that her sisters might be wrong after all. But her faith in
them was strong, and as night approached she rose up to do their
bidding.

So well did she feign happiness that her husband heard no change in her
voice as she bade him welcome, and, having travelled far that day, he
soon laid himself down on the couch and fell sound asleep. Then Psyche
seized the lamp and snatched off the covering, but by its light she saw
stretched on the cushions, not a huge and hideous serpent, but the most
beautiful of all the gods, Cupid himself.

At this sight her knees knocked together with surprise, and she gave a
step backwards, and the lamp, trembling in her hand, let fall a drop of
burning oil on Cupid's shoulder. He sprang to his feet, and with one
reproachful look he turned, and would have flown away had not Psyche
grasped his leg, and was borne up with him into the air, till at length
her strength gave way and she fell to the ground, where for some time
she remained unconscious.

When her senses came back, she was so miserable that she sought eternal
forgetfulness in a neighbouring stream, but the river, in pity, carried
her gently along and placed her on a bank of flowers. Finding that even
the river would have none of her, she rose up, and resolved to wander
night and day through the world till she should find her husband.

* * * * *

The first spot at which she halted was a temple on the top of a high
mountain, where, to her surprise, she saw blades of wheat, ears of
barley, sheaves of oats, scythes and ploughs, all scattered about in
wild confusion. Never before had she seen such disorder about a temple,
and, stooping down, she began to separate one thing from another and to
place them in heaps.

While she was busy with this, a voice cried to her from afar:

'Unhappy girl, my heart bleeds for you! Yet even while you are pursued
by the wrath of Aphrodite, you can labour in my service. May you find
some day the rest that you deserve! But now, quit this temple, lest you
draw down on me the anger of the goddess.'

With despair in her soul, Psyche wandered from one place to another, not
knowing and not caring whither her feet might lead her. At length she
was tracked and seized by one of Aphrodite's attendants, who dragged her
by the hair into the presence of the goddess herself. Here she was
beaten and scourged, both by whips and by cruel words, and, when every
kind of suffering had been he