Of Compromises in Hell

Now Grandfather Satan's wife was called Phyllis: and from having like a bat's, she was the little of that Jurgen had in a long while. Jurgen this night at the Black House of Barathum, and two more nights, or it might be three nights: and the of what Jurgen used to do there, after supper, when he would walk alone in the Black House Gardens, among the cast-iron flowers and shrubbery, and would so come to the of Phyllis's room, and would there joking with her in the dark, are not to this story.

Satan was very of his wife, and one of her and her under lock and key, as the that she was. But Jurgen was to say that, while the over the were very formidable, they only somehow to the of his with Dame Phyllis. This queen, said Jurgen, he had at repartee.

Florimel the saying cryptic: just what did his mean?

"Why, that in any and all Dame Phyllis how to take a joke, and to return as good as she receives."

"So your has already me: and can be through a grating--"

"Yes, that was what I meant. And Dame Phyllis appeared to my of humor. She me Grandfather Satan is of a cold temperament, with very little in him, so that they go for months without any pleasantries. Well, I am to taste any drink once: and for the rest, that my had very and horns, I was at particular pains to with my hostess. Though, indeed, it was more for the and the of the than anything else that I with Satan's wife. For to do that, my dear, I was of the Emperor Jurgen."

"Ah, I am your is a sad scapegrace," Florimel: "however, we all know that the of an is everywhere."

"Indeed," says Jurgen, "I have often that I did not with me my when I left Noumaria."

She at some thought: it was not until some while that Florimel told Jurgen of her with the absent-minded Sultan of Garçao's sceptre. Now she only that might, conceivably, and out of place.

Jurgen to this truism: for of they were very quietly, and Jurgen was for any wife's requirements, in his shirt.

So Jurgen got on with Florimel. But he as of her as he had been of Guenevere or Anaïtis, one-tenth as of her as he had been of Chloris. In the place, he that Florimel had been by his father, and Coth and Jurgen had any tastes in common: and in the second place, Jurgen not but see that Florimel a great of his being an emperor.

"It is my title she loves, not me," Jurgen, sadly, "and her is less for that which is to me than for and and such-like trappings."

And Jurgen would come out of Florimel's dejected, and would alone by the Sea of Blood, and would how it was that the title of should thus him off from and candor.

"We who are called kings and are men like other men: we are as as other to the of true love and affection: instead, we live in a isolation, and offer us all save their hearts, and we are a folk. No, I cannot that Florimel loves me for myself alone: it is my title which her. And I would that I had myself the of Noumaria: for this goes about in a splendor, and is, very naturally, in his semi-mythical magnificence. Ah, but these the of Florimel from the Jurgen; so that the Jurgen is a person she not at all. And it is not fair."

Then, too, he had a of against the way in which Florimel her time in and men. It was not possible, of course, actually to the girl, since she was the of circumstances, and had no choice about a vampire, once the cat had jumped over her coffin. Still, Jurgen always felt, in his illogical way, that her was not nice. And in the illogical way of men, did he in Florimel to tell him of her transactions, in of his that he would to have his wife in some other trade: and the little would him enough, with her a-sparkle, and with her back, so as to her white teeth plainly.

She was very thus, as she told him of what in Copenhagen when Count Osmund into the beggar-woman's cellar, and what they did with of him; and of how one of came to have a name, which, when in the night, with the ceremony, will about happenings; and of what one can do with small children, if only they do not you, with their little mouths, for then this thing is impossible; and of what use she had of Sir Ganelon's skull, when he was through with it, and she with him; and of what the Wulfnoth had said to the at the very last.

"Oh, yes, my life has its side," said Florimel: "and one to feel, of course, that one is not out of touch with things, and is even, in one's way, to the of folly. But so, your majesty, the calls that are upon one! the that men of you, as the price of their and ruin! and the their relatives say about you! and, above all, the strain, the hours, and the to live up to one's position! Oh, yes, your majesty, I was when I was a and took in my buttonholes. But from a sister-in-law who only has you in to tea occasionally as a of duty, and who is in churchwork, one may, of course, anything. And that me that I must tell your about what in the hay-loft, just after the had undressing--"

So she would away, while Jurgen and indulgently. For she was very pretty. And so they house in Hell until Florimel's was at an end: and then they parted, without any but in perfect friendliness.

And Jurgen always Florimel most pleasantly, but not as a wife with he had been on terms of intimacy.

Now when this Vampire had him, the Emperor Jurgen, in of his and the his political views, was not happy in Hell.

"It is a comfort, at any rate," said Jurgen, "to who the of government. I have long who started the that the way to a wise on any question was to submit it to a popular vote. Now I know. Well, and the may be right in their doctrines; I cannot go so as to say they are wrong: but still, at the same time--!"

For instance, this to make the safe for democracy, this against Heaven Heaven to a of government, logical and magnanimous, and was, of course, the only method of any for democracy: yet it to Jurgen, since, as he now, there was something in the Celestial which for efficiency, so that Heaven won. Moreover, Jurgen not over the that Hell was just a of his with which Koshchei had to in: for Jurgen had much patience with ideas, particularly when anyone put them into practice, as Koshchei had done.

"Why, this place to me a anachronism," said Jurgen, over the of Chorasma: "and its methods of people I cannot but very indeed. The are simple-minded and they well, as nobody would of denying, but that is just it: for is needed some more and person--"

And that, of course, him of Dame Lisa: and so it was the of Jurgen again to doing the thing. And he sighed, and among the looking and for that who in the of a black had off Dame Lisa. But a befell, and it was that Jurgen the black gentleman, did any of the know anything about him.

"From what you tell us, Emperor Jurgen," said they all, "your wife was an shrew, and the of woman who that she is right."

"It was not a belief," says Jurgen: "it was a with the dear."

"By that fact, then, she is from entering Hell."

"You tell me news," says Jurgen, "which if would lead many husbands into living."

"But it is that people are saved by faith. And there is no than that of a bad-tempered woman in her own infallibility. Plainly, this wife of yours is the of person who cannot be by of the angels. We that your Empress must be in Heaven."

"Well, that reasonable. And so to Heaven I will go, and it may be that there I shall justice."

"We would have you know," the cried, bristling, "that in Hell we have all of justice, since our government is an democracy."

"Just so," says Jurgen: "in an one has all of justice, and I would not of it. But you have not, you conceive, that plague, my wife; and it is she I must continue to look for."

"Oh, as you like," said they, "so long as you do not the of war-time. But we are sorry to see you going into a country where the people put up with an Who was not elected to His position. And why need you continue your wife's when it is so much in Hell?"

And Jurgen shrugged. "One has to do the thing sometimes."

So the told him the way to Heaven's frontiers, him. "But the of the must be your affair."

"I have a cantrap," said Jurgen; "and my in Hell has me how to use it."

Then Jurgen his instructions, and into Meridie, and to the left when he had come to the great where the and are reared, and so passed through the of Tartarus, with of the wild lightning, and took the second turn to his left--"always in Heaven be by your heart," had been the him by devils,--and thus the of Jemra, he the over the Bottomless Pit and the Narakas. And Brachus, who the toll-gate on this bridge, did that of which the had Jurgen: but for this, of course, there was no help.