that you had when you first came here; take Robert
with you, and bring the bust of the Victoria here to me."

Eric went with the servant to the balcony chamber, and had the head of
the Victoria taken down; that of the Medusa lay upon the floor in
fragments. He asked Robert who had broken it, but Robert knew nothing
about it. He hesitated to ask Bella or Clodwig about the matter, but he
learned that Clodwig had not been in this room since his return.

When Eric had placed the bust opposite the sick man's bed, and arranged
the lights properly, Clodwig said,--

"Yes, it looks like her, your mother knew her too."

He said nothing more. After he had gazed at the bust for a long time in
silence, he asked Eric to call the Banker, and, when he came, he said
to him with a child-like smile,--

"It belongs to you too. There's a story about a little child, very
young, I can see him now, dressed only in a little shirt, sitting on a
cushion on the table, and my mother is holding me, and telling me--I
think I can feel the warm breath of her words, as it comes against my
breast, she had laid her head on my breast, and she said, 'There was
once a child who went into the woods to look for flowers, and he found
beautiful red flowers, and picked them; and then he found beautiful
blue flowers, and he threw the pretty red flowers away, and gathered
the blue ones; and then he found beautiful yellow ones, and threw away
the beautiful blue flowers to gather those; and next he found beautiful
white ones; and he threw the pretty yellow ones away, and picked the
white; and then he came out of the wood, and there was a brook; and he
threw the lovely white flowers into the brook, and had nothing left in
his hands.' That is my story, and that is the other one. I understand
it now. The nations all came upon the earth, and they held the
revelations in their hands,--the red, the blue, the yellow, and the
white flowers--and at last they stood with nothing but their empty
hands. And then they said, 'It is well.' The empty hands speak, and
say, 'Unforced labor shaft thou perform.' Isn't it true, Eric, that I
understand what you said when you first came here? I see you now as you
stood under the blossoming apple-tree, and your words came to me like
my mother's warm breath on my little breast. And now may you sleep
well. Good-night."

Eric sat by Clodwig's bed, with his hand clasped in his, till at last
the grasp relaxed, and the sick man slept. Bella