The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-02-27
TEIE PRESS.
In the British Museum.
Rlaokwnnd.s MAGAZINE. J

sponsible position. Nor was he passively
content with the stamp of nature; he had
made his mark in the world besides-thou
it was not so 1eep mark as he felt that he
deserved. But if he had less. than his de-
serts. he was not unhappy. He found COM
fort In a possession, which he called his
philosophy; it warmed him; he passed it
round to others in small but antique cups.
s'What can't be cured, must be endured.p
he would say with an air of happy inspira-
tion. dust goes before the broom.'' he
would murmur as he followed an official
more highly exalted than himself. But more
than any other mouthful of sound wisdom
did Robert Pepperel love this rich saying
There is nothing new under the sum-" AS
Mr.. Pepperel asserted that there was no
new thing beneath the ancient sun, the
mighty relics of Egypt seemed to tremble,
and timid pupils of the antique felt the in
tolerable weight of all ages; one remembered
the seven wise men of Greece, each with
his own peculiar proverb.
Hannah Bellerby glowed with admiration
of the dignity and reticence of Robert Pep
perel. "Ths least said the soonest mended,"
he would say; and she bearing him would
gasp for the sudden expansion of her heart
Mrs. Bellerby loved the relics of ancient art /;
and she loved Mr.. Pepperel, but with Pla-
tonic love; Mr.. Pepperel was marriedman.
11dIHdu dDDTOdCU6u Lie ancient statues Wltn
enthusiasm, impulsive, red with sacred fire,
and she made mistakes about their several
periods. Robert never made mistakes; he
could tell you in moment the century and
the school. The admiration of Hannah
Bellerby was one of the compensations which
Robert Pepperel found in his quiet life; it
added warmth to that fine quality which he
called bis philosophy.
There were other compensations in the life
of Robert Pepperel. If nature, when she
marked him as one apart from his fellows,
had taken care that the good thing made
precious by her sacred sign should not be
heavy, Mr.. Peppere had more dignity than
many bulkier persons. There was dignity
in his Office, too, if it were not so lofty as he
deserved At least he was a guardian of
great public TREASURES The wand, the SYM
Dol of his state, was not little taller than
himself; it lent majesi Y; it was like top
less billiard-cue; gold-sticks and black-rods
were akin to it. Leaning like Corydon on
his topless cue, Robert Pepperel felt the full
dignity of bis important, if modest position.
Then might he patronize that little shrimp
of boy, who stood on a box to draw the
mighty muscles of Theseus. Then might he
criticlse with friendly ease the charcoal eff
forts of young persons of the other sex. In
young persons of the other sex Mr. Pepperel
felt tender interest, an interest almost
paternal; Mrs. Pepperel, engaged in house
hold duties at home, had never known mo-
ment's uneasiness. "Chiaro-oscure,o he
would say, softly. to young persons of the
other sex; sometimes he would say nothing
but would bow his head twice or thrice and
smile-so slyly. Then he would go apart
and mediate; he approved of meditation he
had little else to do.
1t cannot be denied that Mr.. Pepperel, in
spite of that quality which he called his phi
losophy, ould have rebelled against his life
had not his office been dignified, if modest
A sense of his own dignity was necessary to
Robert Pepperel; he enjoyed it; he owed it
to his position of guardian of great public
treasures; he knew that he owed this debt to
the antique, Among the marble effigies,
gods, and heroes, Greek and Roman, defec-
tive and restored, he passed cool and calm
as they. He watched the ancient marbles
carefully. They were necessary to him.
Without them his life would have lacked
dignity. AS their appointed guardian he
was happy. In his Utmost soul he was a.
ware that he owed his happiness to the an
cient gods and heroes. He moved at ease
amid the gods and heroes of the antique
world, and thought well of himself.
Wherein, then, lay the fault of Robert
Pepperel? Few men are perfect; Robert
Pepperel was not perfect; he would have
told Won so himself. Yet even he. perhaps,
could not have told you what his great fault
was. In the innermost centre of his being
Mr.. Pepperel despised the ancient marbles
of which he was the guardian. They gave
his life its dignity: in his heart he held them
no higher than set of broken nosed impos-
tors. He lived lie. He held his wand like
an art critic; he spoke with nice discrimina-
ton of periods and OF schools; he smiled
with delicate appreciation on the copies of
young persons of the other sex; he corrected
the vehement errors of HANNAH Bellerby; he
felt himself privileged to despise the efforts
of modern artists. Yet in the very core of
his heart he regarded the ancient gods and
heroes, to whom he owed his dignity, as so
mary humbugs; and the people who came 10
stare with admiration on the priceless
works of art which fed the self-respect of
their guardiaD-these people also he regard
ed as humbugs. Sometimes young man,
who had striven hard to warm himself at
the pale fires of college lecture-rooms, would
stand and stare before the antique statues,
and stimulate his jaded soul by muttering
great" or 'Greek," or 'spower in repose,"
or "curves," and then on a sudden would
the young man meet the eye of Robert Pep
perel, and the Oxonian fit of skepticism
would freeze his marrow once more. Some
times an old man, who had grown well-nigh
blind with peering into draperies and follow
against the cold stone, would feel a danger
GUS draught at play on the back of his lean
neck; it was the cold contempt of Robert
Pepperel which made the cid man SILVER.
Yes, tie life of Robert Pepperel was an acted
fb. All which made it valuable to him
his dignity in the eyes of man, and of young
persons of the other sex, the generation of
Hannah Bellerby, the repose of the art crit
ic, the daily eqercise of that quality which
he called his philosophy, the topless billiard
cue-all these good things did Robert owe to
the ancient gods and heroes. Every day and
all day long did he pretend to look on the an
cient gods and heroes with a calm
respect, though with most delicate discrimi-
nation; every day and all day long did he in
his secret soul condemn the ancient gods
and heroes as a chance lot of broken-nosed
impostors. This was the fault of Robert
Pepperel.
On one fair morping-one of those first
Spring mornings which might wake to life
the coolest of marble-Mr. Pepperel, in neat
apparel, wended his way to the scene of his
daily meditation. Clear light lay on the
solid front of the great Museum-clear light
from end to end; and the great colomns
threw on the wall behind them shadows
definite and black, as if they stood in Attic
air. Officials met each other pleasantly:
some winged jests greeted the advent of Mr..
Pepperel; he received his wand with light
heart.
The long stone passages within were filed
with liquid light, slanting by columns, mel
lowing the mighty limbs of gods and heroes,
who in the deepest depth of his mysterious
being were despised by Robert Pepperel.
Not even Robert Pepperel himself knew the
depth of his unbelief in the ancient gods and
heroes. Only his eyes sometimes betrayed
more than he knew; and even his eye was
ineligible to very few persons. On that
fair morning the mysterious eye traversed
the spacious courts an saw them larger in
the wide yelling light. They were filed with
a soft morning radiance, as if it were the
dawn of the world. Students were already
busy. Mrs. Bellerby was hurrylng with
young female student; she was pointing
wildly to the wonder of the sculptor's chisel.
Though she was short and stout, she was
enthusiastic; she cared not though her
bonnet was on one side and was somewhat
shapeless also; she cared NOT though her face
was flushed, for it was flushed with nothing
stronger than enthusiasm. Hannah Bellerby
raised herself on the toes of her spring-sided
boots that she might the better point out the
subtleties of the workman's work. 1t was
the nose of Roman bust which warmed the
heart of Hannah Bellerby on that morning.
What expression in the end How the
nostrils differed from each other, and yet
were one by the great law of harmony-one
bridge between two hemispheres--a world
II Il L. L. IL L, A,..