Page:Writings of Oscar Wilde - Volume 03.djvu/97

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THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL. 75

that thou hast sung of thou shalt show me, and all that thou desirest I will do, nor shall our lives be divided/'And the little Mermaid laughed for pleasure, and hid her face in her hands. "But how shall I send my soul from me?" cried the young Fisherman. "Tell me how I may do it, and lo! it shall be done." "Alas ! I know not," said the little Mermaid : "the Sea-folk have no souls." And she sank down into the deep, looking wistfully at him. Now early on the next morning, before the sun was the span of a man's hand above the hill, the young Fisherman went to the house of the Priest and knocked three times at the door. The novice looked out through the wicket, and when he saw who it was, he drew back the latch and said to him, "Enter." And the young Fisherman passed in, and knelt down on the sweet-smelling rushes of the floor, and cried to the Priest who was reading out of the Holy Book and said to him, * ' Father, I am in love with one of the Sea-folk, and my soul hindereth me from having my desire. Tell me how I can send my soul away from me, for

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