d it, but I cannot allow you to come near me on my fast-days.
It cannot be, for it would put an end to our love and happiness for
ever. We are able to live quietly and happily together for six days in
the week, and how should the separation of one day be so heavy that you
cannot bear it?"

She talked in this sensible way for six days, but when the following
Thursday came, and the mermaid did not show herself, Sleepy Tony lost
his wits, and behaved as if he was half-mad. He knew no peace, and at
last one Thursday he refused to have any one with him. He ordered the
waiting-maids to bring him his food and drink, and then to leave him
directly, so that he remained alone like a spectre.

This great alteration in his conduct astonished everybody, and when the
mermaid heard of the matter, she almost wept her eyes out of her head,
though she only gave way to her grief when no one was present. Sleepy
Tony hoped that when he was alone he might have a better opportunity of
inspecting the secret fasting chamber, and perhaps he might find some
crack through which he could spy upon what was going on. The more he
tormented himself, the more depressed became the mermaid, and although
she still maintained a cheerful countenance, her friendliness no longer
came from the heart as before.

Some weeks passed by, and matters remained at a standstill, neither
worse nor better, when one Thursday Sleepy Tony found a small space near
the window where the curtains had slightly shifted, so that he could
look into the chamber. The secret chamber had no floor, but looked like
a great square tank, filled with water many feet deep. Herein swam his
much-loved mermaid. From her head to her middle she was a beautiful
woman, but from the navel downwards she was wholly a fish, covered with
scales and provided with fins. Sometimes she threshed the water with her
broad fish's tail and it dashed high up.

The spy shrunk back confounded and made his way home very sorrowfully.
What would he not have given to have blotted the sight from his memory!
He thought of one thing and another, but could not decide on what to do.

In the evening the cock crowed three times as usual, but the mermaid did
not come back to him. He lay awake all night, but the fair one never
came. She did not return till morning, when she was clad in black
mourning garments and her face was covered with a thin silk
handkerchief. Then she said, weeping, "O thou unhappy one! to have
brought