All in a garden fair; the simple story of three boys ... - University Library

146 ALL LX A GARDEN FAIR.
mid statues, and prayors were oHlTcd to Apollo
tliat lie Avould thus niak(; tlie ears of all tlie
peo|)le. ]jut Apollo refused to hear.
Thus is it shown, l)y lively ])aral)le, after
the manner of the ancients, how one single
secret may embitter and even destroy a life.
But, in fact, it is only at tlie outset tliat a secret
is intolerable. When it is in tlie way of a
man's profession to hear and to guard secrets,
they cease to be a burden. Lawyers who get
to know a prodigious quantity of secrets are
never a bit the worse, and I know at least one
freemason whose knowledge of the craft secrets
has never caused liim a moment's ])ang.
Claire, with this secret ii})oii her mind, went
about at first in the most dreadful terror of
letting it out. She dreamed at night that she
had I'evealed it to Olinthus, who grinned con-
temptuously and i-ointed fmgers of scorn at
Allen and her father, and at herself, and said,
'Gar! lie a poet! AVliy he hasn't got a
penny !
' And
next, she told Will, Avho said it
was a thing very likely indeed to be fulfilled,