cannot describe what she
felt.

"We must now return," he said; "thou wilt be missed."

"Only one more glance!" she entreated. "Only one short minute!"

"We must return to earth--the guests are all departing."

"But one more glance--the last!"

And Helga stood again in the verandah, but all the torches outside
were extinguished; all the light in the bridal saloon was gone; the
storks were gone; no guests were to be seen--no bridegroom. All had
vanished in these three short minutes.

Then Helga felt anxious. She wandered through the vast empty
halls--there slept foreign soldiers. She opened the side door which
led to her own chambers, and, as she fancied she was entering them,
she found herself in the garden: it had not stood there. Red streaks
crossed the skies; it was the dawn of day.

Only three minutes in heaven, and a whole night on earth had passed
away.

Then she perceived the storks. She called to them, spoke their
language, and the old stork turned his head towards her, listened, and
drew near.

"Thou dost speak our language," said he. "What wouldst thou? Whence
comest thou, thou foreign maiden?"

"It is I--it is Helga! Dost thou not know me? Three minutes ago we
were talking together in the verandah."

"That is a mistake," said the stork. "Thou must have dreamt this."

"No, no," she said, and reminded him of the Viking's castle, "the wild
morass," the journey thence.

Then the old stork winked with his eyes.

"That is a very old story; I have heard it from my great,
great-grandmother's time. Yes, truly there was once in Egypt a
princess from the Danish land; but she disappeared on the evening of
her wedding, many hundred years ago, and was never seen again. Thou
canst read that thyself upon the monument in the garden, upon which
are sculptured both swans and storks, and above it stands one like
thyself in the white marble."

And so it was. Helga saw, comprehended it all, and sank on her knees.

The sun burst forth in all its morning splendour, and as, in former
days, with its first rays fell the frog disguise, and the lovely form
became visible; so now, in the baptism of light, arose a form of
celestial beauty, purer than the air, as if in a veil of radiance to
the Father above. The body sank into dust, and where she had stood lay
a faded lotus flower!

* * * * *

"Well, this is a new finale to the story," said the stork-father,
"which I by no means expecte