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Midas went out into his garden and reached for the fruit that hung on the trees. Nothing but gold after he had touched it. Gold, gold, gold! How he hated the sight of it! His food and drink were gold. His friends, his home, even his pillow was cold hard gold. In a few hours he raised his arms, glittering with cloth of gold, in prayer, beseeching Bacchus to take his gift away.
'You are very hard on him, said Madame Midas, with a laugh. 'Ah! Mr Calton believes as I do, cried Vandeloup, 'that it's no good having friends unless you're privileged to abuse them. 'It's one you take full advantage of, then, observed Kitty, saucily. 'I always take what I can get, he returned, mockingly; whereon she shivered, and Calton saw it.
But while in America all classes exist, they are not fenced apart, as in England, in fact any more than they are in theory. In England if you go into educated society, you are likely to meet almost exclusively educated people or at least people with the stamp of educated manners. Sir Gorgius Midas is not of course inexorably barred from the society of duchesses.
Thenceforth Midas, hating wealth and splendor, dwelt in the country, and became a worshipper of Pan, the god of the fields. On a certain occasion Pan had the temerity to compare his music with that of Apollo, and to challenge the god of the lyre to a trial of skill. The challenge was accepted, and Tmolus, the mountain-god, was chosen umpire.
Asleep or awake, however, his mind was probably in the state of a child's, to whom a beautiful new plaything has been promised in the morning. At any rate, day had hardly peeped over the hills, when King Midas was broad awake, and, stretching his arms out of bed, began to touch the objects that were within reach.
A very pretty piece of work, as you may suppose; only King Midas, just at that moment, would much rather have had a real trout in his dish than this elaborate and valuable imitation of one. "I don't quite see," thought he to himself, "how I am to get any breakfast!"
The stranger's smile grew so very broad that it seemed to fill the room like an outburst of the sun gleaming into a shadowy dell where the yellow autumnal leaves for so looked the lumps and particles of gold lie strewn in the glow of light. "The Golden Touch!" exclaimed he. "You certainly deserve credit, friend Midas, for striking out so brilliant a conception.
Two significant facts are known about their subsequent history; first, that two centuries later than our date they, or some part of them, were settled in Cappadocia, apparently rather in the centre and north of that country than in the south: second, that at that same epoch and later they had kings of the name Mita, which is thought to be identical with the name Midas, known to early Greek historians as borne by kings of Phrygia.
Thereupon Villiers sat down and told them the whole story of his mysterious disappearance, and how he had been made a fool of by Vandeloup. When he had ended, Calton, who had resumed his seat, and listened to the recital with deep interest, stole a glance at Madame Midas, but she looked as cold and impenetrable as ever.
He can acquire some, but through skill, and not, as in the age of the fairies, or of King Midas, through a mere command of the will or by his touch. It would not suffice to be master in one's own house; one must be master of all things in order to give oneself all that one wishes; for one does not find everything in one's own house.
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