"It is so selfish not to."

He nodded, with an air of ancient wisdom.

"I have lived on this earth more years than you have, some
thousands, you remember, and I can assure you that more people
forget their fellows because of their own troubles than because
of their own joys."

The girl pulled at a tendril of the vine with her fingers, eyeing
her companion keenly.

"I presume," she said, with a tremor in her voice, "that you are
an Englishman, or an American who has studied Greek thought
deeply, being tired of modern people and modern ways, and that
you are trying to get back to an older, simpler way of
living."

"It has ever been the custom," said Apollo, gently taking the
tendril of the vine from her fingers, "for a nation to refuse to
believe the divinity of the others' gods."

"Anyway," mused the girl, not quite conscious that she was
speaking aloud, "whatever you think, you are good to the
shepherd."

He laughed outright.

"I find that most people are better than their beliefs," he
answered. "Now, Miss Willis, I wonder if I dare ask you