And all that day she spent in tears, repeating that she was now dead
indeed, shut up in that golden prison, powerless to console her
sisters sorrowing after her, or to see their faces; and so went to
rest weeping.

And after a while came the bridegroom again, and lay down beside her,
and embracing her as she wept, complained, "Was this thy promise, my
Psyche? What have I to hope from thee? Even in the arms of thy
husband thou ceasest not from pain. Do now as thou wilt. Indulge
thine own desire, though it seeks what will ruin thee. Yet wilt thou
remember my warning, repentant too late." Then, protesting that she
is like to die, she obtains from him that he suffer her to see her
sisters, and present to them moreover what gifts she would of golden
ornaments; but therewith he ofttimes advised her never at any time,
yielding to pernicious counsel, to enquire concerning his bodily
form, lest she fall, [69] through unholy curiosity, from so great a
height of fortune, nor feel ever his embrace again. "I would die a
hundred times," she said, cheerful at last, "rather than be deprived
of thy most sweet usage. I love thee as my own soul, beyond
comparison even with Love himself. Only bid thy servant Zephyrus
bring hither my sisters, as he brought me. My honeycomb! My
husband! Thy Psyche's breath of life!" So he promised; and after
the embraces of the night, ere the light appeared, vanished from the
hands of his bride.

And the sisters, coming to the place where Psyche was abandoned, wept
loudly among the rocks, and called upon her by name, so that the
sound came down to her, and running out of the palace distraught, she
cried, "Wherefore afflict your souls with lamentation? I whom you
mourn am here." Then, summoning Zephyrus, she reminded him of her