"The same," replied Albano,--but he meant it well,--"holds of the
animals: the swan yonder is like the one in Paradise." She took it just
as it was meant; but the reason was the pious Father Spener, her
teacher; for at Albano's question touching Lilar's abundance of
beautiful and gentle creatures, she answered: "The old Lord loved these
creatures with a real tenderness, and they could often bring him even to
tears. The pious Father thinks so too; he says, since they do everything
at God's behest by instinct, accordingly it seems to him, when he
contemplates the care of the parents for their young, just as if the
Infinitely Gracious One were doing it all himself." They ascended now a
half-shaded bridge, over a long water-mirror hung round with quivering
poplars, wherein Liana's emblem, namely, a swan, slept on the
water-rings, the bent neck beautifully nestled on the back, the head
upon the wing, and gently wafted more by the breezes than by the waves.
"So reposes the innocent soul!" said Alban, and thought, perhaps, of
Liana, but without the courage to confess it. "And thus it awakes!"
Liana added with emotion, as this white magnified dove slowly raised its
head from the wing; for she thought of her mother's waking on this very
day.
Chariton, as if all made up of salient points, was continually turning
to Liana, and asking: "Shall we go this way? or in through there? or out
through here? If my lord were only here! he knows all about it." She
would gladly have led him round every fount and every flower, and looked
into the youth's face as lovingly as into that of her friend. Liana said
to her, on the cross way at the bridge: "I think the flute-dell yonder,
with the gleaming gold ball, will perhaps be pleasantest, especially for
a lover of music; and, besides, they will look for me there, when they
bring the harp to my mother." She had promised to come back to her as
soon as that arrived. She shunned every path toward the south, where
Tartarus frowned behind its high curtain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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