Pan and the Twins by Eden Phillpotts

Author:Eden Phillpotts [Phillpotts, Eden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-4483-5
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 1922-03-08T05:00:00+00:00

VIII

THE CAVERN BY THE BROOK

IN the morning, though his arrival was still hidden from Ceres, Hilarion held the new-born babe in his arms for a few moments and secretly put the Sign of the Cross upon his forehead, when nobody was looking.

Then he took his parcel and set out with Arcadius for the cavern by the brook. Once more the son of Marcus Pomponius pleaded with his twin brother and argued that their father must be grieved, did he know of the young man’s determination; but nothing would change Hilarion.

“Have no fear for me,” he said, “and though I am sure that our dear father, according to his lights, was an upright and well-meaning man, yet it is idle to pretend that I owe him anything but life. To be a natural son is in itself a matter for profoundest regret, and knowing that you and I were born in sin, even more than most people, so much the greater is the demand upon us — each in his own way — to make good use of the fleeting years and combat these sad disabilities.”

Arcadius felt melancholy at a view of life which appeared to him somewhat morbid if not futile, and Hilarion, as twins will, guessed the other’s thought.

“One must be a little hard at the edges and self-centred, brother, if one is to tread successfully the paths of thorns,” he explained.

Arcadius made no reply.

They came to the cavern over which sparkled the foliage of arbutus trees and shone their red trunks. The place was bathed in morning sunlight, and at noon this golden splendour penetrated the cave, showing it to be carpeted with white fine sand and roofed with pearly limestone. Within there opened a lesser cave at the heart of the rock, with an entrance two feet high. This hole — dark and carpeted with dry grass — was the apartment of the badger and his lady.

Arcadius called to the creature and he rose from his morning slumber and came blinking into the sunshine — a handsome and attractive beast with a dark, heavy coat and picturesque white and amber streaks upon the sides of his face. His eyes were bright, his mouth large and his teeth long and glistening. He yawned and stretched his hinder limbs; then he sat beside Arcadius, on a flowery bank without the cavern; and what he heard soon woke him completely. He was a badger of more than ordinary intelligence, who had often spoken with the master of the hillside, and knew something about the human race.

Now he listened in growing impatience, and having learned all there was to know, regarded Hilarion with an angry and a snarling countenance.

“This holt,” he said, “is mine by every honest principle; and, as a badger with a sense of justice, I can only wonder that Arcadius Pomponlus has allowed himself to raise any question about it. I will answer you briefly, and I will then assume the offensive and put certain points to you that ought to clench the matter.

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