Of Compromises on a Wednesday

So it was that, upon a was marked with a coronet, the returned to a place, and to a moment, which he remembered. It was to be a again, and to all that was to for the next twenty years.

As it chanced, the person he was his mother Azra, Coth had loved very but not long. And Jurgen talked with Azra of what he would be likely to need in Gâtinais, and of how often he would to her. She the new shirt he was wearing, as was to be expected, since Azra had always to select her son's than trust to Jurgen's taste. His new she to be a animal; and only he had not it from who would him into trouble. For Azra, it must be recorded, had any in her son; and was the only woman, Jurgen felt, who him.

And now as his mother and at him, Jurgen of that very and which in the years was to them; and of how she would die without his of her death for two whole months; and of how his life would be changed, somehow, and the world would an place in which you no longer put faith. And he all the he was to away, after the of so much and love. But these were not yet: and besides, these were inevitable.

"And yet that these should be is not fair," said Jurgen.

So it was with all the he encountered. The people he loved when at his best as a were so very soon, and through causes, to nothing to him, and he himself was to be into a tradesman. And to Jurgen a and process.

Then Jurgen left the home of his youth, and toward Bellegarde, and his upon the heath, and into the castle. Thus Jurgen came to Dorothy. She was and dear, and yet, by some odd turn, not so and dear as the Dorothy he had in the garden and sunrise. And Dorothy, like else, Jurgen's new shirt.

"It is designed for such festivals," said Jurgen, modestly--"a little of my own. A extreme, some might it, but there is no everybody. And I like a of color."

For there was a that night at the of Bellegarde: and and sad it was to Jurgen to what was to so many of the participants.

Jurgen had not this Wednesday, this Wednesday upon which Messire de Montors had the Confraternity of St. Médard from Brunbelois, to a of The Birth of Hercules, as the were now doing, to applause. Jurgen it was the day Bellegarde that Count Emmerick's guest, the Vicomte de Puysange, was in the outlaw, Perion de la Forêt. Well, the yet was talking very with Dame Melicent: and Jurgen all that was in store for this pair of lovers.

Meanwhile, as Jurgen reflected, the Vicomte de Puysange was at this moment in a delirium, at Benoit's: to-morrow the true Vicomte would be recognized, and the year the Vicomte would have married Félise de Soyecourt, and later Jurgen would meet her, in the orchard; and Jurgen what was to then also.

And Messire de Montors was Dame Melicent, sidewise, while he with little Ettarre, who was this night permitted to up later than usual, in of the masque: and Jurgen that this was to Pope of Rome, no less; and that the child he with was to the woman for of Guiron Rocques and the surly-looking small boy yonder, Maugis d'Aigremont, would with each other until the country had been devastated, and the Jurgen now was had been besieged, and this part of it burned. And and sad it was to Jurgen thus to all that was going to to these persons, and to all the other who were in the of their and laughing at this masque.

For here--with so much of and failure impending, and with prepared so soon to a many of these in to Jurgen; and with death so soon to make an end of almost all this company in some fashion that Jurgen exactly,--here and ghastly. Why, but Reinault yonder, who laughed so loud, with his back: would Reinault be laughing in this manner if he the he thus was going to be cut like the of a calf, while three Burgundians him? Jurgen this thing was to Reinault Vinsauf October was out. So he looked at Reinault's throat, and in his set teeth.

"And he is a score of me, this boy!" Jurgen: "and it is I who am going to live to be an old fellow, with my of land in fee, years after those eyes, and years after this big-hearted boy is wasted! And I shall all about him, too. Marion l'Edol, that very girl him, is to a and of alleys, a at men's sleeves! And blue-eyed Colin here, with his mouth, is to be for that of coin-clipping--let me recall, now,--yes, six years of to-night! Well, but in a way, these people are in foresight. For they laugh, and I cannot laugh, and to me their is more terrible than weeping. Yes, they may be very wise in not over what is inevitable; and I cannot go so as to say they are wrong: but still, at the same time--! And assuredly, to me in a and process."

Thus Jurgen, while the others passed a very evening.

And presently, when the was over, Dorothy and Jurgen out upon the terrace, to the east of Bellegarde, and so came to an world of moonlight. They sat upon a bench of near the which the highway: and the boy and the girl the highway, over and tree-tops. Just so they had sat there, as Jurgen perfectly remembered, when Mother Sereda used this Wednesday.

