Lilith

More documents

Recommendations

Info

"Oh, no!" returned the raven. "That red belongs to the worm." "You see what comes of making creatures forget their origin!" I cried with some warmth. "It is well, surely, if it be to rise higher and grow larger!" he returned. "But indeed I only teach them to find it!" "Would you have the air full of worms?" "That is the business of a sexton. If only the rest of the clergy understood it as well!" In went his beak again through the soft turf, and out came the wriggling worm. He tossed it in the air, and away it flew. I looked behind me, and gave a cry of dismay: I had but that moment declared I would not leave the house, and already I was a stranger in the strange land! "What right have you to treat me so, Mr. Raven?" I said with deep offence. "Am I, or am I not, a free agent?" "A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer," answered the raven. "You have no right to make me do things against my will!" "When you have a will, you will find that no one can." "You wrong me in the very essence of my individuality!" I persisted. "If you were an individual I could not, therefore now I do not. You are but beginning to become an individual." All about me was a pine−forest, in which my eyes were already searching deep, in the hope of discovering an unaccountable glimmer, and so finding my way home. But, alas! how could I any longer call that house HOME, where every door, every window opened into OUT, and even the garden I could not keep inside! I suppose I looked discomfited. "Perhaps it may comfort you," said the raven, "to be told that you have not yet left your house, neither has your house left you. At the same time it cannot contain you, or you inhabit it!" "I do not understand you," I replied. "Where am I?" "In the region of the seven dimensions," he answered, with a curious noise in his throat, and a flutter of his tail. "You had better follow me carefully now for a moment, lest you should hurt some one!" "There is nobody to hurt but yourself, Mr. Raven! I confess I should rather like to hurt you!" "That you see nobody is where the danger lies. But you see that large tree to your left, about thirty yards away?" "Of course I do: why should I not?" I answered testily. Lilith Lilith 12
"Ten minutes ago you did not see it, and now you do not know where it stands!" "I do." "Where do you think it stands?" "Why THERE, where you know it is!" "Where is THERE?" "You bother me with your silly questions!" I cried. "I am growing tired of you!" "That tree stands on the hearth of your kitchen, and grows nearly straight up its chimney," he said. "Now I KNOW you are making game of me!" I answered, with a laugh of scorn. "Was I making game of you when you discovered me looking out of your star−sapphire yesterday?" "That was this morning−−not an hour ago!" "I have been widening your horizon longer than that, Mr. Vane; but never mind!" "You mean you have been making a fool of me!" I said, turning from him. "Excuse me: no one can do that but yourself!" "And I decline to do it." "You mistake." "How?" "In declining to acknowledge yourself one already. You make yourself such by refusing what is true, and for that you will sorely punish yourself." "How, again?" "By believing what is not true." "Then, if I walk to the other side of that tree, I shall walk through the kitchen fire?" "Certainly. You would first, however, walk through the lady at the piano in the breakfast−room. That rosebush is close by her. You would give her a terrible start!" "There is no lady in the house!" "Indeed! Is not your housekeeper a lady? She is counted such in a certain country where all are servants, and the liveries one and multitudinous!" "She cannot use the piano, anyhow!" Lilith Lilith 13
Page 1 and 2: Lilith George MacDonald
Page 3 and 4: Lilith George MacDonald • CHAPTER
Page 5 and 6: Lilith The library, although duly c
Page 7 and 8: CHAPTER II. THE MIRROR Nothing more
Page 9 and 10: "I saw you come through it!−−sa
