A Crystal Age

ed to portend trouble. He at once led me to a part of the house at a distance from the hall, and into a large apartment I now saw for the first time. In a few

feel extremely uncomfortable. "I suppose I have offended ag

and depositing thereon a large volume he had brough

s of the folio I had examined on the previous evening. "I cannot read it; I do not understa

into account the confused state of your intellect yesterday, and judge you leniently; and let us hope that the pangs of an

m the book merely to make myself acquainted with the pains and penalties attendant on such an

red with little humility, "I can only plead

have made a compact with you, and, until the year expires, we must suffer you. For the space of sixty days you must dwell apart from us, never leaving the room, where each day a task will be assigned to you, and subsisting on bread and

ed in amazement. "

our former offense. It is even a worse offense than the first, an

hout hearing me speak, or telling me an

e him: "Yesterday, in answer to my question, you told me that you could read. Last evening you made

it was not a very serious matter. "I can read the books of my own country, and naturally concluded that your books were written in the same kind o

my pocket-book, and emptie

erted in the book, I thought I could not do better than to show him how I wrote. Fortunately, the fluid in it had not become dry

is eyes, I perceived, wandered oft

hese marks you have made on the paper, are

sentence I had written, but in printing l

se on the sovereigns, said: "Pray tell me, now, what you have

ifferent form for writing. Then, with a modest blush, I read the words of the sentence: "In different parts of the

e differently, owing to the conditions they are placed in; but we know that everywhere they have the same law of right and wrong inscribed on the heart, and, as you have said, hate a lie; also that they all speak the same language; and until this moment I also believed that they wrote in simil

was on an isla

ough I had seen these gold pieces I did not understand, or did not realize, that such a human family existed: now I am persuaded of it, and as I alone am to blame for having brought this charge against you,

ed, wondering whether his being in my debt w

s at the stylograph, which I was turning

ed it wit

that your writing was not made with a pencil, but with a fluid. It is black polished stone, beautifully fashioned and enci

resent of it," said I, se

atly like to possess it, and will keep it if

n whether or not the lady's consent was necessary to a compact of the kind. I therefore made a more modest request. "There is one thing I greatly desir

my son," he returned. "That, and m

esire," said I. "Pray keep

ed a disagre

ng, and, moreover, seeing them all in so lively a mood, I did not hesitate to join in the conversation: nor did I succeed so very badly, considering the strangeness of it all; for like the bee t

re, not blending into homogeneous gray, but resembling rather a bright embroidery on a dark, s

heir various occupations as on the former evening. Not being able to get near Yoletta, and having nothing to do, I settled myself comfortably in one of the spac

, yet was at a loss to know what he meant by leading. I thought of several things-whist, eve

ing?" he returned, look

car of Bray"-a grand old song and a great favorite of mine. They all started when I commenced, exchanging glances, and casting astonished looks towards me; but it was getting so dusky in the room that I could not feel sure that my eyes were not deceiving me. Presently some that were near me began retiring to distant seats, and this distressed me so that it ma

e of power; and often as this solemn sound died away, faint flute-like notes were heard as if approaching, but still at a great distance, and in the ensuing wave of sound from the great globes they would cease to be distinguishable. Still the mysterious coming sounds continued at intervals to grow louder and clearer, joined by other tones as they progressed, now altogether bursting out in joyous chorus, then one purest liquid note soaring bird-like alone, but whether from voices or wind-instruments I was unable to tell, until the whole air about me was filled and palpitating with the strange, exquisite harmony, which passed onwards, the tones growing fewer and fainter by degrees until they almost died out of hearing in the opposite direction. That all were now taking part in the performance I became convinced by watching in turn different individuals, some of them having small, curiously-shaped instruments in their

eful to me as my trousers or boots. The composer of that song, the writer of the words, and its subject, the double-faced Vicar himself, presented themselves to my mind as the three most damnable beings that had ever existed. "The devil take my luck!" I muttered, grinding my teeth with impotent anger; for it seemed such hard lines, just when I had succeeded in getting into favor, to go and spoil it all in that unhappy way. Now that I had become acquainted with their style of singing, the supposed fib, about which there had been such a pother, seemed a very venial offense compared with my attempt to lead the singing. Nevertheless, when the concert

could take of the matter, and I was t