“Why did I come? Oh! why did I come?” she asked herself, trying to remember why she had set out on this foolish quest. “I am curious! oh! I am curious!”
The tears filled her eyes and trickled down her cheeks when she said this, with a sudden feeling of humiliation in her little heart. As she stood there crying and looking about her, not knowing what to do, she saw some one coming toward her. A lady all dressed in white, whose pure robe trailed on the ground. For a moment Kitty’s heart gave a great bound, for she thought it was her mother. Then she saw the lady was a stranger; that she had a beautiful face, sad and majestic.
As Kitty wondered who she was, the stranger drew near. “Who are you? Why have you come to this sad place?” she said, looking at Kitty with eyes so tender and penetrating that Kitty felt as if their light were sinking into her little heart, reading all its secrets. The pale lady could see as deep as the old woman with the flashing spectacles.
“I came,” answered Kitty, hanging her head, “because I wanted to see the naughtiest child.”
“The naughtiest child! That was a dreadful wish!” said the fair lady, and she sighed.
It seemed to Kitty that the sigh was repeated all around and about her, as if a thousand sighs caught it up and echoed it behind the mist.
“Come,” said the white lady, “you shall have your wish.”
She led the way and Kitty followed; and it seemed to Kitty, as her guide’s fair robes trailed on the barren loveless ground that a track of flowers bloomed for a moment as she passed, and that fruit appeared among the thorns and brambles.
Kitty wondered more and more who this pale lady could be.