ere come moments in life when we regret the old gods.

* * * * *

Time and place--temperature and temperament--and after the sunset the
night--and then to-morrow.

* * * * *

All the winter passed and the Damsel remained at the Court and the Sage
in his cave. Both found the days long and their occupation insufficient.

At last, when spring came, the Damsel again mounted the hill one morning
before dawn and tapped at the Sage's door.

His heart gave a bound, and he flew to open it without more ado.

"So you have come back?" he said; and his voice was eager, though it was
a gray light and he could not see her plainly.

"Yes," said she; "I want you to tell me one more story of life before I
go on a long voyage."

So the Sage began:

"There was once upon a time a man of half-measures, whose brain was
filled with dreams for his own glory, and he possessed a woman of flesh
and blood, who loved him, and would have turned the dreams into
realities. But _because_ he was happy with her, and because her hair was
black and her eyes were green, and her flesh like alabaster, he said to
himself, 'This is a fiend and a vampire. Nothing human can be so
delectable.' So he ran a stake through her body, and buried her at the
cross-roads. Then he found life an emptiness, and went down into
nothingness and was forgotten--"

"Oh, hush, Sage!" said the Damsel, trembling; "I wish to hear no more.
Come, shave off your beard, and put on a velvet doublet, and return
with me to the Court. See, life is short, and I am fair."

And the Sage suddenly felt he had found the philosopher's stone, and
knew the secret he had come into the wilds to find.

So he went back to his cave, and shaved his beard, and donned a velvet
doublet, long since lain by in lavender. And he took the Damsel by the
hand, and they gladly ran down the hill.

And the zephyrs whispered, and the day dawned, and all the world smiled
young--and gay.

* * * * *

_Remember the tangible now._

"_Sic transit gloria mundi!_"

* * * * *

BY MRS. HUMPHRY WARD

LADY ROSE'S DAUGHTER. Illustrated by HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY. Post 8vo,
Ornamented Cloth, $1.50.

This is Mrs. Humphry Ward's latest novel. It has been hailed as
undoubtedly her best, while Julie Le Breton, the heroine, has been
called "the most appealing type of heroine in English fiction