Fiction > Book editions > London, 1888 - Prince Otto

246 PRINCE OTTO
singers began to awaken for the day. Her heart
melted and flowed forth to them m kindness.
And they, from their small and high perches in the
clerestories of the wood cathedral, peered down
sidelong at the ragged Princess as she flitted be-
low them on the carpet of the moss and tassel.
Soon she had struggled to a certain hilltop, and
saw far before her the silent inflooding of the day.
Out of the East it welled and whitened ; the
darkness trembled into light ; and the stars were
extinguished like the street-lamps of a human
city. The whiteness brightened into silver, the
silver warmed into gold, the gold kindled into
pure and living fire ; and the face of the East
was barred with elemental scarlet. The day
drew its first long breath, steady and chill ; and
for leagues around the woods sighed and shivered.
And then, at one bound, the sun had floated up ;
and her startled eyes received day's first arrow,
and quailed under the buffet. On every side, the
shadows leaped from their ambush and fell prone.
The day was come, plain and garish ; and up
the steep and sohtary eastern heaven, the sun,
victorious over his competitors, continued slowly
and royally to mount.
Seraphina drooped for a little, leaning on a
pine, the shrill joy of the woodlands mocking her.
The shelter of the night, the thrilling and joyous
changes of the dawn, were over ; and now, in