"My Heart's Desire," says Jurgen, "I am sad to-night. For I am of what life will do to us, and what the years will make of you and me."

"My own sweetheart," says she, "and do we not know very well what is to happen?" And Dorothy to talk of all the that Jurgen was to do, and of the happy life which was to be theirs together.

"It is horrible," he said: "for we are more than we shall be hereafter. We have a for which the world has no employment. It will be wasted. And such is not fair."

"But presently you will be so and so," says she: and all manner of which, as Jurgen remembered, had once very to him also. Now he had knowledge as to the of the boy of he had so well.

"No, Heart's Desire: no, I shall be otherwise."

"--and to think how proud I shall be of you! 'But then I always it', I shall tell everybody, very condescendingly--"

"No, Heart's Desire: for you will not think of me at all."

"Ah, sweetheart! and can you that I shall a of my for but you?"

Then Jurgen laughed a little; for Heitman Michael came now across the terrace, in search of Madame Dorothy: and Jurgen this was the man to two months of this Dorothy was to give her love and all the that was hers, and with she was to the years which ahead.

But the girl did not know this, and Dorothy gave a little gesture. "I have promised to with him, and so I must. But the old is a great plague."

For Heitman Michael was thirty, and this to Dorothy and Jurgen was an age that upon senility.

"Now, by heaven," said Jurgen, "wherever Heitman Michael his next dancing it will not be hereabouts."

Jurgen had what he must do.

And then Heitman Michael them civilly. "But I I must you of this lady, Master Jurgen," says he.

Jurgen that the man had said this a score of years ago; and that Jurgen had regrets, and had while Heitman Michael off Dorothy to with him. And this had been the of Heitman Michael and Dorothy.

"Heitman," says Jurgen, "the which you is very me, since, as it happens, the next is to be mine."

"We can but it to the lady," says Heitman Michael, laughing.

"Not I," says Jurgen. "For I know too well what would come of that. I to my to no one."

"Your conduct, Master Jurgen, is strange," Heitman Michael.

"Ah, but I will you a thing yet stranger. For, look you, there to be three of us here on this terrace. Yet I can you there are four."

"Read me the riddle, my boy, and have done."

"The fourth of us, Heitman, is a that a and has black wings. She can of no temples, and no to her anywhere, she is the only no prayers can move or any placate. I allude, sir, to the of Nox and Erebus."

"You speak of death, I take it."

"Your apprehension, Heitman, is nimble. Even so, it is not quick enough, I fear, to the of goddesses. Indeed, what person have that this lady would have taken such a for your company."

"Ah, my bantam," Heitman Michael, "it is true that she and I are acquainted. I may of having one or two to her underground. Now, as I your meaning, you plan that I should decrease her by sending her a whippersnapper."

"My notion, Heitman, is that since this dark is about to us, she should not, in common gallantry, be permitted to go hence unaccompanied. I propose, therefore, that we decide who is to be her escort."

Now Heitman Michael had his sword. "You are insane. But you an which I have yet refused."

"Heitman," Jurgen, in and admiration, "I you no ill-will. But it is necessary you die to-night, in order that my may not too many years my body."

With that he too out his sword.

So they fought. Now Jurgen was a very swordsman, but from the start he in Heitman Michael his master. Jurgen had upon that, and he it annoying. If Heitman Michael Jurgen the would be altered, certainly, but not as Jurgen had it ought to be remodeled. So this unlooked-for preposterous, and Jurgen to be by the that he was himself killed for nothing at all.

Meanwhile his tall but to play with Jurgen, so that Jurgen was toward the balustrade. And presently Jurgen's was from his hand, and sent over the balustrade, into the public highway.

"So now, Master Jurgen," says Heitman Michael, "that is the end of your nonsense. Why, no, there is not any occasion to like a statue. I do not to kill you. Why the devil's name, should I? To do so would only me an name with your parents: and it is more to with this lady, just as I intended." And he toward Madame Dorothy.

But Jurgen this outcome of insufferable. This man was than he, this man was of the that takes and all the world's which can but admire. All was to do again: Heitman Michael, in his own phrase, would act just as he had intended, and Jurgen would be by the man's strength. This man would take away Dorothy, and the life of Jurgen to a which Jurgen with distaste. It was unfair.

