Page:The Enchanted Knights; or The Chronicle of the Three Sisters.djvu/56

44 kiss upon his cheeks, whilst her slender frame trembled with fear.

Ufo, the dolphin, her husband, had several times privately visited her father’s castle, and on the last occasion, heard that Reginald had gone to seek his sisters. He had often lamented the daring act of the youth, saying:—“If brother bear does not devour him, and brother eagle does not pick his eyes out, I am afraid I shall not be able to resist my brutal craving to sip him down, and if you should try to hide him in your arms from my passion and anger, I should break your chrystal abode, that the entering flood might drown you, and he should find his grave in my sharkish belly—you know well that, during the time of the enchantment, admittance to our habitation is forbidden to every stranger.” Bertha did not conceal this from her brother, but Reginald said:—“can you not hide me from the eyes of your husband, as your sisters did, that I may remain here till the day of transformation?” “Alas!” responded she, “how can I conceal you—do you not see that all the walls of this crystal habitation are transparent like the air of heaven?” “Is there not a single corner in the house impenetrable to sight, or are you the only woman in the world who cannot deceive the eyes