"The Eye of Apollo" is one of only two stories in which Father Brown is given a first or 
Christian name or initial. The other story, in which Brown was "Paul," was later altered by the author and the name removed.

Two men crossed Westminster Bridge. The tall one was M. Hercule Flambeau. "The official description of the short one was the Rev. J. Brown, attached to St. Francis Xavier's Church, Camberwell, and he was coming from a Camberwell deathbed to see the new offices of his friend." (131)

Like The Man in the Passage this is another “optical” mystery. An American con man convinces an ultra feminist British heiress that he is a priest of Apollo. Believing in the sun will allow her to levitate. Worship entails staring for fifteen minutes at a time at the noonday sun. Father Brown deduces that she has been made blind. The Prophet of Apollo, having carefully given himself an alibi, uses her blindness to make her fall down an empty elevator shaft to her death, after she has supposedly made over 500, 000 pounds sterling to him in a will signed minutes before she died. But the heiress’s mousey sister has made sure that the will is not valid and that she, not the prophet, will inherit.  No crime has been committed or at least none that can be proven.

The tale is also notable for dialogs between Flambeau and Fr Brown on the differences between Christian and pagan religions.

The rest of the story I leave to your private reading. 

[NOTE: here is yet another way to present a bunch of short stories: give a couple of sentences about each -- perhaps 25 in one class and leave it up to the listener whether to read in detail.]

This is a mystery which Father Brown solves without visiting the scene of the crime.

THE STORY:

A young man named Fiennes who has brought his black dog along on a visit tells Father Brown (who is stroking the dog) that Fiennes has come a hundred miles to discuss a baffling, unsolved cased with a dog in it. It might be called "the Invisible Murder Case." (352)  How was old Colonel Druce killed while all alone in his summer house, with eyes on the house? 

A newspaper account says Druce was stabbed in his summer house at Cranston on the coast of Yorkshire from behind by a dagger--which has not been found. The summer house had only one entry, a door. It was in a garden at the end of a central walk leading to the house. Any stray step off the path would leave traces. Patrick Floyd, the Colonel's Secretary (33) saw the whole garden from atop a step ladder while clipping its HEDGE. Janet Druce, the daughter, sat on house terrace all this time and say Floyd. Her brother Donald Druce  confirmed all this, having watched from his bedroom window. Dr Valentine, a neighbor had called to speak with Miss Druce. And solicitor Aubrey Traill was the last to see the murdered man alive. 

--3:30 p.m. Miss Druce walked down path to see her father about when he wanted tea. He wanted none, was waiting for his lawyer. Traill then came down the path and conferred until 

--4:00 p.m. The Colonel reappeared at door with Traill. Early in day had been angry with his erring son. Then recovered cheer and greeted two visiting nephews Herbert and Harry Druce. 

--4:30 Miss Druce saw her father lying in blood on the floor. Screamed for others. Found him on floor in a conspicuous white linen coat "dead beside his upset BASKET-CHAIR. Dr Valentine testified the wound was made by some sort of stiletto, entering under the shoulder-blade (354) and piercing the heart.

Father Brown, a hundred miles from the crime scene, learned from his young visitior that wearing a white coat had been learned by the colonel in the tropics. Narrator Fiennes was out walking on the beach with the two nephews and the dog. Saw the general scene, but not the murder. The lawyer wore an unusually long TIE-PIN. Elder cousin is Herbert Druce, an expert on horse breeding. Brother Harry (355) was brooding about gambling losses at Monte Carlo.

But the black retriever named Nox recognized the murderer. We had walked a mile away from the house by the sea and returned. There is a Rock of Fortune looming over a corner of the garden, poised to fall over. Was it time to go back for tea? Only Harry had a watch.  and "he had stopped to light his pipe under the hedge." [  CLUE] He shouted the time "4:20." [CLUE] We had ten minutes before tea. The brothers threw stones and sticks for the dog. Herbert had tossed his walking stick into the sea and Nox had just retrieved it . He swam out again and at 4:30 stoped swimming. Came back Stood in front of us and howled with woe.Then we heard a far off shriek from a woman beyond the HEDGES inland (356) [CLUE] 

We went back. Lawyer Traill was standing smiling. Nox ran in front of him and barked murderously.  Traill fled.  Brown: so "the oracle of the dog condemns him." Police searched everyone plus garden and shore.  Traill's tie pin was as long as a stiletto. (357) Harry Druce had been in the Indian Police. Had left the police for over zealousness. Acted as an amateur sleuth. Harry Druce and Fiennes discussed problem of the murder weapon. Dog had not growled at lawyer, only barked. Harry: Nox had growled at plenty of others. Harry showed hedge clipping shears with blood on them.

