“And what kind was she?” asked Padna.
“She was a lady of great beauty,” said Micus, “and as she passed by she looked into my eyes, and though I might live for ten thousand years I will never forget her. Sure no words that ever were spoken could describe her queenly gait and inspiring glances. She seemed to have come from some place not yet discovered by man, and looked as lonesome and as beautiful as a lily in a cabbage garden.”
“And why did you not follow her and find out something about her?”
“Ah me, sure she disappeared for ever, before I could find any word at all to say. I have seen other beautiful women, but they had only the beauty of flowers which fade and die. But her beauty was the beauty which lives and never dies.”
“I suppose it must be that same thing which all the people does be talking about, but don’t know what it is at all, at all.”
“Sure if you knew all about anything, you wouldn’t be talking about it.”
“That’s true.”
“Love is the most beautiful thing in all the world, and it isn’t so much anything else as a divine state of mind.”
“So ’twas in the Land of Peace and Plenty that you fell in love with a beauty who came into your life for a moment and went out of it for ever?”
“Yes,” said Micus.