RIS OPENED HER EYES AND LOOKED AFTER HER JUST IN
TIME TO SEE HER VANISH THROUGH A PICTURE."]

It was some time before she had a second opportunity of going out, for
Falca, since the fall of the lamp, had been a little more careful, and
seldom left her for long. But one night, having a little headache,
Nycteris lay down upon her bed, and was lying with her eyes closed, when
she heard Falca come to her, and felt she was bending over her.
Disinclined to talk, she did not open her eyes, and lay quite still.
Satisfied that she was asleep, Falca left her, moving so softly that her
very caution made Nycteris open her eyes and look after her--just in
time to see her vanish--through a picture, as it seemed, that hung on
the wall a long way from the usual place of issue. She jumped up, her
headache forgotten, and ran in the opposite direction; got out, groped
her way to the stair, climbed, and reached the top of the wall.--Alas!
the great room was not so light as the little one she had left. Why?
Sorrow of sorrows! the great lamp was gone! Had its globe fallen? and
its lovely light gone out upon great wings, a resplendent fire-fly,
soaring itself through a yet grander and lovelier room? She looked down
to see if it lay anywhere broken to pieces on the carpet below, but she
could not even see the carpet. But surely nothing very dreadful could
have happened--no rumbling or shaking, for there were all the little
lamps shining brighter than before, not one of them looking as if any
unusual matter had befallen. What if each of those little lamps was
growing into a big lamp, and after being a big lamp for a while, had to
go out and grow a bigger lamp still--out there, beyond this _out_?--Ah!
here was the living thing that would not be seen, come to her
again--bigger to-night!--with such loving kisses, and such liquid
strokings of her cheeks and forehead, gently tossing her hair, and
delicately toying with it! But it ceased, and all was still. Had it gone
out? What would happen next? Perhaps the little lamps had not to grow
great lamps, but to fall one by one and go out first?--With that came
from below a sweet scent, then another, and another. Ah, how delicious!
Perhaps they were all coming to her only on their way out after the
great lamp!--Then came the music of the river, which she had been too
absorbed in the sky to note the first time. What was it? Alas! alas!
another sweet living thing on its way out. They were all marching slowly