“He saved my life,” Gregory remarked, “but I don’t think that he approves of me.”
“Tell me, Mr. Ballaston,” the girl asked, “have you looked at your Image yet, the one you have on the ship?”
“Not yet.”
Mr. Endacott turned his head. He was seated on the most uncomfortable of the three uncomfortable cane chairs; a stiff, unbending figure. His eyes were turned speculatively upon his visitor.
“If there be any truth in the legend,” he advised, “you will do well to leave it in its case.”
Gregory was doubtful.
“I rather wanted to examine it,” he admitted. “The part of the legend which interests me most is the part which has to do with the jewels.”
“Naturally,” Mr. Endacott agreed, with unconcealed sarcasm. “Yet, in the story of the fashioning of the Images, there has been nothing more vehement than the warning issued by the High Priest in whose day it was done. Here, he pointed out, by the great art of the sculptor, the Body and Soul were torn apart. All that was good and virtuous and that made towards the beautiful in life was carven into the Image which our friend Wu Ling seems to have purchased from the robber. All that was debased and evil and which prompted towards sin was graven into the features of the one which you possess. Together, side by side, they were supposed to make up the sum of humanity—the good and the evil balancing. Side by side, they might be looked at without evil effect; they might inspire thought—reflection of the highest order. There were indications there of what to avoid, what passions to fight against; indications there, too, of what a man’s aim should be, how to uplift oneself above sin and how to climb always in one’s thoughts towards the spiritual.”
They both listened, fascinated, to Mr. Endacott’s thin, reedy voice; his still words, spoken without emphasis or enthusiasm, as they might have been spoken to a class of student philosophers. It was the girl who first ventured upon a question.
“But, Uncle,” she demanded, “you don’t seriously believe that to live with either of these statues without the other could really affect any one’s character?”