The Professor stopped speaking. The fountain again made itself heard
in the midst of the shadow. My pulses beat, my head seemed on fire. A
fever was consuming me.
"And all of them," I cried, regardless of the place, "all of them
complied! They submitted! Well, she has only to come and she will see
what will happen."
Morhange was silent.
"My dear sir," said M. Le Mesge in a very gentle voice, "you are
speaking like a child. You do not know. You have not seen Antinea. Let
me tell you one thing: that among those"--and with a sweeping gesture
he indicated the silent circle of statues--"there were men as
courageous as you and perhaps less excitable. I remember one of them
especially well, a phlegmatic Englishman who now is resting under
Number 32. When he first appeared before Antinea, he was smoking a
cigar. And, like all the rest, he bent before the gaze of his
sovereign.
"Do not speak until you have seen her. A university training hardly
fits one to discourse upon matters of passion, and I feel scarcely
qualified, myself, to tell you what Antinea is. I only affirm this,
that when you have seen her, you will remember nothing else. Family,
country, honor, you will renounce everything for her."
"Everything?" asked Morhange in a calm voice.
"Everything," Le Mesge insisted emphatically. "You will forget all,
you will renounce all."
From outside, a faint sound came to us.
Le Mesge consulted his watch.
"In any case, you will see."
The door opened. A tall white Targa, the tallest we had yet seen in
this remarkable abode, entered and came toward us.
He bowed and touched me lightly on the shoulder.
"Follow him," said M. Le Mesge.
Without a word, I obeyed.