Be sure if corals, branching 'neath the ripple
Of ocean, bud there, fairies watch unroll

Such turban flowers; I say, such lamps disperse Thick red flame through that dusk green universe!11

I am queen of thee, floweret;
And each fleshy blossom
Preserve I not-safer

Than leaves that embower it,

Or shell that embosom

From weevil and chafer?12

Laugh through my pane, then; solicit the bee;
Gibe1 him, be sure; and, in midst of thy glee,
Love thy queen, worship me!

"Worship whom else? For am I not, this day, Whate'er I please? What shall I please to-day? My morning, noon, eve, night-how spend my day?

To-morrow I must be Pippa who winds silk, The whole year round, to earn just bread and milk:

But, this one day, I have leave to go,

And play out my fancy's fullest games;
I may fancy all day-and it shall be so-

That I taste of the pleasures, am called by the

names

Of the Happiest Four in our Asolo!"

Eager to play her game, she looks up the hillside toward Ottima's dwelling, and begins to fancy

11. "Such lamps disperse . . . universe." The coral budding in such turban-flowers as the martagon, is likened to lamps sending thick red flame through the shadowy green depths of the ocean.

12. The weevil and the chafer are kinds of beetles. Many varities of the former are especially injurious to plants.

13. Gibe means mock at.

that she herself is the proud mistress of the home and is ardently loved by Sebald. Soon, however, she decides,

"there's better love I know!

This foolish love was only day's first offer." Then, her thought turning to Jules and the beautiful Greek girl who is soon to become his bride, she exclaims:

"Why should not I be the bride as soon
As Ottima?"

Surely one would wish to be, like Phene, sheltered from all that makes life harsh and ugly. And one might envy the lily-like fairness of the young girl's beauty. Yet after all, is it not better to be a little peasant girl free to love deeply and to feel the warmth of true affection than to be so cold and unresponsive as Phene appears? Thus reflecting, she concludes that had she

"leave to take or to refuse"

she would not choose to be the bride. Somehow the game is failing; it is not giving the pleasure she expected. She has not found the love that she is seeking, for it is true, she believes, that "Lovers grow cold, men learn to hate their wives, And only parents' love can last our lives."

Ah! then she would know such affection as that bestowed on the young boy Luigi by his devoted mother; and even a purer, broader love than that. "Let me be cared about, kept out of harm, And schemed for, safe in love as with a charm; Let me be Luigi!-If I only knew

What was my mother's face-my father, too! "Nay, if you come to that, best love of all

Is God's; then why not have God's love befall
Myself as, in the palace by the Dome,1

Monsignor?-who to-night will bless the home
Of his dead brother; and God will bless in turn
That heart which beats, those eyes which mildly
burn

With love for all men! I, to-night at least,
Would be that holy and beloved priest.

"Now wait!-even I already seem to share

In God's love: what does New-Year's hymn declare?

What other meaning do these verses bear?

"All service ranks the same with God,

If now, as formerly he trod

Paradise, his presence fills

Our earth, each only as God wills

Can work-God's puppets, best and worst,
Are we; there is no last nor first.

14. The Dome, the old cathedral.

"Say not 'a small event!' Why 'small?'"
Costs it more pain that this ye call
A 'great event' should come to pass,
Than that? Untwine me from the mass
Of deeds which make up life one deed
Power shall fall short in it or exceed!15
"And more of it and more of it!-oh, yes-
I will pass each, and see their happiness,
And envy none-being just as great, no doubt,
Useful to men, and dear to God, as they!
A pretty thing to care about

So mightily, this single holiday!

But let the sun shine! Wherefore repine?
With thee to lead me, O Day of mine,
Down the grass-path gray with dew,
Under the pine-wood blind with boughs,
Where the swallow never flew

Nor yet cicala16 dared carouse-
No, dared carouse!

[She enters the street."

MORNING

N one of the homes on the hillside a terrible scene has been enacted. Ottima, with the help of her lover Sebald, has put to death her husband, Luca, an old man for whom she had no affection. Although the guilty pair are trying to assure themselves that their love for each other is so great as to wipe out all 15. or exceed" means "Separate for me (if you can), from the mass of deeds that make up life, one deed that is either greater or less in power than others."

"Untwine me

16. The cicala, or cicada, is a kind of insect that makes a shrill sound by means of drum-like membranes under its wings. The American locust is a species of cicada.

remembrance of their crime, yet Sebald is from time to time almost overcome with regret and remorse. These signs of repentance, however, instead of moving Ottima to pity, cause her to fear the loss of her lover's regard. She is succeeding in recalling his affection when the outer stillness is broken by a clear young voice, singing of the pure joy of life. Pippa passes the shrub-house where

PIPPA PASSES THE SHRUB HOUSE

the lovers are concealed, and through the open window are borne lightly the words of her song:

"The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;

The hill-side's dew-pearled:

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in his heaven

All's right with the world!"

"God's in his heaven! Do you hear that? Who spoke? You, you spoke!" exclaims Sebald, keen