(358) Fiennes: there were problems with the will. Witnesses to the will were the red headed secretary Floyd and Dr Valentine. Floyd was a know it all.  He suspected Valentine of murder. Said name of Valentine was not his own name. De Villon was his real name. He is (359) very haughty. Colonel and doctor Valentine had quarreled. Fiennes overheard Valentine and Miss Druce having a lover's tryst. Something was said about killing somebody. Most of the money was transferred in the will from son to daughter. Brown: did he have a lancet in the bag he brought with him? (360) Find out what Harry Druce is doing.

Guest and dog left. Brown worked on a sermon. Two days latter Fienne and dog returned. Harry Druce had pulled down on his head The Rock of Fortune with a suicide note on rock. I was in the garden, missed outline of rock v. sky. I crashed through the VERY THIN HEDGE (361)

Brown: it was the will. Harry was cashiered from police, lost money at Monte Carlo. Doctor was a French noblemen using his ancestral name, though now a republican. 

Fienne: (362) in the garden I met Valentine and Colonel's daughter. Said they were married. Had no interest in the estate. She had had it turned over to her brother. Secretary Patrick Floyd, know it all, tried to take over investigation, direct the police. Blamed Valentine.  "he became on the spot the greatest of all amateur detectives. Sherlock Holmes never towered over Scotland Yard with more Titanic intellectual pride and scorn than Colonel Druce's private secretary over the police investigating." Floyd's theory was that Colonel was still alive when found by Valentine, then killed by him.

Brown: (363) the dog on the beach was key. You treated him as voice of God, not as a dog. He barked at the lawyer because the lawyer was afraid of him. (364) "dogs hate nervous people." (365) When the dog came out of the sea and howled, he was angry because the men weren't playing by the rules. The cane did not float for the dog to retrieve. It sank, it was a heavy sword cane.

Other things came together: summer house with lattice work, white coat so visible, thin hedge just next to summer house. (366) Harry Druce stopped to light his pipe by the hedge. Saw target of oppportunity. Rock of Fortune reminded me that he was a gambler. Unpremeditatedly Harry struck his uncle. (367) Brown: "that is how the devil talks to the gambler."

You three were not so far from the garden in a straight line. You heard Miss Druce scream. She could not have been far away.

How did Harry get rid of the sword cane? Began to play fetch with dog. Set up a scene to allow his tossing away of his cane, knowing it would sink. Dog could not talk, so you made up his story for him. You were superstitious (368) A dog is not an omen, nor a cat, nor a scarab. You will believe anything polytheistic but not "He was made man." Fiennes left the room, calling dog. Had to tell dog twice. "for the dog had remained behind quite motionless for a moment, looking up steadily at Father Brown as the wolf looked at St. Francis."  [COMMENT: note how a religious writer can naturally slip a bit of religion into a detective yarn.]

09/04/2003

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Recovering from illness due to overwork, Father Brown, Flambeau and Sir Cecil Fanshaw, “a young Cornish squire,” are yachting along the coast. The pilot delivered a local oracle, “Both eyes bright, she’s all right; one eye winks, down she sinks.” This referred to the alignment of two coast-lights to distinguish the right from the false river channel.

The fresh water of the river revived Fr Brown (256). The scene after sunset was one of striking color contrasts. A few gipsies walked along the river bank, with “faggots and osiers cut in the forest (257). A dark-haired lady was paddling a canoe. The yacht approached an islet with an odd shaped structure entirely of wood and tar. Behind it lay a comfortable, Elizabethan style house. Fanshaw: all this belongs to old Admiral Pendragon (258). He had traveled much in the South Seas and made important geographic discoveries.

Brown notes that Elizabethan houses did not have turrets. From a turret one can see the corner where boats turn into the river. They learn of a murdered Spaniard’s curse. Pendragons will live forever! The tower has burnt two or three times and there have been deaths associated when it burns.

They find the admiral furiously chopping a hole in his grey fence. (260) They are invited to dinner. Brown studied carved symbols (262)  Admiral: my elder brother’s son arrives soon. Walter’s girl friend was due to arrive today (265). Brown: Admiral, let my friends and me sleep tonight in your tower. The admiral relunctantly OKs.

