trong enough, go back with the
Eastwind who brought you. He is going away now, and will not come back
for a hundred years; the time will fly in this place like a hundred
hours, but that is a long time for temptation and sin. Every evening
when I leave you I must say, "Come with me," and I must beckon to you,
but stay behind. Do not come with me, for with every step you take your
longing will grow stronger. You will reach the hall where grows the Tree
of Knowledge; I sleep beneath its fragrant drooping branches. You will
bend over me and I must smile, but if you press a kiss upon my lips
Paradise will sink deep down into the earth, and it will be lost to you.
The sharp winds of the wilderness will whistle round you, the cold rain
will drop from your hair. Sorrow and labour will be your lot.'

'I will remain here!' said the Prince.

And the Eastwind kissed him on the mouth and said: 'Be strong, then we
shall meet again in a hundred years. Farewell! Farewell!' And the
Eastwind spread his great wings; they shone like poppies at the harvest
time, or the Northern Lights in a cold winter.

'Good-bye! good-bye!' whispered the flowers. Storks and pelicans flew
in a line like waving ribbons, conducting him to the boundaries of the
Garden.

'Now we begin our dancing!' said the Fairy; 'at the end when I dance
with you, as the sun goes down you will see me beckon to you and cry,
"Come with me", but do not come. I have to repeat it every night for a
hundred years. Every time you resist, you will grow stronger, and at
last you will not even think of following. To-night is the first time.
Remember my warning!'

And the Fairy led him into a large hall of white transparent lilies, the
yellow stamens in each formed a little golden harp which echoed the
sound of strings and flutes. Lovely girls, slender and lissom, dressed
in floating gauze, which revealed their exquisite limbs, glided in the
dance, and sang of the joy of living--that they would never die--and
that the Garden of Paradise would bloom for ever.

The sun went down and the sky was bathed in golden light which gave the
lilies the effect of roses; and the Prince drank of the foaming wine
handed to him by the maidens. He felt such joy as he had never known
before; he saw the background of the hall opening where the Tree of
Knowledge stood in a radiancy which blinded him. The song proceeding
from it was soft and lovely, like his mother's voice, and she seemed to
say, 'My ch