Page:The Story and Song of Black Roderick.djvu/49

Rh and the soft rain of his sorrow fell to see the pity of her brow. She passed all stiff and cold; she did not hear nor understand.

‘Wind,’ quoth she, ‘blow not so fierce.’

‘She is not dead,’ saith the red weasel; ‘she hath been to the great city.’

Now, when the young bride raised her white face from her hands and looked about her, she could neither hear the speaking of the birds nor see the beauty of the wild flowers, yet in her heart she had a memory of both. Turning to the little flying things that came about her with soft, beating wings, she said:

‘Once ye spake to me, and could give comfort with your counsel and love. Now ye are lost in the voices of the city that ring forever in my ears.’

Gazing upon the flowers, she said:

‘Ye, too, your beauty hath faded. The gaudy flowers of the city have flashed their color in my eyes, so ye I cannot see or understand.’

Then she rose to her feet, though she