272 The Life of the Spider 



You are of their company, O my industrious 

 Epeirse ! So that you may dine, you spend 

 your treasures of patience nightly ; and often 

 without result. I sympathize with your woes, 

 for I, who am as concerned as you about my 

 daily bread, I also doggedly spread my net, 

 the net for catching ideas, a more elusive and 

 less substantial prize than the Moth. Let us 

 not lose heart. The best part of life is not 

 in the present, still less in the past; it lies 

 in the future, the domain of hope. Let us 

 wait. 



All day long, the sky, of a uniform grey, has 

 appeared to be brewing a storm. In spite of 

 the threatened downpour, my neighbour, who 

 is a shrewd weather-prophet, has come out 

 of the cypress-tree and begun to renew her 

 web at the regular hour. Her forecast is 

 correct : it will be a fine night. See, the steam- 

 ing-pan of the clouds spUts open ; and, through 

 the apertures, the moon peeps, inquisitively. 

 I too, lantern in hand, am peeping. A gust of 

 wind from the north clears the realms on high ; 

 the sky becomes magnificent ; perfect calm 

 reigns below. The Moths begin their nightly 