So Jurgen out his dagger, and it into the of Heitman Michael. Three times Jurgen and the soldier, just the left ribs. Even in his Jurgen to on the left side.

It was all very done. Heitman Michael's arms upward, and in the moonlight his spread and clutched. He noises. Then the from his knees, so that he backward. His upon Jurgen's shoulder, there for an fraternally; and as Jurgen away from the contact, the of Heitman Michael collapsed. Now he upward, at the of his murderer. He was looking, but he was dead.

"What will of you?" Dorothy whispered, after a while. "Oh, Jurgen, it was done, that which you did was infamous! What will of you, my dear?"

"I will take my doom," says Jurgen, "and without whimpering, so that I justice. But I shall upon justice." Then Jurgen his to the heavens. "The man was than I and wanted what I wanted. So I have with necessity, in the only way I make sure of that which was to me. I for to the power that gave him and gave me weakness, and gave to each of us his desires. That which I have done, I have done. Now judge!"

Then Jurgen and the of Heitman Michael, until it well out of sight, under the bench upon which Jurgen and Dorothy had been sitting. "Rest there, sir, until they you. Come to me now, my Heart's Desire. Good, that is excellent. Here I with my true love, upon the of my enemy. Justice is satisfied, and all is as it should be. For you must that I have to a steed, is marked with a coronet,--prophetically, I take it,--and upon this you will with me to Lisuarte. There we will a to us. We will go together into Gâtinais. Meanwhile, there is a of neglected to be to." And he the girl close to him.

For Jurgen was of nothing now. And Jurgen thought:

"Oh, that I the moment! that I make some to this moment in my own memory! Could I but into the odor and the thick of this girl's as my hands, that are a-quiver in every nerve of them, her hair; and into the and the cloudy of her in this be-drenching moonlight! For I shall all this beauty, or at best I shall this moment very dimly."

"You have done very wrong--" says Dorothy.

Says Jurgen, to himself: "Already the moment this happy moment once more life and heart-stricken at the of bliss! it passes, and I know as I this girl's soft to mine, and mark what and and is in her face, that the for us, and of we two may know hereafter, we shall no than this, which from us while I am about it, fool, in place of to the issue."

"--And only what will of you Jurgen--"

Says Jurgen, still to himself: "Yes, something must to me of all this rapture, though it be only and sorrow: something I to from this high moment which was once fruitlessly. Now I am wiser: for I know there is not any memory with less in it than the memory of some we resisted. So I will not waste the one I have known, the one which me for a heart-beat to to think about Jurgen's welfare. And thus, happens, I shall not always that I did not myself of this girl's love it was taken from me."

So Jurgen such as good to him. And he noted, with memories of how much he had once been of his Dorothy's of decorum, that she did not him very vigorously.

"Here, over a body! Oh, Jurgen, this is horrible! Now, Jurgen, that somebody may come any minute! And I I trust you! Ah, and is this all the respect you have for me!" This much she said in duty. Meanwhile the of Dorothy were and very tender.

"Faith, I take no chances, this second time. And so happens, I shall not always that which I left undone."

Now upon his was laughter, and his arms were about the girl. And in his was an and a loneliness, it to him that this was not the Dorothy he had in the garden and sunrise. For in my arms now there is just a very girl who is not over-careful in her with men, Jurgen, as their met. Well, all life is a compromise; and a girl is something tangible, at any rate. So he laughed, triumphantly, and prepared for the sequel.

But as Jurgen laughed triumphantly, with his arm the of Dorothy, and with the of Dorothy his lips, and with in his heart, the midnight. What was curious: for as Wednesday passed, the of Dorothy altered, her under his touch, and her away, and lines came about her eyes, and she the Countess Dorothy Jurgen as Heitman Michael's wife. There was no about it, in that be-drenching moonlight: and she was at him, and he was her everywhere, this woman, who was old to know than to permit such liberties. And her was and nauseous. Jurgen away from her, with a of loathing, and he closed his eyes, to away that face.

"No," he said; "it would not be to what we to others. In fact, it would be a very sin. We should such occasionally, madame."

Then Jurgen left his temptress, with dignity. "I go to search for my dear wife, madame, in a of mind which I would you to toward your husband."

And he the of Bellegarde, and to where his was upon Amneran Heath: and Jurgen was very virtuous.