Phantastes, A Faerie Romance

"Leave you!" I said. "I am so happy with you. I never was so happy in my

life."

"But you must go," she rejoined sadly. "Listen! What do you hear?"

"I hear the sound as of a great throbbing of water."

"Ah! you do hear it? Well, I had to go through that door--the door of

the Timeless" (and she shuddered as she pointed to the fourth door)--"to

find you; for if I had not gone, you would never have entered again;

and because I went, the waters around my cottage will rise and rise,

and flow and come, till they build a great firmament of waters over my

dwelling. But as long as I keep my fire burning, they cannot enter.

I have fuel enough for years; and after one year they will sink away

again, and be just as they were before you came. I have not been buried

for a hundred years now." And she smiled and wept.

"Alas! alas!" I cried. "I have brought this evil on the best and kindest

of friends, who has filled my heart with great gifts."

"Do not think of that," she rejoined. "I can bear it very well. You will

come back to me some day, I know. But I beg you, for my sake, my

dear child, to do one thing. In whatever sorrow you may be, however

inconsolable and irremediable it may appear, believe me that the old

woman in the cottage, with the young eyes" (and she smiled), "knows

something, though she must not always tell it, that would quite satisfy

you about it, even in the worst moments of your distress. Now you must

go."

"But how can I go, if the waters are all about, and if the doors all

lead into other regions and other worlds?"

"This is not an island," she replied; "but is joined to the land by a

narrow neck; and for the door, I will lead you myself through the right

one."

She took my hand, and led me through the third door; whereupon I found

myself standing in the deep grassy turf on which I had landed from the

little boat, but upon the opposite side of the cottage. She pointed out

the direction I must take, to find the isthmus and escape the rising

waters.

Then putting her arms around me, she held me to her bosom; and as I

kissed her, I felt as if I were leaving my mother for the first time,

and could not help weeping bitterly. At length she gently pushed me

away, and with the words, "Go, my son, and do something worth doing,"

turned back, and, entering the cottage, closed the door behind her. I

felt very desolate as I went.