us.
And one said--"Ai! but their dresses are beautiful!"
And the other said, "I thought it was mire when they came in, but see, it
is all golden!"
But another said, "Hush, it is the light from their faces!"
And we went down to him.
Alassio, Italy.
XI. THE SUNLIGHT LAY ACROSS MY BED.
In the dark one night I lay upon my bed. I heard the policeman's feet beat
on the pavement; I heard the wheels of carriages roll home from houses of
entertainment; I heard a
woman's laugh below my window--and then I fell
asleep. And in the dark I dreamt a dream. I dreamt God took my soul to
Hell.
Hell was a fair place; the water of the lake was blue.
I said to God, "I like this place."
God said, "Ay, dost thou!"
Birds sang, turf came to the water-edge, and trees grew from it. Away off
among the trees I saw beautiful women walking. Their clothes were of many
delicate colours and clung to them, and they were tall and graceful and had
yellow hair. Their robes trailed over the grass. They glided in and out
among the trees, and over their heads hung yellow fruit like large pears of
melted gold.
I said, "It is very fair; I would go up and taste the--"
God said, "Wait."
And after a while I noticed a very fair
woman pass: she looked this way
and that, and drew down a branch, and it seemed she kissed the fruit upon
it softly, and went on her way, and her dress made no rustle as she passed
over the grass. And when I saw her no more, from among the stems came
another
woman fair as she had been, in a delicate tinted robe; she looked
this way and that. When she saw no one there she drew down the fruit, and
when she had looked over it to find a place, she put her mouth to it
softly, and went away. And I saw other and other women come, making no
noise, and they glided away also over the grass.
And I said to God, "What are they doing?"
God said, "They are poisoning."
And I said, "How?"
God said, "They touch it with their lips, when they have made a tiny wound
in it with their fore-teeth they set in it that which is under their
tongues: they close it with their lip--that no man may see the place, and
