“Ladies,” I began gravely, “I have left my horse, that is very old and very thirsty, above in the wood.  Is there any path I may discover by which she may reach the water without offence?”

“Is she very old?” said one.

“She is very old,” I said.

“But is she very thirsty?” said another.

“She is perhaps very thirsty,” I said.

“Perhaps!” cried they all.

“Because, ladies,” I replied, “being by nature of a timid tongue, and compelled to say something, and having nothing apt to say, I remembered my old Rosinante above in the wood.”

They glanced each at each, and glanced again at me.

“But there is no path down that is not steep,” said the fairest of the three.

“There never was a path, not even, we fear, for a traveller on foot,” continued the second.

I waited in silence a moment.  “Forgive me, then,” I said; “I will offend no longer.”

But this seemed far from their design.

“You see, being come,” began the fairest again, “Julia thinks Fortune must have brought you.  Are we not all between Fortune’s finger and thumb?”

“If pinching is to prove anything,” said the other.

“And Fortune is fickle, too,” added Julia—­“that’s early wisdom; but not quite so fickle as you would wish to show her.  Here we have sat in these mortal glades ever since our poor Herrick died.  And here it seems we are like to sit till he rises again.  It is all so—­dubious.  But since Electra has invited you to rest awhile, will you not really rest?  There is shade as deep, and fruit to refresh you, in a little arbour yonder.  Perhaps even Anthea will dip out of her weeping awhile if she hears that ... a poor old thirsty horse is tethered in the woods.”

They rose up together with a prolonged rustling as of a peacock displaying his plumes; and I found myself irretrievably their captive.

Moreover, even if they were but sylphs and fantasies of the morning, they were fantasies lovely as even their master had portrayed; while the dells through which they led me were green and deep and white and golden with buds.

It was now, I suppose, about the middle of the morning, yet though the sun was high, his heat was that of dawn.  Dawn lingered in the shadows, as snow when winter is over and gone, and dwelt among the sunbeams.  Dew lay heavy on the grass, as the dainty heels of my captresses testified, yet they trod lightly upon daisies wide-open to the blue sky, while daffadowndillies stooped in a silence broken only by their laughter.

We came presently to a little stone summerhouse or arbour, enclustered with leaves and flowers of ivy and convolvulus, wherein two great dishes of cherries stood and bowls of honeycomb and sillabub.

There we sat down; but they kept me close too in the midst of the arbour, where perhaps I was not so ill-content to be as I should like to profess.  How then could I else than bob for cherries as often as I dared, and prove my wit to conceal my hunger?