Three hours later Brown does not let his friends sleep. He waters flowers with a large garden hose. Suddenly the ugly tar-laced tower blossoms into smoke (267) Brown hoses the fire. The companions fight servants with cutlassesand overpower them. Brown says that they must call the canoeing girl to ask the gypsies to bring buckets for water. Brown repeats

“Both eyes bright, she’s all right; one eye blinks, down she sinks.” (268) When this tower caught fire, “the spark on the horizon always looked like the twin light to the coast light-house.” (269)  Young Walter Pendragon arrive safely, meets his girl friend who had suspected the admiral’s telegram and come to investigate. 

Father Brown had become suspicious when studying the relics of the admiral’s south sea voyages: a map was not of Tahiti but of this river! The owner had placed it as he did so no one would notice what it really was.

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THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY replays several of GKC's constant themes: what we see in this world is the backside of a tapestry. The reality is on the other side and much brighter and clearer. Good and evil are generally found in the same antagonists.

Maisie Ward in her GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON biography hit the highlights as follows:

"In this fantastic story the group of anarchists (distinguished by being called after the days of the week) turn out, through a series of incredible adventures to be, all save one, detectives in disguise. The gigantic figure of Sunday before whom they all tremble turns from the chief ot the anarchists, chief of the destructive forces, into -- what? The sub-title, 'A nightmare,' is needed for Sunday would seem to be some wild vision, seen in dreams, not merely of forces of good, of sanity, of creation, but even of God Himself." (p. 192)

Nearly 20 years later GKC said in an interview:

"I thought it would be fun to make the tearing away of menacing masks reveal benevolence.

Associated with that merely fantastic notion was the one that there is actually a lot of good to be discovered in unlikely places, and that we who are fighting each other may be all fighting on the right side. ... I was quite clear on that issue, that there was a final adversary, and that you might find a man resolutely turned away from goodness.

People have asked me whom I mean by Sunday. ... I think you can take him to stand for Nature as distinguised from God. Huge, boisterous, full of vitality, dancing with a hundred legs, bright with the glare of the sun, and at first sight, somewhat regardless of us and our desires.

There is a phrase used at the end, spoken by Sunday: 'Can ye drink from the cup that I drink of?' which seems to mean that Sunday is God. That is the only serious note in the book, the face of Sunday changes, you tear off the mask of Nature and you find God." (Ward, GKC, 192f)
+++++++

GKC's friend and fellow detection club member Monsignor Ronald Knox saw THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY "written as if the publisher had commissioned him to write something rather like the Pilgrim's Progress in the style of the Pickwick Papers" (Ward, GKC, 193) GKC saw himself  splashing "on a ten leagued canvas with brushes of comet's hair." (Ward, 193).

A recent reviewer for www.amazon.com (thucydides20 of New Haven, Ct) wrote:

"The obvious (and probably most common) comparison is to Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent." Both explore anarchy and revolution and have at their centers double agents. In many ways, though, the two works don't compare. Conrad's work is much darker; his London is infinitely bleaker and grosser than Chesterton's. Indeed, Conrad spends much more time describing his settings and creating the dark mood. Moreover, Conrad is more concerned than Chesterton with the psychological motivations underlying anarchy."

THE STORY:

--Chapter I: The Two Poets of Saffron Park.   The houses suit the people who live in them (1). The people look like their professions: scientist, philosopher, poet. The women look emancipated but work as stenos. GABRIEL SYME was the new poet on the block. He challenged the established anarchist poet GREGORY, who said art and anarchy are identical. He said Syme did not believe Gregory took anarchy seriously.  Red headed sister Miss Gregory asks if anarchists really throw bombs (5). Syme was pro normalcy and the ordinary. The girl had no part in the rest of the story but to Syme "the glory of her strange hair ran like a red thread through those dark and ill-drawn tapestries of the night" (6). Having sworn as a Christian not to betray Gregory to the police, Syme is led off to the bank of the river.

--Chapter II: The Secret of Gabriel Syme. In a greasy beershop (8) a rotating stool propels the two down an elevator shaft. They pass through corridors of arms and bombs. Gregory: we are anarchists, not nonconformists. We want to abolish God!  As a New Anarchist I had to learn the proper disguise  -- from SUNDAY, from the greatest man in Europe, the President of the Central Anarchist Council. He taught me to dress as an anarchist. Then nobody would expect me to do dangerous things (12). The council has seven members. Our London branch is tonight electing a new THURSDAY -- me, to replace one who recently died violently. Symes: Gregory, you must swear not to tell my secret to the anarchists. I am a policeman. Thirty passwords ("Mr Joseph Chamberlain") are heard. The chapter is assembling (14).

