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THE DOUBLE GARDEN




_By the Same Author_:

     THE TREASURE OF THE HUMBLE. Translated by ALFRED SUTRO. 12mo.
     $1.75.

     WISDOM AND DESTINY. Translated by ALFRED SUTRO. 12mo. $1.75.

     THE LIFE OF THE BEE. Translated by ALFRED SUTRO. 12mo. $1.40 _net_.

     SISTER BEATRICE AND ARDIANE AND BARBE BLEUE. Translated by BERNARD
     MIALL. 12mo. $1.20 _net_.

     THE BURIED TEMPLE. Translated by ALFRED SUTRO. 12mo. $1.40 _net_.

     THOUGHTS FROM MAETERLINCK. Arranged by E. S. S. 12mo. $1.20 _net_.

     THE DOUBLE GARDEN. Translated by ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS.
     12mo. $1.40 _net_.




The Double Garden

BY
MAURICE MAETERLINCK

_Translated by_
ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS

[Illustration: Decoration]

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1904


COPYRIGHT, 1902,
BY HARPER & BROTHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1903,
BY HARPER & BROTHERS, THE CENTURY CO.

COPYRIGHT, 1904,
BY MAURICE MAETERLINCK, HARPER & BROTHERS, THE CENTURY CO.,
THE ESS ESS PUBLISHING CO., AINSLEE'S MAGAZINE CO.

COPYRIGHT, 1904,
BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY


_Published May, 1904_

BURR PRINTING HOUSE
NEW YORK




_NOTE_


_Of the sixteen essays in this volume, some have appeared in London: in
the_ International Library of Famous Literature, _the_ Fortnightly
Review, _the_ Daily Mail _and_ London Opinion; _some in the following
American Reviews: the_ Century Magazine, _the_ Bookman, _the_ Critic,
_the_ Smart Set, Ainslee's Magazine, _the_ Metropolitan Magazine,
Harper's Magazine _and_ Harper's Bazar. _The author's thanks are due to
the respective proprietors of these publications for their permission to
republish in the present volume._




Contents

                                  PAGE
OUR FRIEND, THE DOG                 11

THE TEMPLE OF CHANCE                47

IN PRAISE OF THE SWORD!             67

DEATH AND THE CROWN                 83

UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE                  99

THE MODERN DRAMA                   115

THE FORETELLING OF THE FUTURE      139

IN AN AUTOMOBILE                   171

NEWS OF SPRING                     189

THE WRATH OF THE BEE               205

FIELD FLOWERS                      219

CHRYSANTHEMUMS                     233

OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS              251

SINCERITY                          279

PORTRAIT OF A LADY                 295

THE LEAF OF OLIVE                  317




THE DOUBLE GARDEN




OUR FRIEND, THE DOG


I

I have lost, within these last few days, a little bull-dog. He had just
completed the sixth month of his brief existence. He had no history. His
intelligent eyes opened to look out upon the world, to love mankind,
then closed again on the cruel secrets of death.

The friend who presented me with him had given him, perhaps by
antiphrasis, the startling name of Pelléas. Why rechristen him? For how
can a poor dog, loving, devoted, faithful, disgrace the name of a man or
an imaginary hero?

Pelléas had a great bulging, powerful forehead, like that of Socrates
or Verlaine; and, under a little black nose, blunt as a churlish assent,
a pair of large hanging and symmetrical chops, which made his head a
sort of massive, obstinate, pensive and three-cornered menace. He was
beautiful after the manner of a beautiful, natural monster that has
complied strictly with the laws of its species. And what a smile of
attentive obligingness, of incorruptible innocence, of affectionate
submission, of boundless gratitude and total self-abandonment lit up, at
the least caress, that adorable mask of ugliness! Whence exactly did
that smile emanate? From the ingenuous and melting eyes? From the ears
pricked up to catch the words of man? From the forehead that unwrinkled
to appreciate and love, or from the stump of a tail that wriggled at the
other end to testify to the intimate and impassioned joy that filled his
small being, happy once more to encounter the hand or the glance of the
god to whom he surrendered himself?

Pelléas was born in Paris, and I had taken him to the country. His bonny
fat paws, shapeless and not yet stiffened, carried slackly through the
unexplored pathways of his new existence his huge and serious head,
flat-nosed and, as it were, rendered heavy with thought.

For this thankless and rather sad head, like that of an overworked
child, was beginning the overwhelming work that oppresses every brain at