I should have ill endured, the day before, to be called BOY; but now the
motherly kindness of the word went to my heart; and, like a boy indeed,
I burst into tears. She soothed me right gently; and, leading me into
a room, made me lie down on a settle, while she went to find me some
refreshment. She soon returned with food, but I could not eat. She
almost compelled me to swallow some wine, when I revived sufficiently to
be able to answer some of her questions. I told her the whole story.
"It is just as I feared," she said; "but you are now for the night
beyond the reach of any of these dreadful creatures. It is no wonder
they could delude a child like you. But I must beg you, when my husband
comes in, not to say a word about these things; for he thinks me even
half crazy for believing anything of the sort. But I must believe my
senses, as he cannot believe beyond his, which give him no intimations
of this kind. I think he could spend the whole of Midsummer-eve in
the wood and come back with the report that he saw nothing worse than
himself. Indeed, good man, he would hardly find anything better than
himself, if he had seven more senses given him."
"But tell me how it is that she could be so beautiful without any heart
at all--without any place even for a heart to live in."
"I cannot quite tell," she said; "but I am sure she would not look so
beautiful if she did not take means to make herself look more beautiful
than she is. And then, you know, you began by being in love with
her before you saw her beauty, mistaking her for the lady of the
marble--another kind altogether, I should think. But the chief thing
that makes her beautiful is this: that, although she loves no man, she
loves the love of any man; and when she finds one in her power, her
desire to bewitch him and gain his love (not for the sake of his love
either, but that she may be conscious anew of her own beauty,
through the admiration he manifests), makes her very lovely--with a
self-destructive beauty, though; for it is that which is constantly
wearing her away within, till, at last, the decay will reach her face,
and her whole front, when all the lovely mask of nothing will fall to
pieces, and she be vanished for ever. So a wise man, whom she met in
the wood some years ago, and who, I think, for all his wisdom, fared no
better than you, told me, when, like you, he spent the next night here,
and recounted to me his adventures."