The Ancient Gods Pursuing 45

had thought of another answer. Once more
let me question you: What is the distance
between heaven and earth?”

Then for the third time was Hilary unable
to reply, but the voice answered for him, in
stern and menaceful tones: ‘“‘ Who can tell
us that more certainly than Lucifer who fell
from heaven?”

With a bitter cry the Lady Pelagia rose
from her seat, and raised her beautiful white
arms above her head; but the voice con-
tinued: “ Breathe on her, Hilary — breathe
the breath of the name of Christ!”

And the Bishop, rising, breathed on the
white lovely face the breath of the holy
name; and in an instant the starry eyes were
darkened, and the spirit and flower of life
perished in her sweet body; and the com-
panions saw no longer the Lady Pelagia, but
in her stead a statue of white marble. Ata
glance Hilary knew it for a statue of the
goddess whom men in Rome called Venus
and in Greece Aphrodite, and with a shudder
he remembered that another of her names
was. Pelagia, the Lady of the Sea. But,
swifter even than that thought, it seemed to
them as though the statue were smitten by