"I know nothing as to this Perion you tell me of. I only know the Perion I loved has not forgotten," answered Melicent.
And Demetrios, evincing a twinge like that of gout, demanded her reasons. It was a May morning, very hot and still, and Demetrios sat with his Christian wife in the Court of Stars.
Said Melicent, "It is not unlikely that the Perion men know to-day has forgotten me and the service which I joyed to render Perion. Let him who would understand the mystery of the Crucifixion first become a lover! I pray for old sake's sake that Perion and his lady may taste of every prosperity. Indeed, I do not envy her. Rather I pity her, because last night I wandered through a certain forest hand-in-hand with a young Perion, whose excellencies she will never know as I know them in our own woods."
Said Demetrios, "Do you console yourself with dreams?" The swart man grinned.
Melicent said: "Now it is always twilight in these woods, and the light there is neither green nor gold, but both colours intermingled. It is like a friendly cloak for all who have been unhappy, even very long ago. Iseult is there, and Thisbe, too, and many others, and they are not severed from their lovers now.. Sometimes Dame Venus passes, riding upon a panther, and low-hanging leaves clutch at her tender flesh. Then Perion and I peep from a coppice, and are very glad and a little frightened in the heart of our own woods."
Said Demetrios, "Do you console yourself with madness?" He showed no sign of mirth.
Melicent said: "Ah, no, the Perion whom Mélusine possesses is but a man--a very happy man, I pray of God and all His saints. I am the luckier, who may not ever lose the Perion that to-day is mine alone. And though I may not ever touch this younger Perion's hands--and their palms were as hard as leather in that dear time now overpast--or see again his honest and courageous face, the most beautiful among all the faces of men and women I have ever seen, I do not grieve immeasurably, for nightly we walk hand-in-hand in our own woods."
Demetrios said, "Ay; and then night passes, and dawn comes to light my face, which is the most hideous to you among all the faces of men and women!"
But Melicent said only: "Seignior, although the severing daylight endures for a long while, I must be brave and worthy of Perion's love--nay, rather, of the love he gave me once. I may not grieve so long as no one else dares enter into our own woods."