“A prayer,—and borne to heaven on the wings of ashes!” He seemed amused. “But what hast thou to pray for, oh fair princess?”
Her cheeks glowing with quick color, she replied: “It were not fitting that any maiden tell for what she prays!”
The words were spoken with such gravity that the young man flushed under the rebuke.
When she left him at the doorway of the cavern that evening she said as she made a gay little gesture of farewell: “Today the land, but tomorrow we shall find still more beautiful things that lie hidden under the deep waters. You shall see!”
And once again with dawn she came. This time it was the splash of a paddle that brought him to the opening in the rock.
“Aloho-ate, lazy one!” she called gaily from below. “Make haste! The world is always loveliest while it lies waiting for the sun!”
That day, perhaps, from among them all, lived longest within the memory of young Harold,—the porpoises playing fearlessly around her canoe as the princess, with graceful, effortless strokes, paddled around one after another of the pointed tongues of rock; the flying fish, skimming the surface of the ocean until, by virtue of their speed alone, they rose like gleaming bows of silver from the foam. Intent to show him all her treasures, Wildenai guided him to a quiet stretch of water lying close to shore within the shadow of tall cliffs which rose at that point with precipitous abruptness from the sea itself.
“Here are my gardens that grow under the water,” she explained, as they glided above the spot. “Look well at them. They are most beautiful.”
And gazing down at her command through the clear green into the luminous depths below, he caught glimpses of these gardens of the sea where goldfish darted like tropical birds among the branches of tall tree-like stalks of swaying seaweed, and strange shapes of jade and blue floated in the shadows.
“Is it not wonderful?” she asked.