and sharply rebuffed. Who can
blame the ill-treated friend if it is less ready to serve us as the years
go on? The wise man will keep his ears ever open, but rarely lend it his
active hand. To banish it from life is to deprive the plant of blossoms,
the rose of its fragrance, the sky of its stars."

"I have often said the same things to myself, though in a less clear and
beautiful form, when life has been darkened," replied Barine, with a
faint blush; for she felt that these words were doubtless intended to
warn her against cherishing too aspiring wishes. "But, your Majesty, here
also the gods place you, the great Queen, far above us. We should often
find existence bare indeed but for the fancy which endows us with
imaginary possessions. You have the power to secure a thousand things
which to us common mortals only the gift of imagination pictures as
attainable."

"You believe that happiness is like wealth, and that the happiest person
is the one who receives the largest number of the gifts of fortune,"
answered the Queen. "The contrary, I think, can be easily proved. The
maxim that the more we have the less we need desire, is also false,
though in this world there are only a certain number of desirable things.
He who already possesses one of ten solidi which are to be divided, ought
really to desire only nine, and therefore would be poorer by a wish than
another who has none. True, it cannot be denied that the gods have
burdened or endowed me with a greater number of perishable gifts than you
and many others. You seem to set a high value upon them. Doubtless there
may be one or another which you could appropriate only by the aid of the
imagination. May I ask which seems to you the most desirable?"

"Spare me the choice, I beseech you," replied Barine in an embarrassed
tone. "I need nothing from your treasures, and, as for the other
possessions I lack many things; but it is uncertain how the noblest and
highest gifts in the possession of the marvellously endowed favourite of
the gods would suit the small, commonplace ones I call mine, and I know
not--"

"A sensible doubt!" interrupted the Queen. "The lame man, who desired a
horse, obtained one, and on his first ride broke his neck. The only
blessing--the highest of all--which surely bestows happiness can neither
be given away nor transferred from one to another. He who has gained it
may be robbed of it the next moment."

The last sentence had fallen from the Queen'