The Romance of a Water-Lily. 127

 

_ quivered with heat, and white marble palaces stood,
with red cactus and white magnolia against their
walls, amid groves of. orange trees and palms, and
still the snow-lilies floated on the stream, and it was
the kingdom of the fairy again.

_ Michael gazed fascinated, watching the wondrous
pictures pass and fade upon the surface of the magic
pool; his lips parted, and there were dreams in his
eyes as when he played upon his flute on the moun-
tains ; but.at last the water was still and black as
before Nerina had blown upon it, and he roused
himself with a sigh at the sound of her cooing iaven
once more in his ear.

“Thou seest, thou beautiful youth, when thou art
Nerina’s own thou wilt no longer be doomed to pass
thy life in this narrow valley, where the mountains
close in about thee and hide the world from thy gaze ;
thou wilt no longer need to waste thy time with
herds of cattle, pouring thy song to the empty air,
“and giving fair words to those who are unable to
understandthem. Nay, Michael, we will quit a while