"But how could he have found something that he was looking for if he had not lost it?"
"He did not know that he was looking for it." The girl began to laugh.=
````"'Through a stone,
````Through a reel,
````Through a spinning wheel—'=
What is it that the Duke of Dorset found that he did not lose, while he was looking for it and did not know it? I can't answer that riddle."
"Unfortunately," said the Marchesa, "you are the only one who ever can answer it."
"Wise woman," said the girl, "you speak in parables."
"I am going to speak in a parable now," replied the Marchesa. "Listen. One day a woman on her way to the city of Dreams arrived before the city of the Awakened, which is also called the city of Zeus, and there came out to her the people of that city, and they said, 'Enter and dwell with us, for there is no city of Dreams, and you go on a fool's errand.' And one persuaded her, and she entered with him, and when the gates were closed, they took her and bound her, and cut out her tongue, for they said among themselves, 'She will perceive that we are liars, and she will call down from the house top to others whom we go out to seek. Moreover, if she be maimed, she cannot escape from us and flee away to the city of Dreams, for one may in no wise enter that city who hath a blemish.' And they put burdens upon her and she went about that city of wrath and labor and bitterness, dumb. And years fled. And on a certain day, when she was old, as she walked on the wall in the cool of the evening, she saw another drawing near to the city of the Awakened, which is also called the city of Zeus. And the other was young and fair as she had been when she set out to go to the city of Dreams. And while she looked, the people of the city went out to this traveler to beguile her and to persuade her. And the woman walking on the wall would have called down to warn her, but she could not, for she was dumb."
The girl leaned forward in her chair. Her voice was low and soft.