Merciless, who for a season
abided with us, but is now and forever gone from us unto the far-off
land of Ever-Plaisance. The tale is soon told; for it were not seemly
to speak all the things that are in one's heart when one hath to say of
a much-beloved child, whose life here hath been shortened so that, in
God's wisdom and kindness, her life shall be longer in that garden that
bloometh far away.

You shall know that all did call her Mistress Merciless; but her
mercilessness was of a sweet, persuasive kind: for with the beauty of
her face and the music of her voice and the exceeding sweetness of her
virtues was she wont to slay all hearts; and this she did unwittingly,
for she was a little child. And so it was in love that we did call her
Mistress Merciless, just as it was in love that she did lord it over
all our hearts.

Upon a time walked she in a full fair garden, and there went with her
an handmaiden that we did call in merry wise the Queen of Sheba; for
this handmaiden was in sooth no queen at all, but a sorry and
ill-favored wench; but she was assotted upon our little Mistress
Merciless and served her diligently, and for that good reason was
vastly beholden of us all. Yet, in a jest, we called her the Queen of
Sheba; and I make a venture that she looked exceeding fair in the eyes
of our little Mistress Merciless: for the eyes of children look not
upon the faces but into the hearts and souls of others. Whilst these
two walked in the full fair garden at that time they came presently
unto an arbor wherein there was a rustic seat, which was called the
Siege of Restfulness; and hereupon sate a little sick boy that, from
his birth, had been lame, so that he could not play and make merry with
other children, but was wont to come every day into this full fair
garden and content himself with the companionship of the flowers. And,
though he was a little lame boy, he never trod upon those flowers; and
even had he done so, methinks the pressure of those crippled feet had
been a caress, for the little lame boy was filled with the spirit of
love and tenderness. As the tiniest, whitest, shrinking flower
exhaleth the most precious perfume, so in and from this little lame
boy's life there came a grace that was hallowing in its beauty.

Since they never before had seen him, they asked him his name; and he
answered them that of those at home he was called Master Sweetheart, a
name he could not understand: for surely, being