her. Now they were as troops of angels, jubilant over her new birth, for
they sang, in her soul, of beauty, and truth, and love. She looked down,
and her little sister knelt beside her.

"She was a curious child, with black, glittering eyes, and dark hair; at
the mercy of every wandering wind; a frolicsome, daring girl, who laughed
more than she smiled. She was generally in attendance on her sister, and
was always finding and bringing her strange things. She never pulled a
primrose, but she knew the haunts of all the orchis tribe, and brought
from them bees and butterflies innumerable, as offerings to her sister.
Curious moths and glow-worms were her greatest delight; and she loved the
stars, because they were like the glow-worms. But the change had affected
her too; for her sister saw that her eyes had lost their glittering look,
and had become more liquid and transparent. And from that time she often
observed that her gaiety was more gentle, her smile more frequent, her
laugh less bell-like; and although she was as wild as ever, there was more
elegance in her motions, and more music in her voice. And she clung to her
sister with far greater fondness than before.

"The land reposed in the embrace of the warm summer days. The clouds of
heaven nestled around the towers of the castle; and the hearts of its
inmates became conscious of a warm atmosphere--of a presence of love. They
began to feel like the children of a household, when the mother is at
home. Their faces and forms grew daily more and more beautiful, till they
wondered as they gazed on each other. As they walked in the gardens of the
castle, or in the country around, they were often visited, especially the
eldest sister, by sounds that no one heard but themselves, issuing from
woods and waters; and by forms of love that lightened out of flowers, and
grass, and great rocks. Now and then the young children would come in with
a slow, stately step, and, with great eyes that looked as if they would