Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson
page 57 of 582 (09%)
twice there came the solemn beat of the Master-Word in the night. Yet
never had she the power to answer. And all that while, as I learned in
time, was she stirred with a quaint ache at heart by the voice that
called "Mirdath!" as it might be the Spirit of Love, searching for its
mate; for this is how she put it.

And thus it chanced, that the constant thrilling of this name about her,
woke her to memory of a book she had read in early years, and but half
understood; for it was ancient, and writ in an olden fashion, and it set
out the love of a man and a maid, and the maid's name was Mirdath. And
so, because she was full of this great awakening of those ages of
silence, and the calling of that name, she found the book again, and
read it many times, and grew to a sound love of the beauty of that tale.

And, presently, when the instrument was made right, she called into the
night the name of that man within the book; and so it came about that I
had hoped too much; yet even now was I strangely unsure whether to cease
from hoping.

And one other thing there is which I would make clear. Many and oft a
time had I heard a thrilling of sweet, faint laughter about me, and the
stirring of the aether by words too gentle to come clearly; and these I
make no doubt came from Naani, using her brain-elements unwittingly and
in ignorance; but very eager to answer my callings; and having no
knowledge that, far off across the blackness of the world, they thrilled
about me, constantly.

And after Naani had made clear all that I have set out concerning the
Lesser Refuge, she told further how that food was not plentiful with
them; though, until the reawakening of the Earth-Current, they had gone
DigitalOcean Referral Badge