And if I live in a waste instead of a paradise, I will live knowing where I live." But of this a certain exercise of his power which soon followed quite cured me, turning my feelings towards him once more into loathing and distrust.

It was thus: One bright noon, a little maiden joined me, coming through the wood in a direction at right angles to my path.

She came along singing and dancing, happy as a child, though she seemed almost a woman.

In her hands--now in one, now in another--she carried a small globe, bright and clear as the purest crystal.

This seemed at once her plaything and her greatest treasure.