e
a melancholy shake of the head, and when he attempted to seize it,
retired beyond his reach with a lingering hesitation that seemed to
indicate a mingled desire and apprehension.

Thus the little creature continued to coquette with him for several
days during which he repeated his visits, staying all day, and
dreaming every night the same dream of the beautiful princess changed
into a little gold-fish. While absent from the crystal basin, his
imagination was forever dwelling on the form and features of the
princess, and the mysterious connection he was convinced subsisted
between his waking thoughts and experience and his nightly dreams. By
degrees the two became inseparably associated together in his mind,
and insensibly he fell in love to distraction, but whether with the
beautiful princess or the little gold-fish he could not decide. He
became so melancholy in consequence that the latter, as if conscious
of his feelings, permitted him to take it in his hand, kiss it, and
nestle it in his bosom at pleasure. At such times he would beseech it
in the most moving terms to speak to him, tell him if his dreams were
true, and respond to his devoted affection. But it only replied by a
silent tear, and a look of strange meaning, which he could not
comprehend.

Violet grew every day more sad, and his youthful form continued to
waste away, so that as he walked in the sun, his shadow could scarcely
be seen. During this period the behavior of the little gold-fish was
so full of inconsistencies and contradictions that Violet was well
nigh distracted. Sometimes it would contemplate his pale cheek and
wasted form with tears in its eyes, while at the next moment it looked
at him with an expression of unfeeling triumph. Then its eyes would
glance rapidly and eagerly, sometimes toward himself, at others down
on the crystal basin, and at others upward to the skies.

One bright morning, when the position of the sun toward the east had
become gradually changed, and the beams of the former fell directly
upon the crystal basin, Violet was sitting, as usual, fondling the
little gold-fish in his hand, admiring its soft hazel eyes, and
addressing a thousand endearments to the little dumb creature, which
at that moment appeared insensible to his affection. Keeping its eyes
earnestly fixed on the transparent waters, which now glittered in the
golden beams of the sun, the youth suddenly felt it tremble as if with
ecstasy in his hand, as with