"She told me that the time would come when a man would try to make
friends with me. He would look into my eyes, and if mine met his, then he
would ask to kiss me. But I must refuse him, because if I liked him to
kiss me he would seize my soul, and take it from me, and I must wander,
like the restless ghosts, which the abyss rejects, and the storm whirls
before it, and the sea will not cover, and the sky will not receive,
soulless to the end of my days. Go away--for I cannot refuse you the
kiss, and yet I would not wander restless, and without a soul!"

"Is the old woman who told you that a good woman?" asked Rameri.

Uarda shook her head.

"She cannot be good," cried the prince. "For she has spoken a falsehood.
I will not seize your soul; I will give you mine to be yours, and you
shall give me yours to be mine, and so we shall neither of us be
poorer--but both richer!"

"I should like to believe it," said Uarda thoughtfully, "and I have
thought the same kind of thing. When I was strong, I often had to go late
in the evening to fetch water from the landing-place where the great
water-wheel stands. Thousands of drops fall from the earthenware pails as
it turns, and in each you can see the reflection of a moon, yet there is
only one in the sky. Then I thought to myself, so it must be with the
love in our hearts. We have but one heart, and yet we pour it out into
other hearts without its losing in strength or in warmth. I thought of my
grandmother, of my father, of little Scherau, of the Gods, and of
Pentaur. Now I should like to give you a part of it too."

"Only a part?" asked Rameri.

"Well, the whole will be reflected in you, you know," said Uarda, "as the
whole moon is reflected in each drop."

"It shall!" cried the prince, clasping the trembling girl in his arms,
and the two young souls were united in their first kiss.

"Now do go!" Uarda entreated.

"Let me stay a little while," said Rameri. "Sit down here by me on the
bench in front of the house. The hedge shelters us, and besides this
valley is now deserted, and there are no passers by."

"We are doing what is not right," said Uarda. "If it were right we should
not want to hide ourselves."

"Do you call that wrong which the priests perform in the Holy of Holies?"
asked the prince. "And yet it is concealed from all eyes."

"How you can argue!" laughed Uarda. "That shows you can write, and are
one of his disciples."

"His, his!" exclaimed Rameri. "Yo