ame at last, and when all was dark and still, and Psyche, wide
awake, was full of forebodings and fears lest her happy dreams might
only be misleading fancies, and Horror incarnate might come to crown
her peaceful day, Eros softly entered the palace that was his own.
Even as he had gone to the palace of her father he went now, and found
Psyche lying with violet eyes that stared into the velvety darkness,
seeking something that she hoped for, trembling before something that
brought her dread.

His voice was as the voice of spring when it breathes on the sleeping
earth; he knew each note in Love's music, every word in the great
thing that is Love's vocabulary. Love loved, and Psyche listened, and
soon she knew that her lover was Love himself.

Thus, for Psyche, did a time of perfect happiness begin. All through
the day she roamed in her Love's dominion, and saw on every side the
signs of his passion and of his tenderness. All through the night he
stayed by her, and satisfied all the longing of her heart. Yet always,
ere daybreak, Eros left her, and when she begged him to stay he only
made answer:

"I am with thee only while I keep
My visage hidden; and if thou once shouldst see
My face, I must forsake thee; the high gods
Link Love with Faith, and he withdraws himself
From the full gaze of knowledge."

Lewis Morris.

So did time glide past for Psyche, and ever she grew more in love with
Love; always did her happiness become more complete. Yet, ever and
again, there returned to her the remembrance of those sorrowful days
when her father and mother had broken their hearts over her martyrdom,
and her sisters had looked askance at her as at one whose punishment
must assuredly have come from her own misdoing. Thus at length she
asked Eros to grant her, for love's sake, a boon--to permit her to
have her sisters come to see for themselves the happiness that was
hers. Most unwillingly was her request granted, for the heart of Eros
told him that from their visit no good could come. Yet he was unable
to deny anything to Psyche, and on the following day Zephyrus was sent
to bring the two sisters to the pleasant valley where Psyche had her
home. Eagerly, as she awaited them, Psyche thought she might make the
princely palace wherein she dwelt yet fairer than it was. And almost
ere she could think, her thoughts became realities. When the two
sisters came, they were bewildered with the beauty and the
m