Page:Writings of Oscar Wilde - Volume 03.djvu/110

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88 THE WRITINGS OF OSCAR WILDE.

away also, but the Fisherman caught her by her wrists, and held her fast. "Loose me," she cried, "and let me go. For thou hast named what should not be named, and shown the sign that may not be looked at." "Nay," he answered, "but I will not let thee go till thou hast told me the secret." "What secret?" said the Witch, wrestling with him like a wildcat, and biting her foam flecked lips. "Thou knowest," he made answer. Her grass-green eyes grew dim with tears, and she said to the Fisherman, "Ask me anything but that!" He laughed, and held her all the more tightly. And when she saw that she could not free herself, she whispered to him, "Surely I am as fair as the daughters of the sea, and as comely as those that dwell in the blue waters," and she fawned on him and put her face close to his. But he thrust her back frowning, and said to her, "If thou keepest not the promise that thou madest to me I will slay thee for a false witch. She grew grey as a blossom of the Judas tree, and shuddered. "Be it so," she muttered. "It

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