The Romance of a Water-Lily. 153

 

“Alas! fair maiden,” faltered the youth, “yet do
you not understand. I come not as you deem. I
come not to return to you—fair as you are. I can
love none other but the mortal maiden whom I have
loved since manhood first awoke in me. But I come
boldly, as a last hope, to beg one great boon.”

_“T know,” said she, quietly, nodding her head, and
with the same sweet serious smile, “thou comest to
ask for death.”

“ How do you know?” murmured Michael, eahase

“Did I not tell thee that that little pipe which
thou holdest is the link that binds my world to thine?
Did I not tell thee that that which thou shouldst
breathe into it would be plainer to my ear than any
words? I did not guess then all that I meant, but the
sigh that thou didst breathe but now into that little reed
has come to me in my own speech. I understand all.”

“You know that, ere I pay the penalty of death,
I would fain carry the magic lilies to my beloved,
that she may believe in my love? You know that
I would die at her feet, and that that is the boon
I would beg?” asked Michael, wondering.