became
conscious of a strange pain. Every thing now lost its charm. She sought
a companion; but she could find none. Nothing was wanting but the thing
she most desired--the sight of her own kin. At last, she instinctively
felt that the burning gaze of a lover was bent upon her face, and,
looking up, she saw only the sun in the sky, shining as though myriads
needed his light. 'Alas!' she sighed, 'He is as lonely as I, and he
shall be my lover;' but the sun was coy and timid. He gazed proudly at
her from a great distance, and veiled himself behind a cloud when she
would see him, that his brightness might not harm her; but he never came
nigh. At last, when she was worn out with longing for a closer
companionship, she set out to find her adored sun; and as she sighed,
'Shall I find him never?' some one from a grotto near by answered,
'Ever?' 'Who are you?' cried the maid. 'I am a bodiless spirit,' was the
answer, 'the voice of one that is gone. I tell impossible things. I am
the shadow of the past, the substance of events to come. Man is a
mocker.' 'Can you tell me where to find my lover?' asked the maid. Echo
told her not to look up for him, for he was too high above her, not to
seek him in the east, for then he was hastening away; but to seek him in
the west, where he laid himself and rested at night, for the night was
made for lovers. Then she hastened joyously, till she came to the
extreme west, to the very edge of the world."

"How could she get to the edge, when it is round?" interrupted Alice.

"Probably the world was not round at that time," explained Adelpha.

Charles went on:

"The maid summoned all the powers of nature and the air, and bade them
build a palace. It was not like other palaces. There were no jewels
there; but every thing was warm and crimson and ruddy. The gates were
parallel bars of cloud, with the west wind for warden. Crystals of
rain-drops paved the court-yard. The architecture was floating mists and
delicate vapors, filled with a silent music, that waited only for the
warm touch of the player to melt it into soul-subduing harmonies; and
along the galleries ran a netted fringe of those tender whispers, which
only the favored may hear. So she built her palace and filled it with
all things such as she thought the sun would like, not forgetting an
abundance of fire to warm him, lest even her love would prove
insufficient for one of so fiery a nature. Then she dismissed her
attendants and sat do