with stars!  Come, sweet one, . . cease to play this mystic midnight fantasy—­I have done with dreams! ...  Edris, be thyself! ... for them art Woman, not Angel—­ thy kiss was warm as wine!  Nay, why shrink from me? .” this, as she retreated still further away, her eyes flashing with unearthly brilliancy, . .  “I will make thee a queen, fair Edris, as poets ever make queens of the women they love,—­my fame shall be a crown for thee to wear,—­a crown that the whole world, gazing on, shall envy!”

And in the heat and ardor of the moment, forgetful of the unseen barrier that divided her from him, he made a violent effort to spring forward—­when lo! a wave of rippling light appeared to break from beneath her feet, . . it rolled toward him, and completely flooded the space between them like a glittering pool, —­and in it the flowers of Ardath swayed to and fro as water-lilies on a woodland lake sway to the measured dash of passing oars!  Starting back with a cry of terror, he gazed wildly on this miracle,—­a voice richer than all music rang silvery clear across the liquid radiance.

“Fame!” said the voice ...  “Wouldst thou crown Me, Theos, with so perishable a diadem?”

Paralyzed and speechless, he lifted his straining, dazzled eyes—­ was that Edris?—­that lustrous figure, delicate as a sea-mist with the sun shining through?  He stared upon her as a dying man might stare for the last time on the face of his nearest and dearest, ... he saw her soft gray garments change to glistening white, ... the wreath she wore sparkled as with a million dewdrops.. a roseate halo streamed above her and around her,—­long streaks of crimson flared down the sky like threads of fire swung from the stars,—­and in the deepening glory, her countenance, divinely beautiful, yet intensely sad, expressed the touching hope and fear of one who makes a final farewell appeal.  Ah God! ... he knew her now! ... too late, too late he knew her! ... the Angel of his vision stood before him! ... and humbled to the very dust and ashes of despair he loathed himself for his unworthiness and lack of faith!

“O doubting and unhappy one!” she went on, in accents sweeter than a chime of golden bells—­“Thou art lost in the gloom of the Sorrowful Star where naught is known of life save its shadow!  Lost.. and as yet I cannot rescue thee—­ah! forlorn Edris that I am, left lonely up in Heaven!  But prayers are heard, and God’s great patience never tires,—­learn therefore ’from the perils of the past, the perils of the future’—­and weigh against an immortal destiny of love the worth of fame!”

Wider and more dazzling grew the brilliancy surrounding her—­ raising her eyes, she clasped her hands in an attitude of impassioned supplication ... .