.

"Nothing much. I feel very faint. But you mustn't mind it, for I can
bear it quite well. South Wind always blows me faint. If it were not for
the cool of the thick ice between me and her, I should faint altogether.
Indeed, as it is, I fear I must vanish."

Diamond stared at her in terror, for he saw that her form and face were
growing, not small, but transparent, like something dissolving, not in
water, but in light. He could see the side of the blue cave through her
very heart. And she melted away till all that was left was a pale face,
like the moon in the morning, with two great lucid eyes in it.

"I am going, Diamond," she said.

"Does it hurt you?" asked Diamond.

"It's very uncomfortable," she answered; "but I don't mind it, for I
shall come all right again before long. I thought I should be able to go
with you all the way, but I cannot. You must not be frightened though.
Just go straight on, and you will come all right. You'll find me on the
doorstep."

As she spoke, her face too faded quite away, only Diamond thought he
could still see her eyes shining through the blue. When he went closer,
however, he found that what he thought her eyes were only two hollows in
the ice. North Wind was quite gone; and Diamond would have cried, if he
had not trusted her so thoroughly. So he sat still in the blue air of
the cavern listening to the wash and ripple of the water all about the
base of the iceberg, as it sped on and on into the open sea northwards.
It was an excellent craft to go with the current, for there was twice as
much of it below water as above. But a light south wind was blowing too,
and so it went fast.

After a little while Diamond went out and sat on the edge of his
floating island, and looked down into the ocean beneath him. The white
sides of the berg reflected so much light below the water, that he could
see far down into the green abyss. Sometimes he fancied he saw the eyes
of North Wind looking up at him from below, but the fancy never lasted
beyond the moment of its birth. And the time passed he did not know how,
for he felt as if he were in a dream. When he got tired of the green
water, he went into the blue cave; and when he got tired of the blue
cave he went out and gazed all about him on the blue sea, ever sparkling
in the sun, which kept wheeling about the sky, never going below the
horizon. But he chiefly gazed northwards, to see whether any land were
appearing. All this time he never