lit up with a real joy in her release from the captvity of death. Gentian was amazed. This Was to her a new trait in Derek’s character. She had no idea that beneath the sober fabric of his disposition could vibrate such poetical emotion. A b’ttle wistfully she wondered why she had never seen it before, why she herself had never, as far as she was also to tell, aroused in him any such lyrical fervour. Even as she wondered, the light died out of Derek’s countenance and he glanced at her a trifle shamefacedly. “It's a nice legend, isn’t it?” he asked, with a certain diffidence in his tones. “It is beautiful,” she replied thoughtfully. There was a pause. “But what became of Tammuz?” she asked. “Did he go back, too, or was her mission all in vain?” Hewiing smiled. “I can’t authentically give you a happy ending but, at any rate, the inscription seems to suggest it,” he said. The little burst of fervour over, he had relapsed into a somewhat dogmatic and unemotional gravity. Although Gentian had read extracts and chapters of Hewling’s book, never before had the great and wonderful history of these vanished peoples been made so real and significant. She was untiringly eager to listen and both were quite oblivious of the passage of time. It was the custodian who at last brought them abruptly back through the ages by returning to announce that it was the hour at which the museum closed. For that night Il.ewling had booked seats for a very popular musical comedy which was then running triumphantly. They dined at a gay and well-known restaurant and went on, Gentian enjoying to the full every moment of the evening and prepared to appreciate the performance with her accustomed uncritical enthusiasm. It was not until the lights went up after The first act that, looking idly round the audience, she saw Paul. He was sitting in a balcony box accompanied by a lady who was talking with a great deal of vivacity. As far as could be judged, she would have been exceedingly pretty in the original, but, with hair of a wonderful golden hue and lips of startling red, she had so far diverged from what nature had intended as to have become somewhat unrefined, especially as hers was at prettiness which would at no time have shown any particular traces of breeding. She was dressed in a black gown, cut extremely low, in which she wore a spray of great shaded mauve orchids. A glittering band encircled her hair, terminating in an immense black osprey at the back, a most effective setting for the shining golden head. Her restless hands played alternately with a long mauve, single ostrich feather fan and a pair of jewelled operaglasses which she occasionally lifted perfunctorily to her eyes: (To be Continued.)