--Chapter III: The Man Who Was Thursday. Nominated to be the new Thursday, Gregory tries to appear reasonable to Syme. Anarchists meet in catacombs and have the early Christian virtues. They are meek, merciful, loving (18). The brothers dislike Gregory's moderation. Syme opposes the nomination. Gives a rousing bomb throwing speech. Is elected Thursday. Steps out to the river, boards a steamboat.

--Chapter IV: The Tale of a Detective. Syme had grown up in a family of cranks. He reacted by detesting lawlessness. Wrote enormously. Lived shabbily. (23) Met an Eton educated policeman. Was recruited to the new department. Is brought to a dark room to meet the brilliant head of the department. Is accepted without question.

The recruiter told Syme: the educated class "contains most of our enemies." (24) "a purely intellectual conspiracy would soon threten the very existence of civilisation. ... the scientific and artistic worlds are silently bound in a crusade against the Family and the State." Our  chief has, therefore, "formed a special corps of policemen, policemen who are also philosophers. It it their business to watch the beginnins of this conspiracy. ... we go to artistic tea-parties to detect pessimists.  ...We discover from a book of sonnets that a crime will be committed." We prevent assassinations. (25) Our enemies want to destroy property as property. Bigamists respect marriage. But philosophers despise marriage as marriage."

Syme: true. A common criminal is a bad man, but also potentially a good man. [COMMENT: This is a constant underpinning in the Father Brown stories.] The evil philosopher is not trying to change things "but to annihilate them." Today's police spy on the poor. Its real work is to punish traitors and heresiarchs --- the powerful.

In his job interview, Syme says he has no experience. The invisible chief said, "No one has any experience of the Battle of Armageddon." Syme's ID: a small card with "The Last Crusade" and a number. He went out into the February night. And later he joined the anarchists as Thursday (29).

--Chapter V: The Feast of Fear.   Alighting from the river, Syme was met by MONDAY, the Secretary of the Anarchists' Council and brought to a breakfast on a Leicester Square cafe balcony to meet the other days of the week. (29)  President SUNDAY'S idea is that people who talk openly about anarchism will never be suspected as anarchists. [COMMENT: note this theme as well in Father Brown and "The Invisible Man." Sunday is huge, intimidating  to the other European Dynamiters (31) TUESDAY, a  Pole named Gogol, is criticized by Sunday for being bad at everything he tries. WEDNESDAY was the Marquis de St. Eustache with a notable black beard. FRIDAY was a very feeble old man Professor de Worms. SATURDAY sat at the end, a doctor named Bull. To Syme he seemed the wickedest of all those wicked men (35).

--Chapter VI: The Exposure. Each man seemed peripheral to reality. The plot was to blow up the Czar and President of France in Paris three days hence. (36) Syme feared that Sunday was on to Syme's being a detective. Felt fear. But Syme was not won to their goals. A barrel-organ in the street, by contrast, was real (39). Sunday invited all into a private room. Denounced Gogol/Tuesday as a spy. The others sprang on Gogol. (41)
 

--Chapter VII: The Unaccountable Conduct of Professor de Worms. Sunday made all sit down (41). Gogol admits to being a policeman, turns in his ID. Under threat of death if he talks, Gogol, really a cockney, leaves. Sunday says that details of the plot, without further discussion, will be left to Saturday, Dr Bull, and to the Marquis de St. Eustache, Wednesday. Sunday left to chair a humanitarian meeting. (43) Syme sat long alone. Then he walked out from the Council of the Seven Days as from a bad dream into a snow storm. (44) It dawned on him that the crippled old Professor de Worms, Friday, was following him, even when he ran and dodged for miles. Finally they confronted each other in a Cheapside docks  pub (47).

--Chapter VIII: The Professor Explains.  The professor asked, "Are you a policeman?" (48) Eventually both show their IDs as intelllectual policemen. Both fear Sunday. Both vow to pull Sunday down. They will seek out Dr Bull tomorrow morning (52) to prevent the coming assinations. Over a good dinner in an East End pub, they become friends. Professor de Worms = Friday is really Wilks, an actor. He imitated the real nihilist German professor and was taken by his followers to be him. His success led his recruitment by the police and dark room interview with the department chief (56).
 

