112 Lily and Water-Lily.

 

free will, and as he plucked it up by the roots others
followed, until he had his arms full ina moment. But
what was that that had suddenly grown up out of the
heart of his next victim, as though it were its own
green calyx? What was that that stood there so
lightly upon the broad white petals, transparent and
green as the water, shining, glittering in thé moonlight ?

He rubbed his eyes, for what he saw could not
possibly be reality ; it was green as the calyx of the
flower, translucent as the moonlit ripples, it gave
forth light as a glow-worm, but, strange as it was, it
had the form of a girl—of-a young girl, lovely and
dainty past compare.

Michael shook himself angrily. Surely the moon
had struck his senses, as he had heard tell that it
sometimes did; or surely the white marsh mist had
got into his eyes so that he could not see! He
looked around; everything else was solid and com-
prehensible enough: the dark sheet of the lake to
his right, unlit yet by the treacherous orb, the black
precipices standing out of it where, half-way up the