Lilith

She came to me, took my treasure from my arms, carried it into the house, and returning, took the princess.
Lilith shuddered, but made no resistance. The beasts lay down by the door. We followed our hostess, the
Little Ones looking very grave. She laid the princess on a rough settle at one side of the room, unbound her,
and turned to us.
"Mr. Vane," she said, "and you, Little Ones, I thank you! This woman would not yield to gentler measures;
harder must have their turn. I must do what I can to make her repent!"
The pitiful−hearted Little Ones began to sob sorely.
"Will you hurt her very much, lady Mara?" said the girl I have just mentioned, putting her warm little hand in
mine.
"Yes; I am afraid I must; I fear she will make me!" answered Mara. "It would be cruel to hurt her too little. It
would have all to be done again, only worse."
"May I stop with her?"
"No, my child. She loves no one, therefore she cannot be WITH any one. There is One who will be with her,
but she will not be with Him."
"Will the shadow that came down the hill be with her?"
"The great Shadow will be in her, I fear, but he cannot be WITH her, or with any one. She will know I am
beside her, but that will not comfort her."
Lilith
"Will you scratch her very deep?" asked Odu, going near, and putting his hand in hers. "Please, don't make
the red juice come!"
She caught him up, turned her back to the rest of us, drew the muffling down from her face, and held him at
arms' length that he might see her.
As if his face had been a mirror, I saw in it what he saw. For one moment he stared, his little mouth open;
then a divine wonder arose in his countenance, and swiftly changed to intense delight. For a minute he gazed
entranced, then she set him down. Yet a moment he stood looking up at her, lost in contemplation−−then ran
to us with the face of a prophet that knows a bliss he cannot tell. Mara rearranged her mufflings, and turned to
the other children.
"You must eat and drink before you go to sleep," she said; "you have had a long journey!"
She set the bread of her house before them, and a jug of cold water. They had never seen bread before, and
this was hard and dry, but they ate it without sign of distaste. They had never seen water before, but they
drank without demur, one after the other looking up from the draught with a face of glad astonishment. Then
she led away the smallest, and the rest went trooping after her. With her own gentle hands, they told me, she
put them to bed on the floor of the garret.
CHAPTER XXXIX. THAT NIGHT
Their night was a troubled one, and they brought a strange report of it into the day. Whether the fear of their
sleep came out into their waking, or their waking fear sank with them into their dreams, awake or asleep they
were never at rest from it. All night something seemed going on in the house−−something silent, something
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