“No, sir; why should I? Can hills or waves, dells or lakes, cure a mind which you assure me is diseased? Can sea breeze or mountain air fan out recollections that have jaundiced the heart, or furnish an opiate that will effectually deaden and quiet regret? I long ago tried your remedy—travelling, and for four years I wandered up and down, and over the face of the old world; but amid the crumbling columns of Persepolis, I was still Agla Gerome, the wretched; and when I stood on the margin of the Lake of Wan, I saw in its waves the reflection of the same hopeless woman who now lies before you. Change of external surroundings is futile, and no more affects the soul than the roar of surface-surf changes the hollow of an ocean bed where the dead sleep; and, verily,—
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‘My heart is a drear Golgotha, where all the ground is white With the wrecks of joys that have perished,—the skeletons of delight.’” |
He saw that in her present mood expostulation would only aggravate the evil he longed to correct, and hoping to divert the current of her thoughts, he said,—
“I trust you will not deem me impertinently curious if I ask what singular freak bestowed upon you the name of ‘Agla’?”
A startling change swept over her features, and her tone was haughtily challenging.
“What interest can Dr. Grey find in a matter so trivial? If I were named Hecate or Persephone, would the world have a right to demur, to complain, or to criticise?”
“When a lady bears the mystic name, which, in past ages, was given to the Deity, by a race who, if superstitious, were at least devout and reverent, she should not be surprised if it 321 excites wonder and comment. Forgive me, however, if my inquiry annoyed you.”
He rose and took his hat, but her hand caught his arm.
“Do you know the import of the word?”
“Yes; I understand the significance of the letters, and the wonderful power attributed to them when arranged in the triangles and called the ‘Shield of David.’ Knowing that it was considered talismanic, I could not imagine why you were christened with so mystical a name.”