--Chapter IX:  The Man in Spectacles. Extorting a secret from Dr Bull = Saturday will not be easy. Professor de Worms = Friday = Wilks the actor teaches Syme = Thursday hand sign language to use when they confront Bull. (59) Next morning they confront Bull at home. After much back and forth to a silent Bull, Syme's poetic intuition persuades him to reveal he is a policeman. After removing his spectacles, Bull looks like (and is) a policeman, too. Bull tells of how he was recruited and enlisted by the large man in the dark room. We can catch the Marquis at Calais and prevent his going to Paris. Symes has a plan how to do this. They train and ferry to Calais. Find Marquis de St. Eustache in a cafe with two friends. (68)
 

--Chapter X:  The Duel.  Syme will challenge the marquis to a duel. Syme's ancient lineage qualifies him to fight a gentleman. Asks to pull marquis's nose. Claims his mother has been insullted. After negotiations swords will rise at 7:00 a..m next morn in a secluded field near the train line to Paris. In the duel, Syme lands several blows but his adversary is padded and is done no harm. Marquis kept looking toward the train. Finally marquis stops. Agrees to let his nose be pulled. We shall stop you from boarding the train. Marquis: I don't want to board the train. I am with Scotland Yard! I am Inspector Ratcliffe. Bull explains things to the marquis's seconds. One will join them and fight for civilisation. (78)  Inspector Ratcliffe: we have been toyed with by Sunday. He controls half th world. Just five people would have resisted him and for a joke he put them on the Supreme Council. From the train many people were heading their way (79). Opera glasses reveal that two or three wore black halfp face masks. One smiled "on one side" proving to be Sunday's right hand man Monday, secretary of the council.
 

--Chapter XI: The Criminals Chase the Police. The detectives worry that Sunday is actively taking over Europe, starting with France. To Syme everyone wore mask upon mask. Pull off a nose and find a detective. They move off on foot from the pursuing crowd. Into woods where shapes change constantly like Impressionism = final scepticism. Syme: Men changed into other people by pulling off a disguise. "Was anyone anything?" Might anyone take off his head and be a hobgoblin? "Everything only a glimpse, the glimpse always unforeseen, and always forgotten (81). The colonel is taking them through the town of Lancy to the sea. A non-anarchistic part of France. Colonel: the poor are least likely to be anarchists. "they have more interest than anyh one else in there being some decent government. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. Aristocrats were always anarchists, as you can see from the barons' wars (82)

They come out of the woods. Negotiate a ride in the cart of a wood cutter. At a cafe they hire six horses, getting away just before their pursuers come down the steep hill (86).

--Chapter XII:  The Earth in Anarchy. There is one honest rich man in the town of Lancy., Doctor Renard. Colonel and others visit him. Pursued by horses, they borrow one of Renard's three autos. (86)  The white haired innkeeper is in the pursuit, at least 100 strong. Almost run ovr by Monday, on horse, they start the car and head for the police station. The Colonel brings a religious lantern with them as darkness falls. (89) Suddenly they are cut off in front by irate peasants. Renard had got ahead of them and mobilized the town. They are also trapped from behind. They flee. Their car hits a pole. They run out to the end of a causeway into the sea. Tht peasants pursue them. The gendarmes are with the peasants (95). The Colonel had gone over to them, after an attempt at a parley. Syme charged them with a sword. Hurls the sacred lantern into the sea to keep it from anarchists. The whole world, he shouted, was made like "this old Christian lantern" "by denying your philosophy of dirt and rats." The other three join his struggle. (97) The Secretary, hit by Syme, says "I arrest you in the name of the law." Your are anarchists and I am "a detective from Scotland Yard." Showed his blue card.  "And what do you suppose we are, asked the Professor.
 

--Chapter XIII:  The Pursuit of the President. Next morning the five "bewildered but hilarious people took the boat for Dover. The Secretary told Syme that some had worn masks to approach the supposed enemies as fellow conspirators. (98) In hotel together in Piccadilly Circus. During the night Dr Bull captured Gogol. (99) Brought him with them next morning to breakfast with Sunday. He is on the cafe balcony. Is told the Czar is not dead. Sunday banters with them. They ask, "who are you and what are you?" Sunday: Bull, you are a man of science, find out the truth about trees. Syme, you are a poet. Look at those morning clouds and tell me their truth. "You will understnd the sea, and I shall be still a riddle; you shall know what the stars are, and not know what I am. Since the beginning of the world all men have hunted me like a wolf -- kings and sages, and poets and law-givers, all the churches and all the philosophies. But I have never been caught yet, and the skies will fall in the time I turn to bay."

