Lilith: A Romance

tle cottage in the farthest distance. The sun was not yet down, but he was wrapt in a gray cloud. The heath looke

the time I could have gone to Paradise and seen my cousin-him, you re

t seems but half a da

up the plumb-line you call gravitation, and let the world spin round under your feet! But here

ry-where you make your graves, I mean?" s

ak horizontally, turned it slowly round to al

th, its wall the gray horizon, low and starless! I had left spring and summer, autumn and sunshine behind me, and come to the winter that waited for me! I had set out in the prime of my youth, and here I was already!-But I mistook. The day might well be long in that region, for it contained the s

. The same instant I was assailed by a cold that seemed almost a material presence, and I struggled across the threshold as if from the clutches of a

I thought her features were perfect, but her eyes made me forget them. The life of her face and her whole person was gathered and concentrated in her eyes, where it became light. It might have been coming death that made her face luminous, but the eyes had life in them for a nation-large, and dark with a darkness ever deepening as I gazed. A

Vane, wife!"

w, rich, gentle voice. Treasures of im

and could

be glad to see him

oor by which she had entere

sleep?" s

ied; "he is neither w

have you b

rs it may prov

y foreboding as to what she meant, but a vague hope of

he woman, and my heart fluttered

ome again after I have found or made, inv

sleep!" said the woman, turning to her husband. "

that they fall asleep upon it. They cannot empty

eyes from the wo

st time I saw his face. It was so thin that it showed the shape of the bones under it, suggesting the skulls his last-claimed profession must have made him familiar with. But i

ot a raven!" he s

," I replied; "but somehow

you think

saw you dig worms out of

d t

in the air.

tterflies, an

raven do that? I tol

ms in the air, and turn

es

saw one

ur house, for I never was dismissed, and never ga

st told me you w

you are a true sexton, books are but dead bodie

ewilde

s all

e woman, moveless as a statue, st

bird-self, and a stupid fish-self, ay, and a creeping serpent-self too-which it takes a deal of crushing to kill! In truth he has also a tree-self and a cry

is face was, like his wife's, very pale; its nose handsomely encased the beak that had retired within it; its lips were very thin, and even

to eat and drink, wife," he s

e answered, "we can giv

anging face and rad

rs. Raven," I said, "and something-

an have what will quench it," she replied

all, brought from it bread and

nd wine seemed to go deeper than the hunger and thirst. An

epy, and now fi

said, "but you have given me the one freely, and now I

given and accepted, for it is a necessity. But it would be perilous to use t

ed it as one pats a child to make it go to sleep: he seemed to me patti

id to his wife: "will you give it some

it a little piece of bread, and went o

ake use of your hos

it to the full

ot unde

e no one wake

hy

of himself. You can wake yourself

call me!" I said, still nowise understandin

cann

hen go to sle

trouble yourself about waking. You must go to sleep he

is eyes seemed to say, "Will you not tru

wil

aid; "I will show

ndle, turned to the inner door, and led the way.