ss them, and as she
came on she felt her way, holding by the banisters with one hand, and
with the other, between her finger and thumb, holding out the silver
wand. She felt with her foot for the edge of the first stair; and Jack
heard her say, "I am much older,--ah! so much older, now I have got my
wand. I can feel sorrow too, and _their_ sorrow weighs down my
heart."

Mopsa was dressed superbly in a white satin gown, with a long, long
train of crimson velvet which was glittering with diamonds; it reached
almost from one end of the great gallery to the other, and had
hundreds of fairies to hold it and keep it in its place. But in her
hair were no jewels, only a little crown made of daisies, and on her
shoulders her robe was fastened with the little golden image of a
boat. These things were to show the land she had come from and the
vessel she had come in.

So she came slowly, slowly down stairs blindfold, and muttering to her
wand all the time:

Though the sun shine brightly,
Wand, wand, guide rightly.

So she felt her way down to the great hall. There the wand turned half
round in the hall toward the great door, and she and Jack and the
other Jack came out into the lawn in front with all the followers and
trainbearers; only the dame remained behind.

Jack noticed now for the first time that, with the one exception of
the boy-king, all these fairies were lady-fairies; he also observed
that Mopsa, after the manner of fairy queens, though she moved slowly
and blindfold, was beginning to tell a story. This time it did not
make him feel sleepy. It did not begin at the beginning: their stories
never do.

These are the first words he heard, for she spoke softly and very low,
while he walked at her right hand, and the other Jack on her left:

"And so now I have no wings. But my thoughts can go up (Jovinian and
Roxaletta could not think). My thoughts are instead of wings; but they
have dropped with me now, as a lark among the clods of the valley.
Wand, do you bend? Yes, I am following, wand.

"And after that the bird said, 'I will come when you call me.' I never
have seen her moving overhead; perhaps she is out of sight. Flocks of
birds hover over the world, and watch it high up where the air is
thin. There are zones, but those in the lowest zone are far out of
sight.

"I have not been up there. I have no wings.

"Over the highest of the birds is the place where angels float and
gather the children's souls a