Sunday swung himself over the balcony while telling them "I am the man in the dark room, who made you all policemen." (100)  He leapt into a cab. They pursue in cabs. He tosses nonsense notes out to each of them. Then he leapt into a fire-engine and heded north.. He entered the zoo and commandeered an elephant. (103) Sunday reminded Syme of nature -- always making jokes (104). The six detectives pursued him in cabs. They reached the Wheel of Earl's Court. Sunday commandeered the captive balloon.

--Chapter XIV:  The Six Philosophers. On foot the six pursued the balloon five miles outside London. Most of the six express strange admiration for Sunday. He is fat but light.  Bible: "why leap, ye high hills?" (107) They recall their first meetings with Sunday. Syme: you each find Sunday different but each compares him to the universe. When I first saw Sunday, I saw only his back, on the balcony. Then I saw his face and it was so good. The professor: Pan was an animal and a god. (110) Chasing him yesterday I thought the back of his head was really his face. Later from the cab he grimaced like a gargoyle. "I knew that he was only like a father playing hide-and-seek with his children." (110)

Syme cried: "Listen to me. ... Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world. We see everything from behind, and it looks brutal. ... Cannot you see that everything is stooping and hiding a face? If we could only get round in front ----"  (110).

The balloon came down behind the trees.  A tall man advanced to them on behalf of his master. Led them  through a hedge to six carriages. They came to a large, low rich house (115). Each was led to his own room for refreshments and to change clothes to dine with Sunday. For a fancy dress ball. Thursday (the fourth day of creation--reckoning from the Christian Sunday) of sun and moon is dressed in a warm green frock spotted all over with the sun and moon. A bible was also provided and Syme's servant referred him to Genesis.
 

--Chapter XV:  The Accuser. 

The Secretary -- Monday represented the mere creation of light out of darkness: a band of pure white down a long black robe. They expressed Monday's character.

Inspector Ratcliffe = Wednesday was clad in spring green like a hunstsman and his garment exhibited a green tangle of trees. For on the third day was made the earth and green things.

In a garden Syme saw many shapes exhibited. A dancing apple tree. a Windmill. There stood the thrones of the seven days.

Gogol = Tuesday exhibited the division of the waters. Garb like a sheet of rain (116).

Dr Bull = Saturday, last day of Creation,  displayed heraldic animals and man. 

Sunday walked to the central seat. In pure and terrible white. The crowd danced then melted away. The strong, slow stars came out.  Sunday: "I sent you out to war. I sat in the darkness, where there is not any created thing, and to you I was only a voice commanding valour and an unnatural virtue. You heard the voice in the dark and never heard it again. ... all human wisdom denied it.

Who and what are you?

"I am the Sabbath. ... I am the peace of God." (117)

Secretary = Monday: You are ultimate reconciliation. "Well, I am not reconciled." Why were you both our father/friend and our greatest enemy?

Syme: I am grateful to you "for many a fine scamper and free fight." (118) Each of the six speaks his piece.  A black-clad figure approached, the poet Gregory, the only anarchist among them.

Bull = Saturday: "And there came a day ... when the sons of God came before the Lord, and Satan was also with them."

Syme: you have read hair. Be happy like your red-headed sister.

Gregory: My red hair, like red flames, shall burn up the world." I hate you, Syme, most of all.

All of you six are the men who have power, "the great fat, smiling men in blue and buttons! ... The only crime of the Government is that it governs. I curse the supreme power for being supreme.  (119) You have never suffered. You cannot be forgiven.

Syme: we have suffered! But has Sunday ever suffered? Sunday's face grew larger and larger. Just before blanking out, Syme heard a distant voice saying "Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of?"

*   *   *   *   *   *

Syme awoke gradually walking in the country with an easy and convrsational companion: the poet Gregory. Syme felt in possession of impossible good news. All around at dawn rose the buildings of Saffron Park. So near London. He found himself outside a fenced garden. "There he saw the sister of Gregory, the girl with the gold-red hair, cutting lilac before breakfast, with the gbreat unconscious gravity of a girl."

-OOO-

10/31/2003