The Prince leaned to her in fear, lest he should have been mistaken, lest perhaps she did not love him as he had hoped and believed. “Speak,” he besought her. “Ah, speak, my dearest. How can I go without you? How can I leave you in this land—a land too sad and grey for such a one as you? All the brightness of my own country is without meaning for me henceforth, if I have not you to share it with me as my heart’s true love.” Wooed thus, the Shadow Witch hesitated no longer. She turned to him in a flood of love and longing. She stretched her hands to him, trembling with the fulness of her joy, and her voice came again. “Prince of my heart,” she murmured softly. “Most dear and glorious Prince, where could my home be ever, if not with you?” Prince Ember caught her to his heart, and silence fell once more between them. For a little while they tarried in the borders of the garden, clinging to each other in their first great joy, and the dim alleys and dusky trees took on a brightness till now unknown to them from these two figures radiant with a pure and innocent love. At last the Shadow Witch remembered all that she must leave behind. “Listen,” she said, and her voice was very gentle, “I have been long gone, and my servants still wait for their mistress. They love me and are faithful. They will mourn for me when I have left them—Creeping Shadow most of all. I must bid them farewell and tell them why it is that I depart from them to return no more.” So they left the confines of the garden and turned their steps toward the Palace of Shadows. They had not yet reached it, when its mistress saw a pale figure approaching through the tall shrubs that lined their way. It was Creeping Shadow, stealing sadly along the paths once dear to her mistress, thinking of Prince Ember who had promised succor, a promise which she had begun to fear he had not been able to keep. “Alas! what hope could there be after all?” she thought, “that this Prince should be able, single-handed, to meet and conquer such powerful enemies as the Wizard, and his many evil friends?” She shook her head doubtfully, yet even as she did so she lifted her eyes to look once more along the familiar path by which she had hoped her mistress might return. “See,” exclaimed the Shadow Witch to her lover. “She comes, my good and faithful servant, still seeking, still hoping!” At that moment Creeping Shadow saw her and gave a loud cry that rang through the spaces and reached even to the palace halls. She rushed to throw herself at the feet of her mistress, to clasp her knees in an ecstasy of thankfulness and rejoicing. “Mistress, dear mistress!” she exclaimed, “At last, at last, you are here!” And now from the palace doors and from everywhere, the Shadows came gliding swiftly, to burst into exclamations of joy when they saw, in their turn, who it was that had come.