by Robert Reed
“But,” said Daphne, “your troubles, little one, must be as small as
your bodies, and this is a very different case .”
“Nay,” rejoined the girl, still laughing; “we, too, think our trou-
bles very great and very new . But Thoth makes everything right .
Now I will tell you what happened to me to-day . I was sailing in a
little boat in the fountain, and I got to the centre and landed, and my
boat drifted away, and I cannot swim . I cried until I slept, and when
I awoke I found my boat at my feet, and I am sure that Thoth had
put it there .”
The charming simplicity and the guileless confidence of the little
maiden renewed hope in Daphne’s breast, and she kissed her and
said—
“Wilt thou try to take a message to Thoth from me? But, alas! for
my punishment the doors are fastened .”
“They will release me,” said the pigmy, “when they hear my
voice . I have done no harm all to-day . I believe Thoth must have left
me in the garden to be thy messenger .”
“But,” said Daphne, “thou wast asleep on the island .”
“So much the easier to leave me,” laughed the pigmy . “But tell
me the message, and I will run .”
Daphne put down the child, and sat down herself, burying her
head in her hand, and tried to think of a message which might move
Thoth . Shame and pride, not unmixed with dread, made the task
difficult, and the pigmy began to grow restless.
“Shall I ask Thoth to come?—once before I took such a message
for thee .”
At last, urged by her affectionate counsellor . Daphne wrote on
a tablet these words: “Daphne still believes in the promise which
Thoth made on leaving Athens, and prays in all humility that she
may be restored to some Grecian city . She is not equal to the high
position in which Thoth would have placed her . She is only a wom-
an with the common feelings of nature, and no superior being . But
oaths are binding even on the gods .”
She sent the pigmy before her to the palace, for she was too anx-
ious to accompany her .
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After a long interval, however, she followed, and found the apart-
ment empty . The pigmy had been liberated, and a repast had been set
in the usual place . Hope again arose in Daphne’s breast, though she
still feared, from the absence of her little servants, that all was not
well . She was too sick at heart to eat or drink, and waited in anxious
expectation . At last night fell, but there was no answer of any kind .
She lay down on the couch and tried to sleep .
After some hours of the deepest silence, she thought she heard a
footfall near the head of the couch .
She started up, and beheld Thoth two or three paces distant .
CHAPTER XIII
TRANSFORMATION
Daphne’s first thought was, that the hour of her destruction had
come at last . She clung to her dagger, and in the presence of actual
danger her courage was restored to the full .
Her face was pale, but her eyes flashed.
She looked at Thoth, expecting him to utter her doom, but he
stood silently with his eyes fixed on the ground, apparently in deep
thought .
How long they remained thus she could never tell,—whether mo-
ments or hours . Time was effaced, and she and this man were all that
was left in the universe .
At last Daphne broke the silence .
“What is my fate? Wilt thou keep to thy first promise or thy last
threat?”
Then Thoth raised his eyes and filled her heart with wonder. A
thrill of fearful pleasure passed through her frame as she thought she
saw in his regard no trace of hatred or cruelty, but the overpowering
love of a strong nature .
She was not left long in suspense, for Thoth said to her, with a
trembling voice—
THOTH, by Joseph Shield Nicholson | 631
“Daphne, I love thee as never yet man loved woman . Against my
will, against my belief, in a moment, love has seized me—love as
strong and irrevocable as death that, too, comes in a moment”
Then he advanced towards her, and seizing her hand, kissed it
passionately . He tried to embrace her, but she drew back, afraid . The
change in the man was too sudden and unexpected . She knew not
what to think . Delight was mingled with distrust, and she knew not
which would gain the victory. His kisses inflamed her heart, but the
horror of the past was too recent to be altogether forgotten .
She longed to be alone, and yet, at the same time, she wished to
ask Thoth a multitude of questions . She wished to know his whole
nature, and as yet she was afraid to give him her finger-tip. Over-
powered by the conflict of emotions, she sank down on the couch,
and listened to Thoth as if in a dream .
Thoth respected her diffidence, and for a time reason again
seemed to take command of his nature, and he spoke calmly even of
his new-born passion . The words of love which she had spoken to
him, and which, at first, had made no impression, had, he related, as
soon as he left her, begun to recur to him as if she were still present .
He was quite frank . He told her that he had ordered her imprison-
ment, and had even tried to think of the details of her punishment;
but in spite of his strongest efforts, whenever he thought of her he
recalled her passionate appeal of love. At first he was astonished
and bewildered—the whole affair seemed to him incredible and ri-
diculous . But the memory of her grasp made his hand bum, and her
beautiful face chased away every thought . Then came her message,
and he felt drawn by an irresistible force to see her . It seemed to him
as if hitherto he had lived in a dream, and had only just awaked to
the reality of life .