Page 11 and 12: Lilith was the mirror, on whose top
Page 13: "I do not want to go," I said. "Tha
Page 17 and 18: CHAPTER V. THE OLD CHURCH I followe
Page 19 and 20: "Here we are at last!" said the rav
Page 21 and 22: "I never saw one do it!" "You saw m
Page 23 and 24: helmet" gleaming like a moonstone.
Page 25 and 26: "That also you will know when you w
Page 27 and 28: "Where was that?" "In this very roo
Page 29 and 30: "That is the door I spoke of," he s
Page 31 and 32: "I would have lain down at once had
Page 33 and 34: Lilith larger, and at length gave m
Page 35 and 36: The moon went below, and the world
Page 37 and 38: molten music sang me into a dreamle
Page 39 and 40: I lay on the floor that night hardl
Page 41 and 42: I had found that to ask precisely t
Page 43 and 44: had never seen any before they saw
Page 45 and 46: A long pause followed. "Then you do
Page 47 and 48: "I will," I replied−−and sat do
Page 49 and 50: "There is no hurt in the air," she
Page 51 and 52: their princess and her power, and d
Page 53 and 54: I learned afterward that there were
Page 55 and 56: Lilith to grow dark. At my feet lay
Page 57 and 58: I was lying on my withered leaves i
Page 59 and 60: "Have you hurt yourself, my lord?"
Page 61 and 62: "Granted!−−but in which or what
Page 63 and 64: they are pretty steadily growing mo
Page 65 and 66:
To do for her all I could, I spread
Page 67 and 68:
She was lying as I had left her. Th
Page 69 and 70:
other from her shoulders. With the
Page 71 and 72:
"Doubtless you pitied me!" "Never h
Page 73 and 74:
Despair restored my volition; the s
Page 75 and 76:
night. I ran the faster, though I c
Page 77 and 78:
Lilith CHAPTER XXII. BULIKA I had l
Page 79 and 80:
"Thank you!" she murmured. "Have yo
Page 81 and 82:
As I lay sleepless, I began to hear
Page 83 and 84:
"Take me to the princess," I said.
Page 85 and 86:
The princess stood waiting me, in a
Page 87 and 88:
CHAPTER XXVI. A BATTLE ROYAL I thre
Page 89 and 90:
I turned and followed the spotted l
Page 91 and 92:
in a stormy water, I was flung abou
Page 93 and 94:
"Indeed you almost taught the noble
Page 95 and 96:
"A song that had no sound into his
Page 97 and 98:
Then at last I understood that Mr.
Page 99 and 100:
"But," I returned, hard to persuade
Page 101 and 102:
do. The librarian walked on in sile
Page 103 and 104:
"Mr. Vane," croaked the raven, "thi
Page 105 and 106:
All day I worked hard. When the dar
Page 107 and 108:
Lilith I lay down by a tree, and on
Page 109 and 110:
Now arose in the mind of the woman
Page 111 and 112:
Little Ones, from a crowd of childr
Page 113 and 114:
them as for those other animals, bu
Page 115 and 116:
Lilith myself learned to obey! Untr
Page 117 and 118:
For she must think! Now what she ca
Page 119 and 120:
CHAPTER XXXVII. THE SHADOW A murmur
Page 121 and 122:
In the morning we set out, and made
Page 123 and 124:
"He will kill me!" she moaned. "At
Page 125 and 126:
"Will the cat−woman−−I mean t
Page 127 and 128:
terrible, something they were not t
Page 129 and 130:
"Such a compulsion would be without
Page 131 and 132:
embrace of a friend whom her soul h
Page 133 and 134:
een timelessly, spacelessly, absolu
Page 135 and 136:
"It is the biggest room in all this
Page 137 and 138:
Almost under our feet, shot up the
Page 139 and 140:
"This food will help thee to die,"
Page 141 and 142:
"You will soon begin to find comfor
Page 143 and 144:
She gave the candle to her husband,
Page 145 and 146:
With measured tread along the path,
Page 147 and 148:
And as I sat, there grew in me such
Page 149 and 150:
and I thought I had heard the song
Page 151 and 152:
me, as to him that made me, all in
Page 153 and 154:
"Then remember, and recall. Trials
Page 155 and 156:
He embraced Lona his child, put an
Page 157 and 158:
"The black bat is flown!" said Mara
Page 159 and 160:
tumid bulges, glaring orbs of sepia
Page 161 and 162:
I had seen the lightning, but heard
Page 163:
"But whence first into thy dark sel
show all

Lilith

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?