stared at me and lifted her old brown wrinkled hands and laid them
on my head. Then she spoke some words in a strange language as to
herself, and afterwards she said, 'Spirit of all that is and ever
shall be, bless this child who belongs to thee, and not to man! Give
her the power to do what is commanded, to the end.' And at this she
stopped suddenly and bending down she lifted my head in her two
hands and looked at me hard--'Poor child, poor child! Never a love
for you--never a love! Alone you are, alone you must be! Never a
love for a "fey" woman!' And she let me go, and sat down again to
her spinning-wheel, nor would she say another word--neither to me
nor to my father."

"And you call THIS your second experience of happiness?" said Don
Aloysius, wonderingly--"What happiness did you gain by your
interview with this old Alison?"

"Ah!" and Morgana smiled--"You would not understand me if I tried to
explain! Everything came to me!--yes, everything! I began to live in
a world of my own--" she paused, and her eyes grew dark and pensive,
"and I have lived in it ever since. That is why I say my visit to
old Alison was my second experience of happiness. I've seen her
again many times since then, but not with quite the same
impression."

"She is alive still?"

"Oh, yes! I often fancy she will never die!"

There was a silence of some minutes. Morgana rose, and crossing over
to the old well, studied the crimson passion-flowers which twined