Finally Festus determined to seek Bacchus and beg him to throw light upon the situation. Indeed, he started to do so, for Bacchus might often be found with his train about the vinelands at this season, and when he was in the neighbourhood, the genial riot of his retinue could be heard for miles on a still night, while their torches made a blaze in the forest darkness.

But it happened that the woodman's purpose was changed, for he fell in with Hope, a youthful goddess whom to meet was always accounted good fortune. Spes wore a light robe of crocus colour, through which her pearly skin glimmered very beautifully. Upon her head was a wreath of purple gentians and golden arnica that she had gathered in the hills; while in her hand she carried a bud of orange lily. For it was her custom to bear a bud only, never an open flower. Therefore an unopened blossom is the symbol of young Hope, since her sovereignty lies over the future. The past is past and the present fulfils itself and is the past before we can

name it; but none may tell what lies in the shut bud of future time, and none knows whether it will open pure and perfect, or whether already the invisible worm lies within.

Spes knew all about Festus and Livia; indeed she was here to intercept the woodman on his way.

"Be advised," she said; "remember that while there is life, there is Hope. Go back and strive yet again to prevail with Livia by kind words and good sense. She loves you, and it were a grievous thing that your lives should be spoiled by these differences. It is always dangerous to call in the high gods, and though Bacchus is gentle as well as terrible, he would, I think, be the first to advise you to exercise patience and give Hope

a trial."

"It is just because I hadn't any hope left that I was going to him," answered Festus ; "but now I breathe the air of Hope very willingly and will do as you tell me. I have no desire to push myself into the notice of my god if it can be helped, and gladly take

your advice. You are the goddess of Tomorrow, and I will trust to-morrow for a little while, even though to-day be a failure. I love Livia with all my heart, and where there is Love, no doubt there should be Hope also."

"To love without Hope is the saddest trial that faces mortal man," answered Spes. Then she left him, that she might take her message elsewhere, and Festus, cheered at this meeting, held it of good augury and returned to his home in an amiable and sanguine spirit.

Meantime Livia had taken a walk beside the Larian lake, for the evening hour invited to the air, and so still was it that the twilight star mirrored herself in the water, while the splash of oars could be heard a mile distant, as the fishermen returned to shore.

Livia had made supper ready for her husband and then, walking beside Larius, she met Evander, who was standing in an attitude of contemplation at the brink of the lake.

They conversed together and he made the

evening hour still more beautiful by the elevation and dignity of his sentiments. Livia's heart beat with pride that he should thus devote his exalted mind to her, and she strove to rise to the occasion and prove worthy of such a privilege. It proved a strain, but a strain that women can generally bear, for they have an art to appear wiser than they are, and use silence so cunningly that oftentimes, what is in truth their blankness, will be mistaken by the incautious for pregnant understanding. They know that the silence of other people is golden in the ear of the egotist; for such men only ask for silence and love a good listener better than any created thing.

When she did speak, Livia answered what she knew he would like to hearfrom intuition rather than conviction. And even while she said " Ah, yes,” and “ Verily it is so," and "You read my unspoken thought," she suspected at the bottom of her young heart that she was not entirely honest in this attitude.

Thus she deceived Evander utterly; herself, only in part.

"You are a martyr," he declared, “and I reverence you. I feel, indeed, that we have much in common, and it is no small delight to me, who have worshipped Apollo from my childhood, to speak comfortable words in your ear and so help to sustain your new and precious faith. Be sure that what you endure is not hidden from Phœbus. The more you suffer, the deeper his solicitude. It may even happen to you, as to certain historic maidens, that you will rise to immortality by virtue of your persecution. In fact, if you are miserable long enough and Festus prove sufficient of a brute, your torments should ultimately win for you divine honours and recognition. It is not beyond the reach of hope, dear Livia, that you may some day be turned into a flower, or star, and your name thus associated with an immortal object, to the wonder and admiration of mankind."

"Festus will never be as horrible as all that," she answered with conviction. "I feel,