wherever she passed she left behind her strife and sorrow like a burning
trail. After many voyages she returned home and lived prosperously.
The King her husband died, her children grew up and married and bore
children themselves, and she continued to live peacefully in her palace.
Her fame and her glory brought her neither joy nor sorrow, nor did she
heed the spell that she cast on the hearts of men.

"One day a harp-player came to her palace and sang and played before
her; he made music so ravishing and so sad that all who heard him wept
save the Queen, who listened and smiled, listless and indifferent. But
her smile filled him with such a passion of wonder and worship that he
resolved to rest no more until he had found her heart, for he knew the
tale. So he sought the whole world over in vain; and for years and years
he roamed the world fruitlessly. At last one day in a far country he
found a little bird in a trap and he set it free, and in return the bird
promised him that he should find the Queen's heart. All he had to do was
to go home and to seek the Queen's palace. So the harper went home to
the Queen's palace, and when he reached it he found the Queen had grown
old; her hair was grey and there were lines on her cheek. But she smiled
on him, and he knelt down before her, for he loved her more than ever,
and to him she was as beautiful as ever she had been. At that moment,
for the first time in her life the Queen's eyes filled with tears, for
her heart had been given back to her. And that is all the story."

"And what happened to the harper?" asked one of the little boys.

"He lived in the palace and played to the Queen till he died."

"And is the story true?" asked the other little boy.

"Yes," said the old woman, "quite true."

The boys jumped up and kissed the old woman, and the elder of them,
growing pensive, said:--

"Grandmother, were you ever young yourself?"

"Yes, my child," said the old woman, smiling, "I was once young--a very
long time ago."

She got up, for the twilight had come and it was almost dark. She walked
into the house, and as she rose she was neither bowed nor bent, but
she trod the ground with a straightness which was not stiff but full
of grace, and she moved royally like a goddess. As she walked past the
smoking flames the children noticed that large tears were welling from
her eyes and trickling down her faded cheek.

DR. FAUST'S LAST DAY

The Doctor got up at dawn,