Again and again he described to her the revolution in his na-
ture,—by endless comparisons sought to show her how sudden and
complete it had been . His love was the sun banishing night, and
hiding the stars from the cold contemplation of the astronomer . It
was the sudden rebound of a tall young palm which had been bent to
the earth with thongs . It was a storm of burning sand, effacing alike
THOTH, by Joseph Shield Nicholson | 632
the road before and behind . It was the cleaving by an earthquake of
the solid ground, swallowing up in a moment man’s handiwork for
ages . It was the tree which blossomed once in a thousand years, the
first flight of a bird released from captivity, the first living prey of
the young lion .
Then after he had exhausted language and imagination in por-
traying the degree and violence of his passion, the natural bent of
his mind made him seek for an explanation which would make the
unreasonable reasonable, and the ludicrous full of dignity and pa-
thos . He proved to Daphne that life is not truly in the individual but
in the race; his race was a giant whose nature had been distorted
for a long period, and then suddenly had asserted its strength . The
loveless
lives of his predecessors had, by a necessary reaction, made
him capable of an infinite depth of passion. Love, instead of being
stamped out and crushed, as the first Thoth had supposed, had only
been stored up from generation to generation . It was a transcendent
passion, which did not obey the ordinary laws of life and descent . It
was part of the very nature of life, and could only be destroyed by
death . Besides this, his mother was by birth a child of the instincts
and passions common to the races of mankind .
The search for reasons brought back Thoth, as far as was pos-
sible, to his former calmness of demeanour, and he began to talk of
the future . He assumed all the time that the declaration of his pas-
sion was all that Daphne had required of him, and she had been too
much overcome by surprise to interrupt the torrent of his eloquence .
When, however, he spoke in a definite manner of their union in
a short time, she was driven to take up an attitude of defence . Much
as Thoth had advanced in her esteem, she could not at once respond
to his passion, and she was troubled by painful reminiscences . She
said to him—
“Tell me one thing in all sincerity . Wilt thou still, if I wish it, send
me back to Greece?”
His face became gloomy, but he answered at once—
“I swear it .”
“Even if I do not love thee?”
THOTH, by Joseph Shield Nicholson | 633
“Even so .”
“And if I wish it, thou wilt never trouble me again?”
“Never .”
“And thou wilt tell me everything, and explain every mystery in
this place?”
“Everything; but, Daphne, judge not hastily and harshly . For I
will change every law and custom that is to thee displeasing . With
thy love,” he continued, in a vein of enthusiasm, “I shall be greater
in every way than my great ancestor . He has impressed his will on
this race for hundreds of years, and I will impress mine for thou-
sands, and thy will shall be mine . Thou shalt be queen of the whole
world, and the lives of the races of men shall be fashioned by thee .
No goddess was ever fated to have such might as my love shall give
thee for a dower .”
Thoth seemed completely transformed, and his whole being was
tremulous with passion . Daphne felt her power of resistance fail-
ing, as the strength of a mortal fails before the desire of some deity .
Thoth became to her the perfect embodiment of manhood and of
love .
She rose from her seat, and drew nearer to him .
She looked through his eyes, and the depth of his devotion seemed
unfathomable . She could doubt no longer .
She raised her face to his, and he covered it with kisses .
Then he whispered to her, “Tell me what more I must do or prom-
ise. Must love such as ours await some ceremonial for its fulfilment?
This is to me the beginning of life . Choose thou for us what form the
marriage-rites shall take, for I, alas I know nothing .”
At once the spell was broken, for Daphne remembered the hor-
rible unions which the haters of women had hitherto made . She
shrank from Thoth, and cried—
“Leave me! leave me! How can I forget that the women of thy
race have been wooed with torture, and that thou thyself in all likeli-
hood hast gone through rites of ingenious cruelty . I cannot believe
in a future that rests on such a past .”
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But Thoth rejoined with passionate eagerness, and with every
sign of truth, “Believe me . Daphne, I myself ordained none of these
things .”
“But,” she said, “thou hast permitted these terrible customs to
live, and thy fellow-rulers have been guilty .”
“Canst thou not,” he replied, “separate the past from the future?
I, at least, have not offended in this manner .”
But Daphne made no response, and Thoth continued—
“Every one who has thus done shall be punished in any way thou
mayest choose—if thou wilt, with death .”
