Evening star., 1922-09-10

Every one does. Peter. I am willing
to grow o.G-
She whispered now. "Peter-I'm
even willing to die"'
He pressed her closer, but the old
desolute helplessness had come back.
You, Peter-you are such a rebel.
Peter! How you shut your eyes and
fight! Trying to hold what cannot
be held. And hating me because I
can't. For l can't. Peter, / can't
This child? A strange child.
No; child. Since in children was
wisdom, was this wisdom? \ spasrn
of revolt frightened his heart.
But she was weeping again now,
softly. against his breast. He re-
gathered her in his arms, and with
this gesture felt a new, large tender
ness fill him; a tenderness which was
not only for her. but for many others
for the whole world. The whole poor, (
purblind, peering world, which could
not see straight, which could not
see clear. which suffered dimly, in a
sort of vague. hot delrium.
** *
| IAN inc emu OF lne Hdy itleP
| stood once more alone in the
garden. For what had passed In the
afternoon he felt something like en-
barrassment. a slight distaste, that
strange revulsion We feel whenever
we have made the gesture OF plumb
ing life's emotional depths As if
it, something unnatural; as If life
were meant to be lived altogether on
the surface, carefully on the sur
face.
! He felt the need Of levity That
| is what perhaps made him remember
the ants: the ants which had been
the beginning OF the afternoon.
A slight breeze, ruffiing the pool,
had pushed together the dust. ths
ants and the eggs in a pitiful dead
huddle against a bank.
Where did they come in?" he
asked himself
| He and his wife had this day made
one of those complete circles which.
as if by some natural law, REQUIRED
almost at certain intervals. From a
state of hostility into which they
had slipped. through a crisis. to a re-
newed gentleness of each other.
They were happy once more, Daisy
and he. But what about the ants?
Where did they come in? 1t was
over their backs this had happened.
They had paid for it. Didn't they
count a all?
An idea came to him. He raised his
face to the skies.
Whenever he did this. sensuous
painter that he was, he was much
more apt to visualize the old famil-
lar Greek deities than any more alb
stract, single and terrible god. SO
he did this time.
A fog had come in from the sea:
it made a low floor of the heavens.
and on that floor Peter imagined tho
gods walking-Zeus, Hera, the whole
galaXy-democratic. familiar, with
robes little disordered and wreaths
little askew. He hailed them.
"Heish, up there. Zeus. Hera, Venus.
all of you. tell me please,
when down here the earth shakes.
mountains slide. or the sea over
flows
When down here there is a Noah
food, a San Francisco earthquake;
when China dances and Saint Pierre.
with one belch of its volcano. is
blasted
Docs this mean merely that up
there. where YOU dwell, some small
marital difficulty is being resolved"
But from the gray ceiling-ceilng
10 him, floor 10 th-m-there came no
answer whatever. So Peter ended the
day, knowing not much more than
he had at the beginning. And in
that state. smiling philosophical
smile. turned his steps toward the
house, and the dinner which his good
little wife had there just put down
for him.