w no older; yet my Flame-Flower knew when I intended to die. Thus
we lived on undisturbed, save for some horrible shout that rose from
time to time from beyond the walls; but we were not afraid, as we had
cannon mounted at our gates. At last there were twelve of us left in
the precinct of delight, and we decided to die all together on the eve
of the Queen's birthday. So we made a great feast and held good cheer,
and had the poison prepared, and cast lots. The first lot fell to
Fiore di Fiamma, and the last lot to me; whereat all applauded. I
watched my Queen, who had never seemed to me as noble as then, in her
mature and majestic beauty. She kissed me, and drank, and the others
drank, became very pale, and fell to earth. Then I, rising with a last
paean of exultation, raised the cup to my lips.

But that moment the trees and flowers bent beneath a furious storm,
and the cup was wrenched out of my hand by a terrific blast and sent
hurtling to the ground. I saw the rainbow-coloured feathers flashing,
and for a second I saw the face of the Wind himself. I trembled, and
sinking into my chair buried my face in my hands. A wave of despair
and loneliness broke over me. I felt like a drowning man.

"Take me back, Lord of the Wind!" I cried. "What am I doing among
these dead aesthetes? Take me back to the country where I was born, to
the house where I am at home, to the things I used to handle, to the
friends with whom I talked, before man went mad. I am sick of this
generation that cannot strive or fight, these people of one idea, this
doleful, ageing world. Take me away!"

But the Wind replied in angry tones, not gently as of old:--

"Is it thus you treat me, you whom I singled out from men? You have
forgotten me for fifteen years; you have wandered up and down a
garden, oblivious of all things that I had taught you, incurious,
idle, listless, effeminate. Now I have saved you from dying a mock
death, like a jester in a tragedy; and in time I will take you back,
for that I promised; but first you shall be punished as you deserve."
So saying, the Wind raised me aloft and set me beyond the wall.

I dare not describe--I fear to remember the unutterable loathing of
the three years I spent outside. The unhappy remnant of a middle-aged
mankind was gradually exchanging lust for gluttony. Crowds squatted by
day and by night round the Houses of Dainty Foods that had been
stocked by Harris the King; there was no youthful face to be f