"To minister to pleasure!".. echoed Sah-luma petulantly.. "Nay, have I done nothing more than this? Art thou already grown so disloyal a friend that thou wilt half repeat the jargon of yon dead fanatic Khosrul who dared to tell me I had served my Art unfittingly? Have I not ministered to grief as well as joy? To hours of pain and bitterness, as well as to long days of ease and amorous dreaming? ... Have I not..." here he paused and a warm flush crept through the olive pallor of his skin,--his eyes grew plaintive and wistful and he threw one arm round Theos's neck as he continued: "No I.. after all 'tis vain to deny it...I have hated grief,--I have loathed the very suggestion of care,--I have thrust sorrow out of my sight as a thing vile and unwelcome,--and I have chosen to sing to the world of rapture more than pain,-- inasmuch as methinks Humanity suffers enough, without having its cureless anguish set to the music of a poet's rhythm to incessantly haunt and torture its already breaking heart."
"Say rather to soothe and tranquillize"--murmured Theos, more to himself than to his friend--"For suppressed sorrow is hardest to endure, and when grief once finds apt utterance 'tis already half consoled! So should the world's great singers tenderly proclaim the world's most speechless miseries, and who knows but vexed Creation being thus relieved of pent-up woe may not take new heart of grace and comfort?"
The words were spoken in a soft SOTTO-VOCE, and Sah-luma seemed not to hear. He leaned, however, very confidingly and affectionately against Theos's shoulder as he walked along, and appeared to have speedily forgotten his annoyance at the recent slighting conduct of the King.
"I marvel at the downfall of the Obelisk!" he said presently ... "'Twas rooted full ten feet deep in solid earth, . . maybe the foundations were ill-fitted,--nevertheless, if history speaks truly, it hath stood unshaken for two thousand years! Strange that it should be now hurled forth thus desperately! ... I would I knew the hidden cause! Many, alas! have met their death to-day, . . pushed out of life in haste, . . all unprepared.. One wonders where such souls have fled! Something there is that troubles me, . . methinks I am more than half disposed to leave Al-Kyris for a time, and wander forth into a world of unknown things--"
"With me!" cried Theos impetuously--"Come with me, Sah-luma! ... Come now, this very day! I too have been warned of evil.. evil undeclared, yet close at hand, ..let us escape from danger while time remains! ... Let us depart!"