that encompassed far more than ^Eliana: something
had brushed against his life, something sweet and
disturbing like those scents from the hills; had he
stretched forth his hand he might surely have grasped
it, but instead he had driven this thing away by his
failure to recognize its presence. He had failed to
recognize the presence of love, of the warm and
comforting physical love in which all the world's
creatures demanded their share, and in which there
was neither fear nor strangeness.
Oh, but never in the past had there been such a
moment for youth to rise up assertive, triumphant;
and perceiving that its moment had come his youth
rose to assert the right of its claim to fulfilment.
Behind it stood all those men of the south, strong,
virile and simple, from whom Christophe had sprung;
men whose vigorous bodies had brooked no denial,
whose sins had seldom been the sins of the spirit. A
mighty army they stood behind youth, eager to live
again in their seed, in the strength that they had
bequeathed to their descendant. Thus while Jan sat
bending over his books in a desperate effort at con-
centration, or indulged in such endless self-imposed
fasts and penances that the Cure protested, Chris-
tophe found himself unable even to pray, so great was
the indiscipline of his mind which could now hold no
image save ^liana's.
Rather terrible days, for the more she confused him
the more clumsily he began to pursue her, so that all
that he did was unwisely done, as is only too often
the way with lovers. Every moment that he could
snatch from his bench would be passed in hanging
about Eusebe on some childish pretext that failed to
deceive, and Eusebe would look none too friendly
in spite of his erstwhile affection for Christophe.
Gramaci! a half-fledged, penniless boy to come
mooning around like a love-sick calf. . . . Ah, but
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