He descended.... He stood on the terrace. She slid along his wing to the ground. She put her hands before her face, and when she opened her eyes she was alone.

Then she was very, very sad. But next day, he appeared again. And, more courageous, she wished to mount him again. He let her do as she desired, and she got on his back. She shut her eyes, but smiled. He went higher and higher with her, without her saying "Descend." She travelled for a time high up in the air, she opened her eyes and kept smiling; she got accustomed to the rarefied air. The third time he soared away with her; she saw, far below, the royal castle, small as a toy, towers, ramparts; and then she realised for the first time that she had left the castle.

She thought of the king.

"Take me back!" she said to the horse commandingly.

He obeyed her. He took her back. But as soon as he was gone, she longed again for him and the lofty air. And she had but one thought, the Chimera. She no longer cared for the flowers which she had planted between the walls, and the flowers withered. She no longer cared for the swans, and the swans, neglected, followed her in vain, in the green moats; she forgot to crumble bread for them. And she looked at the clouds and she gazed at the wind, thinking only of him, the light-gold horse with the silver wings, because he came on the wind, on the clouds, which thundered when he struck with his hoofs.

On the day that he did not come, her fair Chimera, she sat pale and lonely, gazing from the battlements, her eyes far away, her arms round her knees. In the evening she nestled in the king's beard, in the folds of his tabard, but she durst not tell him that she had ridden a wondrous winged horse and flown with him through the air. But on the days that her beloved horse had come and taken her away with him, carefully flapping his wings, her face shone with golden happiness in the apotheosis of her soul, and through the gloomy halls, where sacred spiders, which were never disturbed, wove their webs, rang Psyche's high voice, and from the faded gobelin the low vault and the motionless iron knights strangely re-echoed the words of her joyous song.

CHAPTER VIII

"Psyche, where do you wish to go?"

"To the opal islands, to the seas of light, to the far-off luminous streaks...."

"Take a deep breath; hold fast on to my neck; twist my mane more tightly round your hand, then we will begin our journey."

The clouds sent forth a rumbling sound of thunder; the Chimera's hoofs shot fire; his wings expanded and shut, and his strong feathers rustled in the air.

Psyche uttered a cry.

She had ascended higher than ever before, and under them sank away the castle, the meadows, the woods, the cities, and the river; under them, like a map, lay stretched out province after province, desert after desert, the whole Kingdom of the Past. How great it was! how great it was! The frontiers receded from view again and again; far down below rose up town after town; river after river meandered along, mountain-ranges rose up one after the other, now only slightly elevated, then rising arabesquely through the plains. Then there were great waters like oceans, and Psyche saw nothing but white foaming sea. But on the other side of it began again the strand, the land, the wood, the meadows, the mountains, and so on endlessly....

"How much farther away are the opal islands, the streaks of light I see in the distance, my beloved Chimera?"

"We have already pa.s.sed them...."

She raised her head, bent over his streaming neck, and gazed about her.

"But I do not see them any longer!" she said, astonished. "I see wood and meadow, towns and mountains.... Is the world, then, the same everywhere? Where are the opal islands?"

"Behind us...."

"But I do not see them.... Have we pa.s.sed them without my seeing them? O naughty Chimera, you did not tell me!"

"And where are the luminous streaks of the far-off land?"

"We are going through them...."

"I see nothing.... Below, land; around, clouds, as everywhere. But no lands of light.... And yet there, in the distance, very far away--what is that, Chimera? I see, as it were, a purple desert on a sea of golden water, with winding borders of soft mother-of-pearl; in the desert are oases like pale emerald, palms with silvery waving tops, azure bananas; and over the purple desert trills ether of light crimson, with streaks of topaz.... Chimera, Chimera, what is that country? What is that beautiful country? The golden sea with its foam forms a pearly fringe along the sh.o.r.e; the palms wave their tops to a rhythm of aerial music, and the bananas, blue, pink, glow in the ether till all is light there...! Chimera, is that the rainbow?"

"No...."

"Chimera, is that the land of happiness? Is that the kingdom of happiness? Chimera, are you king there?"

"Yes, that is my country. And I am king there."

"Are we going thither?"

"Yes."

"Do you remain there, Chimera? Do we remain there together?"

"No...."

"Why not?"

"As soon as I have reached my purple land, I must go farther ... and then back again."

"O Chimera, I will not go back! I will forget everything--my father, my country. I will remain there with you!"

"I cannot.... But now pay great attention; we are approaching my kingdom, little Psyche. Look! now we are going over the sea, now we are approaching the sh.o.r.e, lined with soft mother-of-pearl."

"The sea is a dirty green, like an ordinary sea; the borders are sand.... You are deceiving me, Chimera! As soon as we approach, then you charm away everything that I saw beautiful."

"Now, under us is the purple desert; under us are the oases of pale emerald."

"You are deceiving me, Chimera! The desert glows in the strong sun, the oases fade away to nothing, like a meteor.... Chimera!"

"What, Psyche?"

"Where are you going?"

"To the land, as far off as you can see...."

"I care not about it! You always deceive me! You carry me away through endless s.p.a.ce, and everything beautiful that I see disappears from my view. But yet ... there, behind the horizon, behind the sand of the desert, is a dazzling scene.... Are those silver grottos on a sea of light? Does the light there wave like water? Are those groves of light, cities of light, in a land of light? Tell me, Chimera, do people of light live there? Is that Paradise?"

"Yes, will you go thither?"

"Yes, oh yes, Chimera. There is happiness, the highest happiness, and there I will remain with you...!"

"We are now approaching it...."

"Let that land of light now stay, the paradise of glowing sunshine; do not charm away the land of happiness, O naughty Chimera: go to it now with me, and descend with me...."

"We are there...."

"Descend...."