ried to answer, but could not; and he slipped the opal under
his shirt. Then he faltered, "My Great-Aunt--" and still he could not
speak. But he made a third effort, and said, "There is a cake in the
larder," and turned on his heel and went away quickly. And the King
looked after him till he was out of sight, and then very slowly went to
his bath and his fresh linen. But he left the cake where it was.

And he sat by the door of the forge with his face in his hands until
the length of his shadow warned him that he must go. And he rose and
went for the last time up the hill, but with a sinking heart; and when
he stood on the top and gazed upon the beauty of the earth he had left
below, in his breast was the ache of loss and longing for one he had
loved, and with his eyes he tried to draw that beauty into himself, but
the void in him remained unfulfilled. Yet never had her beauty been so
great.

"Beloved and lovely earth!" he whispered, "why do you appear most fair
and most desirable now that I am about to lose you? Why when I had you
did you not hold me by force, and tell me what you were? Only now I
discover you from mid-heaven--but oh! in what way should I discover you
from heaven itself?" And he looked upward, and lo! a blurred sun shone
upon him, swimming to its rest. "Farewell, dear earth!" said the King.
"Since you cannot mount to me, and I may not descend to you." And he
knelt upon the turf and laid his cheek and forehead to it, and then he
rose, sealed up his lips, and passed into the Ring.

Between the two tall beeches he sank down, and all sense and thought
and consciousness sank with him, as though his being had become a dead
forgotten lake, hidden in a lifeless wood; where birds sang not, nor
rain fell, nor fishes played, nor currents moved below the stagnant
waters. But presently a wind seemed to wail among the trees, and the
sound of it traveled over the King's senses, stirred them, and passed.
But only to return again, moan over him, and trail away; and so it kept
coming and going till first he heard, then listened to, and at last
realized the haunting signal of the bird. And he went forth into the
open night, his eyes wide apart but seeing nothing until he stumbled at
the Pond and crouched beside it. The bird grew fainter and fainter, and
presently the sound, like a ghost at dawn, ceased to exist; and at that
instant, under the Pond, he beheld the lessening circle of the moon,
and dipped his head.

Ala