CHAPTER XVI: VENUS AND PALLAS

As Hypatia was pa.s.sing across to her lecture-room that afternoon, she was stopped midway by a procession of some twenty Goths and damsels, headed by Pelagia herself, in all her glory of jewels, shawls, and snow-white mule; while by her side rode the Amal, his long legs, like those of Gang-Rolf the Norseman, all but touching the ground, as he crushed down with his weight a delicate little barb, the best subst.i.tute to be found in Alexandria for the huge black chargers of his native land.

On they came, followed by a wondering and admiring mob, straight to the door of the Museum, and stopping began to dismount, while their slaves took charge of the mules and horses.

There was no escape for Hypatia; pride forbade her to follow her own maidenly instinct, and to recoil among the crowd behind her; and in another moment the Amal had lifted Pelagia from her mule, and the rival beauties of Alexandria stood, for the first time in their lives, face to face.

'May Athene befriend you this day, Hypatia!' said Pelagia with her sweetest smile. 'I have brought my guards to hear somewhat of your wisdom this afternoon. I am anxious to know whether you can teach Ahem anything more worth listening to than the foolish little songs which Aphrodite taught me, when she raised me from the sea-foam, as she rose herself, and named me Pelagia.'

Hypatia drew herself up to her stateliest height, and returned no answer.

'I think my bodyguard will well hear comparison with yours. At least they are the princes and descendants of deities. So it is but fitting that they should enter before your provincials. Will you show them the way?'

No answer.

'Then I must do it myself. Come, Amal!' and she swept up the steps, followed by the Goths, who put the Alexandrians aside right and left, as if they had been children.

'Ah! treacherous wanton that you are!' cried a young man's voice out of the murmuring crowd. 'After having plundered us of every coin out of which you could dupe us, here you are squandering our patrimonies on barbarians!'

'Give us back our presents, Pelagia,' cried another, 'and you are welcome to your herd of wild bulls!'

'And I will!' cried she, stopping suddenly; and clutching at her chains and bracelets, she was on the point of dashing them among the astonished crowd-

'There! take your gifts! Pelagia and her girls scorn to be debtors to boys, while they are worshipped by men like these!'

But the Amal, who, luckily for the students, had not understood a word of this conversation, seized her arm, asking if she were mad.

'No, no!' panted she, inarticulate with pa.s.sion. 'Give me gold-every coin you have. These wretches are twitting me with what they gave me before-before-oh Amal, you understand me?' And she clung imploringly to his arm.

'Oh! Heroes! each of you throw his purse among these fellows! they say that we and our ladies are living on their spoils!' And he tossed his purse among the crowd.

In an instant every Goth had followed his example: more than one following it up by dashing a bracelet or necklace into the face of some hapless philosophaster.

'I have no lady, my young friends,' said old Wulf, in good enough Greek, 'and owe you nothing: so I shall keep my money, as you might have kept yours; and as you might, too, old Smid, if you had been as wise as I.'

'Don't be stingy, prince, for the honour of the Goths,' said Smid, laughing.

'If I take in gold I pay in iron,' answered Wulf, drawing half out of its sheath the huge broad blade, at the ominous brown stains of which the studentry recoiled; and the whole party swept into the empty lecture-room, and seated themselves at their ease in the front ranks.

Poor Hypatia! At first she determined not to lecture-then to send for Orestes-then to call on her students to defend the sanct.i.ty of the Museum; but pride, as well as prudence, advised her better; to retreat would be to confess herself conquered-to disgrace philosophy-to lose her hold on the minds of all waverers. No! she would go on and brave everything, insults, even violence; and with trembling limbs and a pale cheek, she mounted the tribune and began.

To her surprise and delight, however, her barbarian auditors were perfectly well behaved. Pelagia, in childish good-humour at her triumph, and perhaps, too, determined to show her contempt for her adversary by giving her every chance, enforced silence and attention, and checked the t.i.ttering of the girls, for a full half-hour. But at the end of that time the heavy breathing of the slumbering Amal, who had been twice awoke by her, resounded unchecked through the lecture-room, and deepened into a snore; for Pelagia herself was as fast asleep as he. But now another censor took upon himself the office of keeping order. Old Wulf, from the moment Hypatia had begun, had never taken his eyes off her face; and again and again the maiden's weak heart had been cheered, as she saw the smile of st.u.r.dy intelligence and honest satisfaction which twinkled over that scarred and bristly visage; while every now and then the graybeard wagged approval, until she found herself, long before the end of the oration, addressing herself straight to her new admirer.

At last it was over, and the students behind, who had sat meekly through it all, without the slightest wish to 'upset' the intruders, who had so thoroughly upset them, rose hurriedly, glad enough to get safe out of so dangerous a neighbourhood. But to their astonishment, as well as to that of Hypatia, old Wulf rose also, and stumbling along to the foot of the tribune, pulled out his purse, and laid it at Hypatia's feet.

