'You have caught Beauty naked in your net of stars,' he murmured; 'but
you have left her as you found her--shining, silvery, unclothed.
Others will see her, too. You have taken us all back into Fairyland,
and I, for one, shall never get out again.'
'Nor I,' breathed some one in the shadows by the window....
The clock struck two. 'Odd,' said Mother, softly, 'but I never heard
it strike once while you were reading!'
'We've all been out,' Rogers laughed significantly, 'just as you make
them get out in the story'; and then, while Riquette yawned and turned
a moment from the window-sill to say thank you for her long, warm
sleep, Mother lit the spirit-lamp and brewed the cups of chocolate.
She tiptoed in next door, and as she entered the sick-room she saw
through the steam rising from the cup she carried a curious thing--an
impression of brilliance about the bed, as though shafts of light
issued from it. Rays pulsed and trembled in the air. There was a
perfume of flowers. It seemed she stepped back into the atmosphere of
the story for an instant.
'Ah, you're not asleep,' she whispered. 'We've brewed some chocolate,
and I thought you might like a cup.'
'No, I'm not asleep,' answered the other woman from the bed she never
would leave until she was carried from it, 'but I have been dreaming.
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