“An exquisite whim, was that of the river-god.
“Delilah and Auden Spoon-bill gazed for a brief moment. They saw the magnificent things. They saw death in the brilliancies, but nevertheless their spirits rose high. They saw also a wild flight of live things before the wave. Delilah beheld her family—Lilith and the rest—struggling and half-covered with water, and their home made of reeds was loosed from its foundations and borne down the river.
“Presently the flood overtook themselves and the life of Delilah was merged in water. She was borne high on a dark swell, and at the turning was suddenly struck a stunning blow upon the gray of her breast by a square black wooden tablet.
“Before death came to her out of the brilliancies she was conscious of several things. She saw before her eyes for an instant with startling plainness the words on the tablet, ‘Gone in the hey-day of youth to his last rest. But his virtues are with us still.’
“She even fancied for the first time that she knew what it meant.
“‘The hey-day of youth,’ she murmured to herself, ‘is the day I go to eat lotus flowers with my best-beloved—and virtues are two eyes of amethyst that are with me still as I am drowning.’
“Auden Spoon-bill was drowning together with her.—
“That’s all of the story,” said my friend Annabel Lee.
“Thank you,” said I. “It is lovely in its quaintness. What does it mean, Annabel Lee?”
“Mean?” said my friend Annabel Lee. “I didn’t say it meant anything.”