"Wait now, King Jurgen, for surely I hear footsteps, and one comes to trouble us." "It is a wind in the tree-tops: or perhaps it is a god who envies me. I pause for neither." "Ah, but speak reverently of the Gods! For is not Love a god, and a jealous god that has wings with which to leave us?" "Then am I a god, for in my heart is love, and in every fibre of me is love, and from me now love emanates." "But certainly I heard somebody approaching through the forest--" "Well, and do you not perceive I have withdrawn my staff from its hiding-place?" "Ah, you have great faith in that staff of yours!" "I fear nobody when I brandish it." Another locust had answered the first one. Now the two insects were in full dispute, suffusing the warm darkness with their pertinacious whirrings. "King of Eubonia, it is certainly true, that which you told me about olives." "Yes, for always love begets truthfulness." "I pray it may beget between us utter truthfulness, and nothing else, King Jurgen." "Not 'Jurgen' now, but 'love'." "Indeed, they tell that even so, in such deep darkness, Love came to his sweetheart Psychê." "Then why do you complain because I piously emulate the Gods, and offer unto Love the sincerest form of flattery?" And Jurgen shook his staff at her. "Ah, but you are strangely ready with your flattery! and Love threatened Psychê with no such enormous staff." "That is possible: for I am Jurgen. And I deal fairly with all women, and raise my staff against none save in the way of kindness." So they talked nonsense, in utter darkness, while the locusts, and presently a score of locusts, disputed obstinately. Now Chloris and Jurgen were invisible, even to each other, as they talked under her oak-tree: but before them the fields shone mistily under a gold-dusted dome, for this night seemed builded of stars. And the white towers of Pseudopolis also could Jurgen see, as he laughed there and took his pleasure with Chloris. He reflected that very probably Achilles and Helen were laughing thus, and were not dissimilarly occupied, out yonder, in this night of wonder. He sighed. But in a while Jurgen and the Hamadryad were speaking again, just as inconsequently, and the locusts were whirring just as obstinately. Later the moon rose, and they all slept. With the dawn Jurgen arose, and left this Hamadryad Chloris still asleep. He stood where he overlooked the city and the shirt of Nessus glittered in the level sun rays: and Jurgen thought of Queen Helen. Then he sighed, and went back to Chloris and wakened her with the sort of salutation that appeared her just due. 28. Of Compromises in Leukê Now the tale tells that ten days later Jurgen and his Hamadryad were duly married, in consonance with the law of the Wood: not for a moment did Chloris consider any violation of the proprieties, so they were married the first evening she could assemble her kindred.