urface of the lake glittered gold and blue
in the pale moonlight.

There the king lay, alone in the midst of the frozen lake, with the
moon staring at him. But at length he heard from somewhere a voice that
he knew.

"Will you take another cup of tea, dear?" said Mrs. Rinkelmann.

And Ralph, coming slowly to himself, found that he was lying in his own
bed.

"Yes, I will," he answered; "and rather a large piece of toast, if you
please; for I have been a long journey since I saw you last."

"He has not come to himself quite," said Mrs. Rinkelmann, between her
and herself.

"You would be rather surprised," continued Ralph, "if I told you where
I had been."

"I dare say I should," responded his wife.

"Then I will tell you," rejoined Ralph.

But at that moment, a great Shadow bounced out of the fire with a
single huge leap, and covered the whole room. Then it settled in one
corner, and Ralph saw it shaking its fist at him from the end of a
preposterous arm. So he took the hint, and held his peace. And it was
as well for him. For I happen to know something about the Shadows too;
and I know that if he had told his wife all about it just then, they
would not have sent for him the following evening.

But as the king, after finishing his tea and toast, lay and looked
about him, the Shadows dancing in his room seemed to him odder and more
inexplicable than ever. The whole chamber was full of mystery. So it
generally was, but now it was more mysterious than ever. After all that
he had seen in the Shadow-church, his own room and its Shadows were yet
more wonderful and unintelligible than those.

This made it the more likely that he had seen a true vision; for
instead of making common things look commonplace, as a false vision
would have done, it had made common things disclose the wonderful that
was in them.

"The same applies to all arts as well," thought Ralph Rinkelmann.

The next afternoon, as the twilight was growing dusky, the king lay
wondering whether or not the Shadows would fetch him again. He wanted
very much to go, for he had enjoyed the journey exceedingly, and he
longed, besides, to hear some of the Shadows tell their stories. But
the darkness grew deeper and deeper, and the shadows did not come. The
cause was, that Mrs. Rinkelmann sat by the fire in the gloaming; and
they could not carry off the king while she was there. Some of them
tried to frighten her away by playing the oddest pranks on the wall