Page:Writings of Oscar Wilde - Volume 03.djvu/104

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82 THE WRITINGS OF OSCAR WILDE.

to get rid of my soul, and I will give thee all that I possess." She laughed mockingly at him, and struck him with the spray of hemlock. "I can turn the autumn leaves into gold," she answered, "and I can weave the pale moonbeams into silver if I will it. He whom I serve is richer than all the kings of this world and has their dominions." "What then shall I give thee," he cried, "if thy price be neither gold nor silver?" The Witch stroked his hair with her thin white hand. "Thou must dance with me pretty boy," she murmured, and she smiled at him as she spoke. "Nought but that?" cried the young Fisherman in wonder, and he rose to his feet. "Nought but that," she answered, and she smiled at him again. "Then at sunset in some secret place we shall dance together," he said, "and after that we have danced thou shalt tell me the thing which I desire to know." She shook her head. "When the moon is full, when the moon is full," she muttered. Then she peered all round, and listened. A blue bird

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