Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 3Sylvester, Charles Herbert
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Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 3
Sylvester, Charles Herbert
Children's literature; Literature -- Collections
Psyche promised, and she kept her promise faithfully for a long time,
though her longing to see the husband who was so good to her was
great. During the hours when he was with her, she was perfectly happy,
but through the long days, when she had nothing but the voices that
had greeted her on her arrival, and her own thoughts for company, she
longed and longed to see her sisters, and to send to her parents news
of her happiness. One night when her husband came, she begged of him
that he would allow her sisters to visit her.
"Art thou not happy with me, Pysche?" he asked sorrowfully. "Do I not
fill thy heart as thou fillest mine?"
"I am happier with thee than ever happy girl was with seen lover,"
replied Psyche, "but my parents and my sisters are yet in sorrow over
my fate, and my heart tells me it is selfishness for me to be so happy
while they grieve for me."
At last, her husband gave a reluctant consent to her request, and on
the very next day, the West Wind, [Footnote: The winds, four in
number, were the sons of Aeolus, god of the storm and of winds. Their
names were Boreas, the north wind; Zephyrus, the west wind; Auster,
the south wind, and Eurus, the east wind.] who had brought Psyche to
this retreat, brought her two sisters and set them down at her door.
Joyfully Psyche led them in, and she commanded her invisible servants
to serve them with the finest foods and entertain them with the most
exquisite music. After the meal was over, the happy girl conducted
them about the palace and pointed out to them all its treasures. She
was not proud or boastful; she only wanted to show them how kind and
thoughtful her husband was. But the sights that met their eyes filled
them with envy, and when Psyche left the room to make some further
plans for their comfort, one said to the other:
"Is it not unendurable that this girl, who was left unsought in our
father's house for years, should be living in such splendor? I shall
hate the sight of my own palace when I return."
"Yes," sighed the other, "all the polished oaken furnishings of which
I was so proud will be worthless in my eyes after seeing Psyche's
magnificent ivory and gold. And she is our younger sister!"
"Do you notice," said the elder sister, "that while she says much
about what her husband does for her, she says nothing at all about
him? But wait--here she comes--say nothing, and I will question her."
Happy, innocent Psyche, never doubting that her sisters were as
pleased at her good fortune as she would have been at theirs, came to
lead them to another room, but her sister detained her.
"Stay," she said, "we have something to ask of you. About all the
splendors of your palace you have talked; you have told us at great
length about your husband's goodness to you. But not a word about his
looks or his age or his occupation have you said. See, sister! She
blushes! Shy girl, she has been unwilling to speak of him until we
spoke first."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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