ilith's hour has been long on the way, but it
is come! Everything comes. Thousands of years have I waited--and not in
vain!"

She came to me, took my treasure from my arms, carried it into the
house, and returning, took the princess. Lilith shuddered, but made no
resistance. The beasts lay down by the door. We followed our hostess,
the Little Ones looking very grave. She laid the princess on a rough
settle at one side of the room, unbound her, and turned to us.

"Mr. Vane," she said, "and you, Little Ones, I thank you! This woman
would not yield to gentler measures; harder must have their turn. I must
do what I can to make her repent!"

The pitiful-hearted Little Ones began to sob sorely.

"Will you hurt her very much, lady Mara?" said the girl I have just
mentioned, putting her warm little hand in mine.

"Yes; I am afraid I must; I fear she will make me!" answered Mara. "It
would be cruel to hurt her too little. It would have all to be done
again, only worse."

"May I stop with her?"

"No, my child. She loves no one, therefore she cannot be WITH any one.
There is One who will be with her, but she will not be with Him."

"Will the shadow that came down the hill be with her?"

"The great Shadow will be in her, I fear, but he cannot be WITH her, or
with any one. She will know I am beside her, but that will not comfort
her."

"Will you scratch her very deep?" asked Odu, going near, and putting his
hand in hers. "Please, don't make the red juice come!"

She caught him up, turned her back to the rest of us, drew the muffling
down from her face, and held him at arms' length that he might see her.

As if his face had been a mirror, I saw in it what he saw. For one
moment he stared, his little mouth open; then a divine wonder arose in
his countenance, and swiftly changed to intense delight. For a minute he
gazed entranced, then she set him down. Yet a moment he stood looking up
at her, lost in contemplation--then ran to us with the face of a prophet
that knows a bliss he cannot tell. Mara rearranged her mufflings, and
turned to the other children.

"You must eat and drink before you go to sleep," she said; "you have had
a long journey!"

She set the bread of her house before them, and a jug of cold water.
They had never seen bread before, and this was hard and dry, but they
ate it without sign of distaste. They had never seen water before,
but they drank without demur, one after the other looking up from
the d