The twinkling feet were folded now. He
saw the soft little eyes that shone like starlight through clear
amber. The hands, palms upwards, were stretched to meet his own.
'You, of course, must come up--to me,' he heard.
And climbing the lace-like tracery of the golden web, he knelt before
her. But, almost before both knees were bent, her hands had caught
him--the touch ran like a sheath of fire through every nerve--and he
was seated beside her in that shining centre.
'But why did it suddenly grow small?' he asked at once. He felt
absolutely at home. It was like speaking to a child who loved him
utterly, and whom he, in his turn, knew intimately inside out.
'Because you suddenly understood,' was the silvery, tiny answer. 'When
you understand, you bring everything into yourself, small as a toy. It
is size that bewilders. Men make size. Fairy things, like stars and
tenderness, are always small.'
'Of course,' he said; 'as if I didn't know it already!'
'Besides,' she laughed, half closing her brilliant eyes and peering at
him mischievously, 'I like everything so tiny that you can find it
inside a shell. That makes it possible to do big things.'
'Am _I_ too big---?' he exclaimed, aware of clumsiness before this
exquisite daintiness.
'A little confused, that's all,' her laughter rippled.
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