Phantastes, A Faerie Romance - Page 24/147

"And she was smooth and full, as if one gush

Of life had washed her, or as if a sleep

Lay on her eyelid, easier to sweep

Than bee from daisy."

BEDDOIS' Pygmalion.

"Sche was as whyt as lylye yn May,

Or snow that sneweth yn wynterys day."

Romance of Sir Launfal.

I walked on, in the fresh morning air, as if new-born. The only thing

that damped my pleasure was a cloud of something between sorrow and

delight that crossed my mind with the frequently returning thought of my

last night's hostess. "But then," thought I, "if she is sorry, I could

not help it; and she has all the pleasures she ever had. Such a day as

this is surely a joy to her, as much at least as to me. And her life

will perhaps be the richer, for holding now within it the memory of what

came, but could not stay. And if ever she is a woman, who knows but

we may meet somewhere? there is plenty of room for meeting in the

universe."

Comforting myself thus, yet with a vague compunction, as if

I ought not to have left her, I went on. There was little to distinguish

the woods to-day from those of my own land; except that all the wild

things, rabbits, birds, squirrels, mice, and the numberless other

inhabitants, were very tame; that is, they did not run away from me, but

gazed at me as I passed, frequently coming nearer, as if to examine

me more closely.

Whether this came from utter ignorance, or from

familiarity with the human appearance of beings who never hurt them, I

could not tell. As I stood once, looking up to the splendid flower of

a parasite, which hung from the branch of a tree over my head, a large

white rabbit cantered slowly up, put one of its little feet on one of

mine, and looked up at me with its red eyes, just as I had been

looking up at the flower above me. I stooped and stroked it; but when

I attempted to lift it, it banged the ground with its hind feet and

scampered off at a great rate, turning, however, to look at me several

times before I lost sight of it. Now and then, too, a dim human figure

would appear and disappear, at some distance, amongst the trees, moving

like a sleep-walker. But no one ever came near me.

This day I found plenty of food in the forest--strange nuts and fruits

I had never seen before. I hesitated to eat them; but argued that, if

I could live on the air of Fairy Land, I could live on its food also. I

found my reasoning correct, and the result was better than I had hoped;

for it not only satisfied my hunger, but operated in such a way upon my

senses that I was brought into far more complete relationship with the

things around me. The human forms appeared much more dense and defined;

more tangibly visible, if I may say so. I seemed to know better which

direction to choose when any doubt arose. I began to feel in some degree

what the birds meant in their songs, though I could not express it in

words, any more than you can some landscapes. At times, to my surprise,

I found myself listening attentively, and as if it were no unusual

thing with me, to a conversation between two squirrels or monkeys.