one of
thine arrows the heart of this presumptuous maiden, and shame her
before all other mortals by making her love a monster from which all
others shrink and which all despise." With wicked glee Eros heard his
mother's commands. His beautiful face, still the face of a mischievous
boy, lit up with merriment. This was, in truth, a game after his own
heart. In the garden of Aphrodite is a fountain of sweet, another of
bitter water, and Eros filled two amber vases, one from each fountain,
hung them from his quiver, and

"Straight he rose from earth and down the wind
Went glittering 'twixt the blue sky and the sea."

In her chamber Psyche lay fast asleep, and swiftly, almost without a
glance at her, Eros sprinkled some of the bitter drops upon her lips,
and then, with one of his sharpest arrows, pricked her snowy breast.
Like a child who half awakes in fear, and looks up with puzzled,
wondering eyes, Psyche, with a little moan, opened eyes that were
bluer than the violets in spring and gazed at Eros. He knew that he
was invisible, and yet her gaze made him tremble.

"They spoke truth!" said the lad to himself. "Not even my mother is as
fair as this princess."

For a moment her eyelids quivered, and then dropped. Her long dark
lashes fell on her cheeks that were pink as the hearts of the fragile
shells that the waves toss up on western beaches, her red mouth,
curved like the bow of Eros, smiled happily, and Psyche slept again.
With heart that beat as it had never beaten before, Eros gazed upon
her perfect loveliness. With gentle, pitying finger he wiped away the
red drop where his arrow had wounded her, and then stooped and touched
her lips with his own, so lightly that Psyche in her dreams thought
that they had been brushed by a butterfly's wings. Yet in her sleep
she moved, and Eros, starting back, pricked himself with one of his
arrows. And with that prick, for Eros there passed away all the
careless ease of the heart of a boy, and he knew that he loved Psyche
with the unquenchable love of a deathless god. Now, with bitter
regret, all his desire was to undo the wrong he had done to the one
that he loved. Speedily he sprinkled her with the sweet water that
brings joy, and when Psyche rose from her couch she was radiant with
the beauty that comes from a new, undreamed-of happiness.

"From place to place Love followed her that day
And ever fairer to his eyes she grew,
So that at last when from her