150 ©. )— Luly and Water-Lily.

A devil prompted her and she laughed, “Do it,
then, and I will believe it.”

He rose from his knees. “Ay, 1 will do it,” said
he, quietly. “And I will do it gladly, for thou lovest
me still.”

Slowly he went down into the ped and was
lost in the deepening twilight.

_ But when the last sound of his footsteps had died ~
away, she fell forward against the low wall that hemmed
the terrace, and lost for a while the sense of her pain.

The moon rose once more behind the precipices
of Ai, and emptied her glory over the lovely plain
of the Rhéne valley. And Michael stood as he had
stood before upon the island, and watched the creep-
ing, rushing waters and the magic lilies swaying
hither and thither upon the breast of the stream.
His hand wandered into the bosom of his shirt, as
it had wandered when Salome had asked him for
some proof of the fairy’s very existence, in search
of the little pipe of reed that Nerina had given him.