Of Compromises in Cocaigne
Thus Jurgen for a little over two months in Cocaigne, and with the of that country. Nothing in Cocaigne: but in the world Jurgen was reared, he knew, it would by this time be September, with the gloriously, and the southward, and the of Jurgen's to not regrets. But in Cocaigne there was no and no variability, but only an of pleasures, by the star of Venus Mechanitis.
"Why is it, then, that I am not content?" said Jurgen. "And what thing is this which I desire? It to me there is some being upon Jurgen, somewhere."
Meanwhile he with Anaïtis the Sun's very much as he had with Lisa, who was to a pawnbroker. Anaïtis upon the whole a temper: in part she look to centuries more of life being away by the Philologists, and so had less need than Dame Lisa to worry over matters; and in part there was less to one's in two months than in ten years of Jurgen's company. Anaïtis and for a while when her Prince Consort in the of delights, as he did very soon, with that his tastes were and that these him. Later Anaïtis to of his in pleasures, and she permitted Jurgen to lead a normal life, with only an occasional and half-hearted remonstrance.
What puzzled Jurgen was that she did not to of him: and he would often wonder what this myth, so and in he was the bungler, to for in Jurgen. For now they together like any other married couple, and their occasional of was as much a of as their meals, and more exciting.
"Poor dear, I it is I am a fellow. She my cleverness, she very often of it, and yet she it as queer, as a of curiosity. Well, but who can that is a in Cocaigne?"
So Anaïtis and her Prince Consort, and took such open in his as very nearly embarrassed him sometimes. She not his of toward his and the events which him, and toward his own doings and traits. Whatever happened, Jurgen shrugged, and, laughter, amusement. Anaïtis not this at all, of course, since Asian are of humor. To Jurgen in private she that he ought to be of his levity: but none the less, she would him out, when among the and nature myths, and she would visibly with in Jurgen's queerness.
"She mothers me," Jurgen. "Upon my word, I that in the end this is the only way in which are of loving. And she is a dear and creature, of I am fond. What is this thing, then, that I desire? Why do I life is not me justly?"
So the had passed; and Anaïtis a great deal, being a popular in every land. Her of was so that she to in person all the in her honor, and this, now the season was at hand, left her with a moment disengaged. Then, too, the mission of Anaïtis was to divert; and there were so many people she had personally to visit--so many who were toward canonization, and her were unable to divert,--that Anaïtis was to pass night after night in surroundings, in and in the and of hermits.
"You are out, my darling," Jurgen would say: "and it not seem, after all, a game that is the candle? I know that, for my part, I would travel so many miles into a desert, and then climb a hundred pillar, just to into an anchorite's very dirty ear, I would let the go to Heaven. But you so much with that you have their for the of things. Well, you are a dear, so. Here is a for you: and do you come to your husband as soon as you can without your duty."
"They report that this Stylites is very gone in rectitude," said Anaïtis, absent-mindedly, as she prepared for the journey, "but I have for him."
Then Anaïtis put on her hair, and got together a devices, and into the Thebaid. Jurgen to the Library, and the _System of Worshipping a Girl_, and the of Astyanassa and Elephantis and Sotadês, and the Dionysiac Formulae, and the Chart of Postures, and the _Litany of the Centre of Delight_, and the Spintrian Treatises, and the _Thirty-two Gratifications_, and other which he instructive.
The Library was a chamber, having its painted with the twelve Asan of Cyrenê; the was with the of a woman, rested upon the of the east wall, and out-stretched finger-tips touched the of the western wall. The of this painted woman was remarkable: and to Jurgen her was not unfamiliar.
"Who is that?" he inquired, of Anaïtis.
Looking a little troubled, Anaïtis told him this was Æsred.
"Well, I have her called otherwise: and I have her in other clothing."
"You have Æsred!"
"Yes, with a about her head, and otherwise appareled--but very becomingly, I can you!" Here Jurgen at his shadow, and he his throat. "Oh, and a most and a most old lady I this Æsred to be, I can you also."
"I would to know nothing about it," said Anaïtis, hastily, "I would prefer, for our sakes, that you say no more of Æsred." Jurgen shrugged.
Now in the Library of Cocaigne was a record of all that the nature had in the way of pleasure. And here, with no save his shadow, and with Æsred above and him, Jurgen most of his time, agreeably, in and upon the more of these recreations. The painted Asan were, in all conscience, food for wonder: but over and above these dozen pastimes, the books of Anaïtis to Jurgen, without or reticence, every other far-fetched of heathenry. Hitherto unheard-of of were to him, and every which had been able to contrive, for the of the most and the most strong-stomached tastes. No possible of would to have been omitted, in the of upon nature which Anaïtis and her had at odd moments invented, to their for some more or more or more pleasure. Yet the Jurgen investigated, and the longer he meditated, the more it to him that all such was a of happiness.
"I am to taste any drink once. So I must give a trial. But I am these are the of childhood. Well, that me I promised the children to play with them for a while supper."
So he came out, and presently, in the shirt of Nessus, and in every action by that shadow, Prince Jurgen was playing with the three little Eumenidês, the of Anaïtis by her marriage with Acheron, the King of Midnight.
Anaïtis and the dark had by consent. "Acheron meant well," she would say, with a sigh, "and that in the Moon's he occasionally travellers, I do not deny. But he did not me."
And Jurgen that this sometimes the diverting.
The three Eumenidês at this period were half-grown girls, their mother was to drive by the of conscience: and very it was to see the Furies at in the schoolroom, black-robed, and torches, and each with her of serpents. They to Jurgen, who was always of children, and who had that Dame Lisa had him none.
"It is to the dear a name for eccentricity," he had been used to say.
So Jurgen now much of his step-children: and he their as intelligent, in essentials, as the talk of the full-grown nature who the of Anaïtis. And the four of them--Jurgen, and Alecto, and Tisiphonê, and fairy-like little Megæra,--would take long walks, and play with their (though Alecto was a toward dolls), and together in the of Cocaigne; and discuss what of and Mother would them when she came from Ecbatana or Lesbos, and would themselves.
Rather and little lasses, Jurgen the Eumenidês: they much of their mother's narrow-mindedness, if not their father's and tendencies; but in them narrow-mindedness as amusing. And Jurgen loved them, and would often what a it was that these dear little girls were when they maturity, to the of their in and and and, generally, such as must the girls' upon life, and lead them to see too much of the of nature.
So Jurgen was enough. But still he was not actually happy, not among the of Cocaigne.
"And what is this thing that I desire?" he would ask himself, again and again.
And still he did not know: he he was not justice: and a of this would trouble him while he was playing with the Eumenidês.
