Phantastes, A Faerie Romance

The glory of his brow vanished; the light of his eye grew cold; and I

held my peace. The next morning we parted.

But the most dreadful thing of all was, that I now began to feel

something like satisfaction in the presence of the shadow. I began to

be rather vain of my attendant, saying to myself, "In a land like this,

with so many illusions everywhere, I need his aid to disenchant the

things around me. He does away with all appearances, and shows me things

in their true colour and form. And I am not one to be fooled with the

vanities of the common crowd. I will not see beauty where there is

none. I will dare to behold things as they are. And if I live in a waste

instead of a paradise, I will live knowing where I live." But of this

a certain exercise of his power which soon followed quite cured me,

turning my feelings towards him once more into loathing and distrust. It

was thus:

One bright noon, a little maiden joined me, coming through the wood in

a direction at right angles to my path. She came along singing and

dancing, happy as a child, though she seemed almost a woman. In her

hands--now in one, now in another--she carried a small globe, bright and

clear as the purest crystal. This seemed at once her plaything and her

greatest treasure. At one moment, you would have thought her utterly

careless of it, and at another, overwhelmed with anxiety for its safety.

But I believe she was taking care of it all the time, perhaps not least

when least occupied about it. She stopped by me with a smile, and bade

me good day with the sweetest voice. I felt a wonderful liking to the

child--for she produced on me more the impression of a child, though my

understanding told me differently. We talked a little, and then walked

on together in the direction I had been pursuing. I asked her about the

globe she carried, but getting no definite answer, I held out my hand

to take it. She drew back, and said, but smiling almost invitingly the

while, "You must not touch it;"--then, after a moment's pause--"Or if

you do, it must be very gently." I touched it with a finger. A slight

vibratory motion arose in it, accompanied, or perhaps manifested, by

a faint sweet sound. I touched it again, and the sound increased. I

touched it the third time: a tiny torrent of harmony rolled out of the

little globe. She would not let me touch it any more.