Page:Cup of Gold-1929.djvu/36

am a glorious creature with blue wings. I don't want to be forgotten, Henry. That is greater horror to an old man than death—to be forgotten.”

Henry said, “I must be going now; it's really dark. And thank you, sir, for telling me these things, but you see, I must be sailing outward to the Indies.”

Merlin laughed softly. “Of course you must, Henry. And catch a big firefly, won't you. Good-by, child.”

Henry looked back once as the black silhouette of the house sank behind the crag's shoulder, but no light had flashed behind the windows. Old Merlin sat there pleading with his harps, and they echoed him jeeringly.

The boy quickened his steps down the path. All below was a black lake, and the farm lights stars' reflections in its deep. The wind had died, leaving a thick silence on the hills. Everywhere the sad, soundless ghosts flitted about their haunting. Henry walked carefully, his eyes on the path which glimmered pale blue before him.

On the path there in the dark, Henry's mind went back to the first speech of Merlin. Should he see Elizabeth before he went sailing away? He did not like her; sometimes he thought he had discovered hatred for her, and this he nursed and warmed only to feel it grow to a desire to see her.

She was a thing of mystery. All girls and women