red:

"'From veiled spring that river sweeps
Whose swelling tides in glory
Roll onward to th' infinite deeps,
It is the soul's own story.'

"Again she beckoned him on, and without effort of his own he glided over
the water until they paused again where a lotus flower rested on the
tide. The bees clustered around it, attesting its sweetness, and when
the king bent over it and breathed its odour he cried:

"'Ah, how shall my piety be pure like the lotus, and the savour of my
virtues spread abroad?'

"And again the sprite replied:

"'Fairest flowers bloom unseen,
Graces that are manifest
Are of largess less serene;
Ever veiled things are best.'

"When the eve deepened they were in a forest, a single star overhead
shone through the gloom, and was reflected in the water. Looking upward
the king asked for the third time:

"'How shall the days of my life be glorious and shine like the stars?'

"Ere she plunged beneath the flood to vanish forever, his guide
answered:

"'Love, like the star, the shade of eve,
Seclusion, heavenly rest,
And calm, for these things interweave
The bowers of the Blest?'

"The king was now at the river's secret source, and on the bank above
the deep pool he saw a man of a more princely aspect than any he had
ever known. He stood grand and divine, extending his hand with a most
benignant smile, and the story goes that the king perceived that he held
a luminous gem, some say a diamond and some an emerald--both stones, as
has often been proved, having magical potency. I cannot tell what it
was, but the king reached out his own hand to touch it, when instantly,
he knew not how, it seemed that something, a Resolve, a Desire, who can
say what, went from him into the bright orb, bearing which the creature
of light arose through the air, ascending higher and higher, bearing the
jewel which shone like the everlasting stars. And the king knew that his
soul's life had gone to other regions beyond the knowledge and speech of
men.

"The magical skiff bore him swiftly down the stream and disappeared as
he stepped from it to his palace. And tradition has it that his
heaviness of heart was gone from that night, and that his soul increased
in excellence and beauty, but that of its hidden life he was ever averse
to tell."

CHAPTER XVI.

When the Nawab had concluded his tale, much discourse ensued regarding
the unusual o