'What is this?' asked she, half terrified at the approach of a figure more rugged and barbaric than she had ever beheld before.

'My fee for what I have heard to-day. You are a right n.o.ble maiden, and may Freya send you a husband worthy of you, and make you the mother of kings!'

And Wulf retired with his party.

Open homage to her rival, before her very face! Pelagia felt quite inclined to hate old Wulf.

But at least he was the only traitor. The rest of the Goths agreed unanimously that Hypatia was a very foolish person, who was wasting her youth and beauty in talking to donkey-riders; and Pelagia remounted her mule, and the Goths their horses, for a triumphal procession homeward.

And yet her heart was sad, even in her triumph. Right and wrong were ideas as unknown to her as they were to hundreds of thousands in her day. As far as her own consciousness was concerned, she was as dest.i.tute of a soul as the mule on which she rode. Gifted by nature with boundless frolic and good-humour, wit and cunning, her Greek taste for the physically beautiful and graceful developed by long training, until she had become, without a rival, the most perfect pantomime, dancer, and musician who catered for the luxurious tastes of the Alexandrian theatres, she had lived since her childhood only for enjoyment and vanity, and wished for nothing more. But her new affection, or rather worship, for the huge manhood of her Gothic lover had awoke in her a new object-to keep him-to live for him-to follow him to the ends of the earth, even if he tired of her, ill-used her, despised her. And slowly, day by day, Wulf's sneers bad awakened in her a dread that perhaps the Amal might despise her.... Why, she could not guess: but what sort of women were those Alrunas of whom Wulf sang, of whom even the Amal and his men spoke with reverence, as something n.o.bler, not only than her, but even than themselves? And what was it which Wulf had recognised in Hypatia which had bowed the stern and coa.r.s.e old warrior before her in that public homage?.... it was not difficult to say what.... But why should that make Hypatia or any one else attractive? And the poor little child of nature gazed in deep bewilderment at a crowd of new questions, as a b.u.t.terfly might at the pages of the book on which it has settled, and was sad and discontented-not with herself, for was she not Pelagia the perfect?-but with these strange fancies which came into other people's heads.-Why should not every one be as happy as they could? And who knew better than she how to be happy, and to make others happy?....

'Look at that old monk standing on the pavement, Amalric! Why does he stare so at me? Tell him to go away.'

The person at whom she pointed, a delicate-featured old man, with a venerable white beard, seemed to hear her; for he turned with a sudden start, and then, to Pelagia's astonishment, put his hands before his face, and burst convulsively into tears.

'What does he mean by behaving in that way? Bring him here to me this moment! I will know!' cried she, petulantly catching at the new object, in order to escape from her own thoughts.

In a moment a Goth had led up the weeper, who came without demur to the side of Pelagia's mule.

'Why were you so rude as to burst out crying in my face?' asked she petulantly.

The old man looked up sadly and tenderly, and answered in a low voice, meant only for her ear-

'And how can I help weeping, when I see anything as beautiful as you are destined to the flames of h.e.l.l for ever?'

'The flames of h.e.l.l?' said Pelagia, with a shudder. 'What for?'

'Do you not know?' asked the old man, with a look of sad surprise. 'Have you forgotten what you are?'

'I? I never hurt a fly!'

'Why do you look so terrified, my darling? What have you been saying to her, you old villain?' and the Amal raised his whip.

'Oh! do not strike him. Come, come to-morrow, and tell me what you mean.'

'No, we will have no monks within our doors, frightening silly women. Off, sirrah! and thank the lady that you have escaped with a whole skin.' And the Amal caught the bridle of Pelagia's mule, and pushed forward, leaving the old man gazing sadly after them.

But the beautiful sinner was evidently not the object which had brought the old monk of the desert into a neighbourhood so strange and ungenial to his habits; for, recovering himself in a few moments, he hurried on to the door of the Museum, and there planted himself, scanning earnestly the faces of the pa.s.sers-out, and meeting, of course, with his due share of student ribaldry.

'Well, old cat, and what mouse are you on the watch for, at the hole's mouth here?'

'Just come inside, and see whether the mice will not singe your whiskers for you....'

'Here is my mouse, gentlemen,' answered the old monk, with a bow and a smile, as he laid his hand on Philammon's arm, and presented to his astonished eyes the delicate features and high retreating forehead of a.r.s.enius.

'My father,' cried the boy, in the first impulse of affectionate recognition; and then-he had expected some such meeting all along, but now that it was come at last, he turned pale as death. The students saw his emotion.

'Hands off, old Heautontimoroumenos! He belongs to our guild now! Monks have no more business with sons than with wives. Shall we hustle him for you, Philammon?'

'Take care how you show off, gentlemen: the Goths are not yet out of hearing!' answered Philammon, who was learning fast how to give a smart answer; and then, fearing the temper of the young dandies, and shrinking from the notion of any insult to one so reverend and so beloved as a.r.s.enius, he drew the old man gently away, and walked up the street with him in silence, dreading what was coming.

'And are these your friends?'