CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. LOVE IN IDLENESS 1 II. THE PROPHECY 16 III. THE FULFILMENT 31 IV. PLOTTING 47 V. THE MEETING 66 VI. A CONVERSATION 83 VII. BEHIND THE SCENES 99 VIII. LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM 112 IX. THE WARNING 128 X. IN CORNWALL 144 XI. THE SPIDER AND THE FLY 160 XII. SMALL BEER CHRONICLES 177 XIII. FURTHER SMALL BEER CHRONICLES 196 XIV. PREPARATION 215 XV. THE TRANCE 231 XVI. THE DISCIPLE OF LOVE 248 XVII. THE DISCIPLE OF HATE 267 XVIII. THE NIGHT BEFORE 282 XIX. THE MORNING AFTER 298 XX. THE UNEXPECTED 317 XXI. THE CHOICE 333 XXII. RIGHT IS MIGHT 350 XXIII. THE ETERNAL STRIFE 368 XXIV. DAWN 386CHAPTER ILOVE IN IDLENESS"How can any one hope to transfer that to canvas?" asked the artist,surveying the many-coloured earth and sky and sea with despairing eyes."Easily enough," replied the girl at his elbow, "those who see twice asvividly as others, can make others see once as vividly as they do. Thatis what we call genius.""A large word for my small capabilities, Miss Enistor. Am I a genius?""Ask yourself, Mr. Hardwick, for none other than yourself can answertruly."Outside his special gift the artist was not over clever, so he loungedon the yielding turf of the slope to turn the speech over in his mindand wait results. This tall solidly built Saxon only arrived atconclusions by slow degrees of laborious reflection. With his straightathletic figure, closely clipped fair hair and a bronzed complexion,against which his moustache looked almost white, he resembled a soldierrather than a painter. Yet a painter he was of some trifling fame, butbeing only moderately creative, he strove to supply what was wanting bytoilsome work. He had not so much the steady fire of genius as thecrackling combustion of talent. Thus the grim Cornish country and thefar-stretching Atlantic waters, so magically beautiful under anopalescent sunset, baffled him for the moment."I have the beginnings of genius," he finally decided, "that is, I cansee for myself, but I cannot pass the vision on to others byproduction.""Half a loaf is better than none," said Miss Enistor soothingly."I am not so sure that your proverb is true, so I reply with another. Ifindeed appetite comes with eating, as the French say, it is useless toinvite it with half a loaf, when, for complete satisfaction, onerequires the whole.""There is something in that," admitted the girl, smiling, "but try andsecure your desired whole loaf by sitting mousey-quiet and letting whatis before you sink into your innermost being. Then you may create."Crossing his legs and gripping his ankles, Hardwick, seated in theapproved attitude of a fakir, did his best to adopt this advice,although he might well despair of fixing on canvas the fleeting visionof that enchanted hour. From the cromlech, near which the couple werestationed, a purple carpet of heather rolled down to a winding road,white and dusty and broad. On the hither side of the loosely built wallwhich skirted this, stretched many smooth green fields, divided andsubdivided by boundaries of piled stones, feathery with ferns and coarsegrasses. Beyond the confines of this ordered world, a chaos of brackenand ling, of small shrubs and stunted trees, together with giant massesof silvery granite, islanded amidst a sea of gold-besprinkled gorse,tumbled pell-mell to the jagged edge of the cliffs. Finally, the bluishplain of ocean glittered spaciously to the far sharp horizon-line.Thence rose billowy clouds of glorious hues threaded with the fires ofthe sinking sun, heaping themselves in rainbow tints higher and highertowards the radiant azure of the zenith.