taste that is! Are not these gems, which I have
ordered to be dug for you, and which are richer
than any in my crown are they not prettier
than a violet?'

"Not half so pretty," said Proserpina, snatch-
ing the gems from Pluto's hand, and flinging
them to the other end of the hall. "O my
sweet violets, shall I never see you again?"

And then she burst into tears. But young
people's tears have very little saltness or acidity
in them, and do not inflame the eves so much as
those of grown persons; so that it is not to be
wondered at, if, a few moments afterwards,
Proserpina was sporting through the hall almost
as merrily as she and the four sea nymphs had
sported along the edge of the surf wave. King
Pluto gazed after her, and wished that he, too,
was a child. And little Proserpina, when she
turned about, and beheld this great king stand-
ing in his splendid hall, and looking so grand,
and so melancholy, and so lonesome, was smit-
ten with a kind of pity. She ran back to him,
and, for the first time in all her life, put her
email, soft hand in his.

"I love you a little!' whispered she, looking
up in his face.

[[261]]

p260 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p261w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p262

v?