Old Toys and a New Shadow

Jurgen had with nobility, Jurgen reflected: but he had himself. "I go in search of my dear wife," he had stated, in the of sentiments. And now Jurgen himself alone in a world of moonlight just where he had last his wife.

"Well, well," he said, "now that my Wednesday is done with, and I am again a pawnbroker, let us the of sometimes doing the thing! It was into this that Lisa went. So into this go I, for the second time, than home to my relatives-in-law. Or at least, I think I am going--"

"Ay," said a voice, "this is the time. A ab hus!"

"High time!"

"Oh, more than time!"

"Look, the man in the oak!"

"Oho, the fire-drake!"

Thus many voices and confusedly. But Jurgen, about him, see nobody: and all the voices to come from overhead, where nothing was visible save the clouds which of a were gathering; for a wind was rising, and already the moon was overcast. Now for a while that noise high in the air like a of sparrows, no were distinguishable.

Then said a small voice distinctly: "Note now, sweethearts, how high we pass over the wind-vexed heath, where the gallows' and to and in the night! Now the rain as a from the fowler, and Queen Holda her over the moon's shield. Now the is made, and the water drawn, and we the bride's for the who will be to Sclaug."

Said another: "Oh, search for a with hair, who is perfect, and pure, and fit for a king who is old as love, with no of love in him. Even now our master from sleep, and his yellow shake to think of her flower-soft who comes to-night to his and the that our have seen. Who will be to Sclaug?"

And a third said: "The wedding-gown we have with us, we that a-questing ride; and a will go hence on Phorgemon in Cleopatra's shroud. Hah. Will o'the Wisp will the couple--"

"No, no! let Brachyotus!"

"No, be it Kitt with the candle-stick!"

"Eman hetan, a fight, a fight!"

"Oho, Tom Tumbler, 'ware of Stadlin!"

"Hast the marmaritin, Tib?"

"A ab hus!"

"Come, Bembo, come away!"

So they all to and and high over Jurgen's head, and Jurgen was not pleased with his surroundings.

"For these are the of Amneran about some or another in which I to take no part. I now that I away a in this neighborhood so very recently, and trust the action was understood. If my wife had not a point of it, and had not positively upon it, I would have of doing such a thing. I no upon anybody. Even so, I this to be unwholesome. And upon the whole, I to I may in this cave."

So in Jurgen, for the second time.

And the tells that all was dark there, and Jurgen see no one. But the forward, and downward, and at the end was a of light. Jurgen on and on, and so came to the place where he had the Centaur. This part of the was now vacant. But where Nessus had in wait for Jurgen was an opening in the cave's wall, and through this opening the light. Jurgen and through the orifice.

He erect. He his sharply. Here at his was, of all things, a with the of a woman. Now this part of the was by upon tall iron stands, so that was visible, to Jurgen, had of late years failed him. This was a low such as Jurgen had in many churches: but the was curious, somehow Jurgen looked more closely. He touched the thing.

Then he recoiled, there is no the of flesh. The was not stone: it was the of a woman. More still, it was the of Félise de Puysange, Jurgen had loved very long ago in Gâtinais, a great many years he set up in as a pawnbroker.

Very it was to Jurgen again to see her face. He had often what had of this large woman; had if he were the man for she had put a upon her husband; and had what of person Madame Félise de Puysange had been in reality.

"Two months it was that we played at intimacy, was it not, Félise? You comprehend, my dear, I very little about you. But I the door left just a-jar, and how as I opened it I would see of all the lamp upon your dressing-table, almost to extinction, and the upon its shade. Is it not that our should have resulted in nothing save the memory of upon a lamp chimney? Yet you were very handsome, Félise. I say I would have liked you if I had you. But when you told me of the child you had lost, and me his picture, I took a to you. It to me you were that child by over-generously with me: and always us was his little ghost. Yet I did not at all mind the you put upon your husband. It is true I your husband intimately--. Well, and they tell me the good Vicomte was pleased by the son you him some months after you and I had parted. So there was no great done, after all--"

Then Jurgen saw there was another woman's like an upon another low tomb, and that another, and then still others. And Jurgen whistled.

"What, all of them!" he said. "Am I to be with every of I have embraced? Yes, here is Graine, and Rosamond, and Marcouève, and Elinor. This girl, though, I do not at all. And this one is, I think, the little Jewess I purchased from Hassan Bey in Sidon, but how can one be sure? Still, this is Judith, and this is Myrina. I have a mind to look again for that mole, but I it would be indecorous. Lord, how one's do add up! There must be of them in all. It is the of that a man to thinking. Well, but it is a great to that I with every one of them. Several of them me most unjustly, too. But that is past and done with: and I no toward such and short-sighted as not be with one lover, and he the Jurgen that was!"

Thereafter, Jurgen, among his dead, spread out his arms in an gesture.

"Hail to you, ladies, and farewell! for you and I have done with love. Well, love is very to as he advances, all memories with laughter. And yet for each lover who the of love, and love's liveries, the end of all is death. Love's is more than love's harvest: or, let us put it, he us into leading nowhither, among which the wind: so at the last, with much and and valuable time wasted, we that the end of all is death. Then would it have been more shrewd, dear ladies, to have love? To the contrary, we were wise to the high-hearted that love induced; since love alone can people rapture, transiently, in a world the result of every is transient, and the end of all is death."

Then Jurgen to his loves, and left them, and as the stretched.

But now the light was him, so that Jurgen's shadow, as he came to a turn in the cave, upon the wall, him. This was clear-cut and unarguable.

Jurgen it intently. He this way, then the other; he looked him, one hand, his tentatively; then he his with his well lifted, and so as to a profile view of this shadow. Whatever Jurgen did the repeated, which was natural enough. The odd part was that it in nothing the which ought to any man, and this was an to make in under ground.

"I do not like this," said Jurgen. "Upon my word, I do not like this at all. It not fair. It is perfectly preposterous. Well"--and here he shrugged,--"well, and what me to do about it? Ah, what indeed! So I shall the with contempt, and continue my of this cave."