"What do you seek else?" I cried in a voice I scarcely recognised. "Oh, you speak in riddles!"
I sprang into the boat and seized the heavy oars. Something like laughter, or, as it were, the clapper of a scarer of birds, echoed among the rocks at the rattling of the rowlocks. As if invisible hands withdrew it from me, the island floated back.
I turned my prow towards the last splendour of the sun. A chill breeze played over the sea: a shadow crossed my eyes.
Buoyant was my boat; how light her cargo!—an oozing honeycomb, ashy fruits, a few branches of drooping leaves, closing flowers; and solitary on the thwart the wraith of life's unquiet dream.
So fell night once more, and made all dim. And only the cold light of the firmament lit thoughts in me restless as the sea on which I tossed, whose moon was dark, yet walked in heaven beneath the distant stars.
Printed and bound by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.