u.'

"The pale face grew tender; the star on the forehead grew dim, like a
tearful eye. She pitied me.

"'There are beings above us,' she said, 'winged beings, that talk with
us sometimes; but nothing below. Are _they_ sorrowful as you are? Are
their brows all heavy with sadness like yours? Why are they unhappy?'

"I wept and moaned.

"'They have not your pure eyes; they cannot hear your voice. They have
sinned.'

"She glided toward me. I felt my gray hairs dropping one by one; my
heavy heart grew light; my groans softened to sighs.

"A shape came suddenly between us.

"I knew the long green locks, and the glossy neck. It was Tethys who
spoke. 'Man,' she said, 'you were made one of us, not one of these. Go
back to your domain, for you are mortal. Resume dominion over the
fish, or, striving to win more, lose all!'

"I turned my face seaward bitterly. I looked back once; the blue eyes
were gleaming--oh, so tenderly!--and I could not go. I muttered an
execration at my bitter fate. Straightway the sky rocked, the sea
rose, the pale star vanished. I had spoken a wicked word.

"I was consigned to Euripius, the divinity of whirlpools. In vain I
struggled in his watery arms; the swift current bore me circling away,
and finally whirled me with frightful velocity. My feet were shaken
asunder, my integument softened, my brain reeled. I was passed from
eddy to eddy; I became drunken with emotion; I suffered all the
tortures of the lost. A waterspout lifted me from the clutch of the
sea, and deposited me upon the dry land, close to the home of my
infancy.

"I have passed the weary hours of my penance in arranging the memoirs
which follow. Science has again wooed me with her allurements; the
stars continue their correspondence. I have not despaired of the great
secret of immortality; and though these hairs are few and white, I
shall be rejuvenated in the tranquil depths of the water, and reassert
for ages my rightful dominion over the fish!"

I was in doubt whether to laugh or wonder when the Ancient Mariner
concluded; but I was relieved from passing judgment upon his article
by the unceremonious entrance of a tall, lithe, gray-eyed person, who
wore gold seals and carried a thick walking-stick. The naturalist
appeared to be bent on diving through the floor, and swimming away
through the cellar; but he caught the stern, keen eye of the stranger
and cowered. The tall man lifted his cane, and struck the manuscript
out of