was
autumn, and the wind blew from the place of rains; and upon the one hand
of her the sea beat, and upon the other the dead leaves ran. This was
the loneliest beach between two seas, and strange things had been done
there in the ancient ages. Now the King's daughter was aware of a crone
that sat upon the beach. The sea foam ran to her feet, and the dead
leaves swarmed about her back, and the rags blew about her face in the
blowing of the wind.

"Now," said the King's daughter, and she named a holy name, "this is the
most unhappy old crone between two seas."

"Daughter of a King," said the crone, "you dwell in a stone house, and
your hair is like the gold: but what is your profit? Life is not long,
nor lives strong; and you live after the way of simple men, and have no
thought for the morrow and no power upon the hour."

"Thought for the morrow, that I have," said the King's daughter; "but
power upon the hour, that have I not." And she mused with herself.

Then the crone smote her lean hands one within the other, and laughed
like a sea-gull. "Home!" cried she. "O daughter of a King, home to your
stone house; for the longing is come upon you now, nor can you live any
more after the manner of simple men. Home, and toil and suffer, till the
gift come that will make you bare, and till the man come that will bring
you care."

The King's daughter made no more ado, but she turned about and went home
to her house in silence. And when she was come into her chamber she
called for her nurse.

"Nurse," said the King's daughter, "thought is come upon me for the
morrow, so that I can live no more after the manner of simple men. Tell
me what I must do that I may have power upon the hour."

Then the nurse moaned like a snow wind. "Alas!" said she, "that this
thing should be; but the thought is gone into your marrow, nor is there
any cure against the thought. Be it so, then, even as you will; though
power is less than weakness, power shall you have; and though the thought
is colder than winter, yet shall you think it to an end."

So the King's daughter sat in her vaulted chamber in the masoned house,
and she thought upon the thought. Nine years she sat; and the sea beat
upon the terrace, and the gulls cried about the turrets, and wind crooned
in the chimneys of the house. Nine years she came not abroad, nor tasted
the clean air, neither saw God's sky. Nine years she sat and looked
neither to the right nor to th