“That evening Chares was my guest, and the next day was to be one of special rejoicing. For not only was there high festival in the city—because, at last, the statue was to be set up at the entrance to the harbour—but it was also the marriage day of Chares and my sister, Penelope, who had now come to live with us. By this time she was a beautiful maiden of eighteen, and I was only too happy to think she was to be the wife of my friend. “Long after all the house was quiet that night, and everyone else slept, Chares and I sat on the terrace that overlooked the sea, and talked of the future and the past. “‘Cleon,’ said Chares, after a silence, ‘have you no wonder about the part you played in the siege, you being then but a child?’ “‘I have wondered, indeed, and I still wonder,’ I answered. ‘Often I have seemed to be just about to understand the miracle of my knowledge when I planned the overthrow of the war engine And a moment later I am again confused.’ “‘Come!’ exclaimed Chares, after a silence. ‘Let us go to the temple in the grove. It was there I made my vow to Phœbus Apollo, and it is just that there I should return thanks on this, the happiest evening of my life, when my work is at last finished.’ “We rose and walked across the moon-silvered lawn towards the little temple gleaming white amidst the lemon trees. “I can never forget the beauty of the night. We could hear the gently murmuring sea where it lay under the moon, calm as a shining lake. “The shadows of the trees lay motionless on the grass, and made a lovely tracery upon the temple roof, and the air was full of sweet scents. Once again, as when I was a boy, I picked a handful of roses, and laid them on the altar at the feet of the statue, which, carefully preserved during the war, stood once more on its marble pedestal. We knelt before it, and Chares offered a strange prayer. From his words I knew that he was praying to a _Spirit_, and that the statue before which he prayed only represented one little idea (which was all we poor human beings might understand) of some God greater than we could know, or than any statue could suggest. His prayer ended, he turned to me, and I saw him take something from the folds of his tunic. The moonlight glittered on what I now saw to be a crystal ball which he put into my hands. “‘Look steadfastly within it,’ he said gravely. ‘Here, in this temple, it may be, you will understand.’ [Illustration]