another, are not of our society. O
yes, in common things one must get and keep his own--the body must have
its food; but one's private temple is kept for worship, and owns a
different law. It is not always, nor often, that one can build his
shrine on earth, and enter it every day: when a man has that exceptional
privilege, he must and may keep his standards high enough to fit. You
understand?"

"I do: I am learning. I knew all this in theory, but supposed it ended
there. And your Princess, you think is of our society?"

"No root of nobleness is lacking in her; when the season comes, the
plants will spring and the garden bloom. But we cannot expect to
understand her fully; she is of finer clay than we."

"One thing more, and then I will let you go. There is more of you than I
thought, my boy. In May I knew you had a heart; but one who heard you in
the woods would have set you down just for a kindly, practical man of
the world. Last night, and most of the time to-day, you were the
trifler, the incorrigible jester. Why do you belie yourself so and hide
your inmost self from all but me?"

"Because I've got to convert you, old man. It is a poor instrument that
has but a single string; and David's harp of solemn sound would bore me
as much as it would other folks, if I tried to play on it all the time.
How many people would sit out this talk of ours, or read it if we put it
in print? Taken all in all, the light fantastic measure suits me much
better. To see all sides, we must take all tones. The varying moods
within fit the varying facts without; to get at truth we must give each
its turn. But in the main it is best to take Life lightly. Your error
was that you were too serious about it: it's not worth that. Most things
are chiefly fit to laugh at. The highgrand style will do once in a way:
we've worked it too hard now. Let's come down to earth. I wanted to show
you that I could do the legitimate drama as well as you, and yet wear a
tall hat and dress for dinner. See?"

"That's all very well, Bob, but I can discriminate between your
seriousness and your farce. Perhaps it is well to mix them, or to take
them as they are mixed for us. You may be right in that; I'll think it
over. Yes, I can see now that Heraclitus overdoes it, and that I used
to. Well, my lad, you are a queer professor of ethics; but I'm not sure
you've brought me to the wrong school."

XII.

AWAKENING.

The next day Clarice took me off as us