agnificence of it all. Beside this, their own possessions were paltry
trifles indeed. Quickly, in their little hearts, black envy grew. They
had always been jealous of their younger sister, and now that they
found her, whom all the world believed to have been slain by a
horrible monster, more beautiful than ever, decked with rare jewels,
radiant in her happiness, and queen of a palace fit for the gods,
their envy soon turned to hatred, and they sought how best to wreak
their malice upon the joyous creature who loaded them with priceless
gifts. They began to ply Psyche with questions. He who was her lord,
to whom she owed all her happiness, where was he? Why did he stay away
when her sisters came to be presented to him? What manner of man was
he? Was he fair or dark? Young or old? And as they questioned her,
Psyche grew like a bewildered child and answered in frightened words
that contradicted one another. And well the wicked sisters, who
brooded evil in their hearts, knew that this husband whom Psyche had
never seen must indeed be one of the deathless gods. Wily words they
spoke to her then.

"Alas! unhappy one," they said, "dost think to escape the evil fate
the gods meted out for thee? Thy husband is none other than the
monster of which the oracle spake! Oh, foolish Psyche! canst not
understand that the monster fears the light? Too great horror would
it mean for thee to see the loathsome thing that comes in the
blackness of night and speaks to thee words of love."

White-lipped and trembling, Psyche listened. Drop by drop the
poisonous words passed into her soul. She had thought him king of all
living things--worthy to rule over gods as well as men. She was so
sure that his body was worthy sheath for the heart she knew so
well.... She had pictured him beautiful as Eros, son of
Aphrodite--young and fair, with crisp, golden locks--a husband to
glory in--a lover to adore. And now she knew, with shame and dread,
that he who had won her love between the twilight and the dawn was a
thing to shame her, a monster to be shunned of men.

"What, then, shall I do?" piteously she asked of her sisters. And the
women, pitilessly, and well content, answered:

"Provide thyself with a lamp and a knife sharp enough to slay the man
or monster. And when this creature to whom, to thy undying shame, thou
belongest, sleeps sound, slip from thy couch and in the rays of the
lamp have courage to look upon him in all his horror. Then, when t