“Nay,” she said, “I will be guilty of no man’s death .”
“Then,” said Thoth, “I will change their natures, as mine has been
changed . Wilt thou be mine if, in a full assembly of our ruling race,
thou art chosen as the honoured queen of the new era?”
Daphne remained silent, and Thoth said abruptly—
“I must give thee time for reflection. I know that I shall never
change . In seven days I will come for thy answer .”
He saluted her with reverence, and departed .
CHAPTER XIV
GREEK AND BARBARIAN
Hour followed hour with unendurable slowness, until the ap-
pointed day arrived for Daphne to declare her decision . With sunrise
Thoth requested permission for the interview; but Daphne replied
that she would meet him at noon in the garden .
In the absence of other counsellors, she had determined to take
advice from the full blaze of the sun, and to listen to the voice of
nature in the whispering trees and the peaceful murmuring of the
waters .
At length Thoth appeared at the time and place agreed upon . A
glance at his face showed that his love had grown with the lapse of
time, and Daphne felt a thrill of delight .
THOTH, by Joseph Shield Nicholson | 635
He saw the look of pleasure in her face, and with a cry rushed to
embrace her; but by a gesture she stopped his advance, and said to
him with forced calmness—
“Thou still lovest me as much as before?”
“Thou canst not doubt it,” he replied; and she read the truth in the
trembling of his voice and the passion of his face .
“Wilt thou consent to my conditions—the firm resolve of my
vigils?”
“I consent before I hear them,” he rejoined . “Do with me as thou
wilt .”
“They are hard,” she said; “but after what I have witnessed I can-
not take less . First of all, every mystery of thy race and of thy power
must be disclosed .”
“I consent,” he said .
“All thy people, including the ruling race, must accept me as
their queen .”
“I will compel them,” he murmured .
“When I am thoroughly satisfied on these points, thou must re-
turn with me to Greece .”
“I will go with thee to the ends of the earth,” he murmured .
“And if,” she said, “when I return to my country, this city of thine
shall appear, as is possible, too dreadful a place in which to dwell, I
shall be free to remain?”
“Thou wilt never wish to do so,” he said, with resolution .
“And if, when I hear again the familiar voices of my native land,
and see the joyous faces of the people, thou shalt seem to me an
alien, and unlovable, thou wilt leave me for ever?”
“But this cannot be,” he rejoined .
“I know not,” she said; “but if it should so chance, then thou wilt
consent?”
“I consent even to this,” he said; “but it can never be .”
Tears stood in his eyes; and Daphne said quickly
—
“But if, as my heart tells me is more probable, I yield to thy love,
and thy will becomes my will, then thou wilt, first of all, wed me
according to the custom of the Greeks?”
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“That will I do most joyfully,” he said . “I will prepare to return
with thee as speedily as possible .” And again he wished to embrace
her .“Nay,” she said. “Thou shalt not touch my finger again until we
return to Greece; and first of all, there is much that I must learn of
thee and thy people .”
“Ask, and I will answer,” he said .
“But,” she replied, “I know not what to ask . Teach me from the
beginning . Thy city is planted in the midst of an impenetrable des-
ert, and thy people seem few in number, and yet thou sayest thou
wilt make me queen of the world . How can this be?”
“Power,” he replied, “does not lie in numbers . We have weapons
unknown to the rest of the world . The secret of our strength I will
explain .”
“Then,” she continued, “I would fain know by what spell all thy
fellows are kept in such perfect obedience . And strange words of
thine run in mine ears,—of death and sleep, of a king above thee in
power, and of vice-regents whom thou canst consult . Even in this
glaring sun the air seems laden with foreboding . If thou wouldst
gain my love and confidence, clear away all these mysteries; for
they seem to me in many respects contrary to nature, and certain in
the end to bring down the wrath of the immortal gods .”
CHAPTER XV
THE DOOM OF THE FIRST THOTH
“The immortal gods,” said Thoth, “are but the vague memories
of great men, distorted in passing from generation to generation .”
Daphne shuddered . “Dost thou not fear to speak thus?”
“I fear not,” he said, “to speak the truth . But listen and judge for
thyself if the first Thoth, who was born more than two thousand
years ago, is not greater and more to be feared than any god record-
ed in Grecian fables . Thou seest yonder the roof of a large building
into which thou hast not yet entered. In that structure sleeps the first
THOTH, by Joseph Shield Nicholson | 637
Thoth, surrounded by many generations of his direct descendants .
Consider this well, for what I say I mean in all its fulness . This king
and his vice-regents are not dead, but sleeping . Thou hast heard of