The Project Gutenberg EBook of Halcyone, by Elinor Glyn

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Title: Halcyone

Author: Elinor Glyn

Release Date: September 26, 2004 [EBook #13530]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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HALCYONE

BY ELINOR GLYN

AUTHOR OF "THE REASON WHY," "HIS HOUR," "THREE WEEKS," ETC.

[Frontispiece]

1912

TO THE MEMORY
OF
MY KIND FRIEND

LORD ST. HELIER

WHOSE SYMPATHY WITH MY CLASSICAL STUDIES
SO GREATLY ENCOURAGED THEM

[Greek: DRASANTI PATHEIN]

_"And now they are past the last blue headland and in the open sea; and
there is nothing round them but the waves and the sky and the wind. But
the waves are gentle and the sky is clear, and the breeze is tender and
low; for these are the days when Halcyone and Ceyx build their nest and
no storms ever ruffle the pleasant summer sea. And who were Halcyone and
Ceyx? Halcyone was a fairy maiden, the daughter of the beach and of the
wind. And she loved a sailor-boy and married him; and none on earth were
so happy as they. But at last Ceyx was wrecked; and before he could swim
to the shore, the billows swallowed him up. And Halcyone saw him
drowning and leapt into the sea to him; but in vain. Then the Immortals
took pity on them both, and changed them into two fair sea-birds, and
now they build a floating nest every year and sail up and down for ever
upon the pleasant seas of Greece."_

THE HEROES, _Kingsley._

HALCYONE

CHAPTER I

Outside one of the park gates there was a little house. In the
prosperous days of the La Sarthe it had been the land steward's--but
when there was no longer any land to steward it had gone with the rest,
and for several years had been uninhabited.

One day in early spring Halcyone saw smoke coming out of the chimney.
This was too interesting a fact not to be investigated; she resented it,
too--because a hole in the park paling had often let her into the garden
and there was a particularly fine apple tree there whose fruit she had
yearly enjoyed.

She crept nearer, a tall, slender shape, with mouse-colored hair waving
do