and now, indeed, we are in the land of anodyne and oblivion. once more we dream and forget, and the palace of the prince dims out and fades, even as the barges that brought us drift back down the tide and disappear in the distant blue. here is the world’s enchanted and perfumed casket, and here within it lies the world’s rarest jewel of sorcery—the princess of the lilied hills.
we have been here but a brief time—i no longer keep a record of the days—and we are bound hand and foot, as it were, by the spell of this circe of the south. in the first moment that we were ushered into her presence, and beheld her in her white robe of state, embroidered with the pale yellow flower of her kingdom, whatever remained to us of the past slipped away like water through the fingers. chauncey gale forgot that he had a yacht, and both of us that he had a daughter. mr. sturritt forgot everything but his packages of pink lozenges, which he reverentially laid at her feet, thereby earning her cordial acknowledgments and our bitter jealousy.
250ferratoni, however, was not long at a loss. he could converse with her, and it became evident almost from the start that he did not care to translate either fully or literally. he cut out, and revised, and stumbled. she detected his difficulty, of course, and seemed to reprove him. then he gave up translating altogether, and the rest of us sat there, simply staring at her, until gale got himself together and recited the “burning deck,” while i suffered in spirit because reciting did not seem to be quite what i wanted to do, and i could remember no other tricks to perform.
i finally prevailed upon ferratoni to tell her that it was i who had conceived the expedition, whereupon gale hastily claimed credit for having made it possible, while mr. sturritt—sturritt the timid and unassuming—boldly stated that without him and his tablets we should have perished by the wayside. it was altogether distressing to hear them.
when we were through, she looked fondly at ferratoni, and then, still tenderly regarding him, expressed thanks to all of us with a fervency that was gratifying to him no doubt, but that to the rest of us seemed a poor reward.
she added, presently, that as i was interested in the central point of the kingdom—the south pole, of course—and that as gale was interested in the people’s homes and firesides, and mr. 251sturritt in the matter of their food, she would have us escorted about with a view to our observation of these things, but that ferratoni, whose life and aims were not so widely different from her own, would remain with her to discuss the problems in which they were mutually interested.
perhaps she did not put it just in this way, but ferratoni did in his translation; then they both turned away and forgot our existence. we were conducted outside, ere long, and there was a barge at the door into which it was indicated that we should enter.
we did not do so, however. the boatmen were in no haste and neither were we. there is no haste in this land. we lay down by the shore and looked serenely to the south where rose a lofty terraced temple, the top of which we had observed from a great distance. we had been told it was their chief temple of worship, and located exactly in the center of the sun’s daily circuit. resting thus on the earth’s axis, it became for us the outward and material symbol of our objective point—of my life’s ambition. it was the south pole!
and now that we are here and it rises before us, the eagerness to set foot upon that magic point—to scale and stand triumphant on the apex of the pole itself, as it were, has passed.
“so that is the south pole,” murmurs gale. 252“well, i never would have recognized it if i’d seen it any place else. let’s don’t be in too big a hurry to get to it, nick.”
“no,” i answer, “suppose we wait awhile. perhaps if we wait long enough the south pole will come to us.”
for there can be no eagerness in this land. it would be wholly out of place. neither are we acutely jealous of ferratoni. acuteness would be out of place also.
and so we drowse in the fragrance of the lilies, and soft-eyed, soft-voiced people come and sing to us, while the barge waits and becomes a picture on the tide.
and then there falls silence, and it is as if the world and the palace slept, and so would sleep until the wakening kiss.
