“Look at the moon, dear Lamorna,” said Erick. “See how beautiful it is!”
“Yes, it is lovely,” said she. But she did not lift her eyes from her own image. Then, at a given signal, the water elves threw up their sand ropes, and caught her reflection, and all pulled it together, and Lamorna started back with a shudder.
“Erick,” she cried, gasping, “is anything the matter with the moon? Is it gone behind a cloud?”
“No,” said Erick, surprised; “see, there it is, as bright as ever.”
Lamorna bent over the water again, and again drew back trembling, for her pretty reflection had quite disappeared, and she could see it nowhere.
“Erick,” she cried, “I don’t feel well. Will you help me to go home?”
Erick jumped up at once, and lifted her tenderly across the rocks, and helped her up the beach to her house.
Meantime the water elves were almost wild with delight. They were pleased at the thought that they were helping Erick; but they were also pleased for themselves, that they had got such a pretty new plaything as Lamorna’s reflection. It was thirty times as big as any of them, and they had to keep it tied down, lest it should rise to the surface and float away. So they found a special grotto for it—between some large rocks, and there they fastened it down—and all were allowed to look at it, though no one might touch it, for fear it should be injured. It looked very pretty, with the bright red kerchief over the head, and the lips smiling sweetly just as Lamorna’s had smiled when she bent over the water.
“Now we know how she did her hair, and can do ours like it,” said the young maiden elves; and they were never tired of examining it. At last one said—
“It is so pretty, and poor Lamorna can never see it now. Shall we never set it free, and let it return to her?”
“On the day that she no longer cares about it, when she has ceased to be vain,” said the old elf gravely, “we will cut its ropes, and it will fly to her wherever she is.”
“But she may have grown old by then, and have changed so much that it would not know her,” said the young elf.
“Then it will change too,” said the old elf; “if even a wrinkle comes on Lamorna’s face it will at once appear on the face of her image here, and should her hair become grey its hair would be grey also.”
“Then it will be very amusing,” cried the elves; “we can watch it and know how Lamorna is going on, and if she looks well or ill.”
When Lamorna got home she felt frightened and uncomfortable, and she was cross with Erick for looking at her.
“Erick,” she said, “don’t you know that it’s very rude to stare?”
“Dear Lamorna, I feared you were ill,” said Erick, humbly.
“I am not ill,” said Lamorna, pouting; “so do look another way.”
“I shall never be able to please you, Lamorna,” said Erick, sighing, as he looked away. “Are you determined always to be unkind to me?”
“Oh, don’t talk so, Erick,” cried Lamorna. “How you tease me!”
“Do I tease you?” said Erick, very gravely. “I won’t do so any more;” and he got up and kissed her forehead, and went away without saying another word.
When Lamorna was left alone, she jumped up and ran to the looking-glass, in her usual way; but when she looked in it she stood still, staring in surprise, for she saw nothing!
“There must be something wrong with the light,” she said, and she moved the candles; but when she turned again to the glass it was just the same. She saw the reflection of the room—only her own image was wanting.
“I declare it makes one feel quite uncomfortable,” she said. “I must be ill. I’ll go to bed at once; tomorrow, doubtless, I shall wake up quite well.” So she went to bed.
Next morning she sprang up when the first rays of the sun shone in at the window, and ran at once to her looking-glass. But it was just the same as the previous evening. No likeness of herself could she see. At last she began to cry outright.
“I never heard of such an absurd thing!” she sobbed. “Not to be able to see one’s own face in the glass. Either I must be very ill, or else something must be wrong with the glasses. And I dare not tell anyone, for fear they should laugh or think I’m going mad. But I think I’ll go down and tell Erick about it. He won’t laugh at me, at any rate.”
So she dressed as quickly as she could; but when she had to do her hair without seeing it she cried again till her eyes were red. She would not look in a glass all day, but when the evening came she went down the village to the cottage where Erick lived. She tapped at the door, and it was opened by Erick’s mother, who stood behind it with a pale face and red eyes.
“Can I speak to Erick?” asked Lamorna.
“You cannot speak to him, for he is not here,” said his mother, coldly. “And it is all your doing. He was so grieved by the unkind things you said to him last night that he could not bear to stay here any longer, so he is gone to enlist for a soldier, and go to the war;” and his mother began to cry afresh. Lamorna stared in surprise.
“Why, how could it be my doing?” she said. “If Erick was so silly as to mind what I said, I can’t help that,” and she turned away in a huff. “But he needn’t have gone away just now,” she added, beginning to
