"Mortal," she said, "you are wandering in a maze. You have come thus far because I have led you, but you would have fallen if you had walked so fast alone. Now look, and I will show you the lily-of-the-valley cups—there are only a few there under the shelter of the gray stone arch. Come."
And she opened the gate, letting go of his hand as she glided beyond.
"I cannot and will not hazard a step if you leave me," he called, and she came back and gave him again her soft fingers to hold. So at last they reached the summer house at the end of the second terrace, where the archway was where old William kept his tools.
There were very few flowers out, but a mass of wild roses, and still some May tulips bloomed, while from the meadow beneath them came that indescribable freshness which young clover gives.
John Derringham knew now that he was dreaming—or drunk with some nectar which was not of earth. And still she led him on, and then pointed to the old bench which he could just see.
"We shall sit here," she said, "and Aphrodite shall tell us your future—for see, she, too, loves the night and comes here with me."
And to his intense astonishment, as he peered on to the table, he saw a misty mass of folds of silk, and there lay the goddess's head, that Halcyone had shown to him that day in the long gallery more than a month ago.
He was so petrified with surprise at the whole thing that he had ceased to reason. Everything came now as a matter of course, like the preposterous sequence of events in a dream. The Aphrodite lay, as a woman caressed, half buried in her silken folds, but Halcyone lifted her up and propped her against a stone vase which was near, letting the silk fall so that the broken neck did not show, and it seemed as if a living woman's face gazed down upon them.
John Derringham's eyes were growing more accustomed to the darkness, or Halcyone really had some magic power, for it seemed to him that he could see the divine features quite clearly.
"She is saying," the soft voice of his companion whispered in his ear, "that all the things you will grasp with your hands are but dreams—and the things that you now believe to be dreams are all real."