faltering steps, by thy sorrowful eyes and continual sighing, thou
labourest with excess of love. Listen then to me, and seek not death
again, in the stream or otherwise. Put aside thy woe, and turn thy
prayers to Cupid. He is in truth a delicate youth: win him by the
delicacy of thy service."

So the shepherd-god spoke, and Psyche, answering nothing, but with a
reverence to his serviceable deity, went on her way. And while she,
in her search after Cupid, wandered through many lands, he was lying
in the chamber of his mother, heart-sick. And the white bird which
floats over the waves plunged in haste into the sea, and approaching
Venus, as she bathed, made known to her that her son lies afflicted
with some grievous hurt, doubtful of life. And Venus cried, angrily,
"My son, then, has a mistress! And it is Psyche, who witched away
[78] my beauty and was the rival of my godhead, whom he loves!"

Therewith she issued from the sea, and returning to her golden
chamber, found there the lad, sick, as she had heard, and cried from
the doorway, "Well done, truly! to trample thy mother's precepts
under foot, to spare my enemy that cross of an unworthy love; nay,
unite her to thyself, child as thou art, that I might have a
daughter-in-law who hates me! I will make thee repent of thy sport,
and the savour of thy marriage bitter. There is one who shall
chasten this body of thine, put out thy torch and unstring thy bow.
Not till she has plucked forth that hair, into which so oft these
hands have smoothed the golden light, and sheared away thy wings,
shall I feel the injury done me avenged." And with this she hastened
in anger from the doors.

And Ceres and Juno met her, and sought to know the meaning of her