Page:Cup of Gold-1929.djvu/174

most lovely in the country. And the four friends all fell in love with this sweet exquisite.

“Each one gave her the gifts which were most dear to himself. The first folded his soul in a sonnet and laid it at her feet. The second filled a viol with her name; and I—the third, I mean—painted the rosy image of her face. Thus did we artists bid for her in all friendliness to one another. But the last of the four was the true artist. He was quiet; he was subtle. What an actor! He won her with a superb gesture. He opened his hand—so—and there, on the cushion of his palm, lay a laughing rose pearl. They were married.

“Now, soon after this marriage, Delphine gave evidence of greater virtues than any one had suspected. Not only was this paragon a perfect wife, but she was also the discreet and delightful mistress—not to one, but to all three—of the husband's friends. And Emil, the husband, did not mind. He loved his friends. Why not? They were his true friends, but poor.

“Ah, where is a force so blind, so idiotic, as public opinion! This time, two deaths and one banishment were born of it. This hydra of a Public Opinion—consider to yourselves what it did! It forced Emil to challenge his three friends. Even then, all might have ended with the kiss, the embrace—`my honor is whole again, dear friend' —if it had not been for Emil's deplorable habit of leaving his rapier point in putrefying meat. Two of the men died, and I lost my arm.

“Now, here again comes this Public Opinion, like