He spoke quite gently to Alison, but she seemed quite beyond herself and unable to listen.

'Your way lies down a different road, John Royal'-- she said--'You that herded sheep on these hills and that now hoard millions of money--of what use to you is your wealth?
You are but the worker,--gathering gold for HER--the "fey" child born in an hour of May moonlight! You must go, but she must stay,--her own folk have work for her to do!' Then my father said, 'Dear Alison, don't frighten the child!' and she suddenly changed in her tone and manner.
'Frighten her ?' she muttered.

'I would not frighten her for the world!' And my father pushed me towards her and whispered--'Ask her to bless you before you go.' So I just knelt before her, trembling very much, and said, 'Dear Alison, bless me!'-- and she 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.