114 Lily and Water-Lily. »
“Don’t you know that any one who dares to pluck my
flowers without my permission dies within the year?”
The words were harsh, but the voice was so liquid
and she smiled so enchantingly as she said them that _
Michael took heart of grace.

“T could not ask permission,” said he, humbly ;
“for I did not know you, fair lady.”

She laughed merrily, looking at him not half
displeased—then quickly resumed her imperious air.

“Ah! thou canst dare to argue with me, a Rhéne
fairy?” said she, with pretty haughtiness, yet appa-
rently forgetting to continue her speech in the more
dignified mode of address. “Thou dost so because
thou seest that I am young, and thou thinkest that
I can have but scant power; but know, rash youth,
that I have power to strike thee dead, even where
thou standest.”

Michael said no word, but he dropped the lilies into
the strearn—the lilies that he had been at such pains to
get—and his heart beat strangely, yet not with fear.

“Ah! that is easy enough to do,” said the little