Damon asked his son: “Fernando — you are as beautiful as your name,” and added in a hushed voice: “How is Adelsia?” Fernando bit his lips and said, fighting back his tears: “She passed away yesterday, father. But she forgave you long ago, and we shall visit her grave together.” The look of deep pain that filled his father's face did not escape him, nor the motion of the trem-bling hand that rose to his slightly furrowed face and touched the white scar softly, gently, as though it were the trace of an old love's kiss, precious in memory!

Fernando felt a hand laid on his shoulder; he turned quickly and saw the crowned King of the Carnival standing there before him. It sprang to his mind that the King had taken this stand only to wish him joy on his birthday, so he said: “I know you — my mother told me much about you, O great King.” Here his voice broke, and he added: “She died yesterday. And I thank you, thank you with all my heart, for the nobility of your heart has quickly given me back my happiness and my mirth — and you have given me back something greater and dearer still: you have given me back my father, whom I feared I should be long in reaching; and here you are presenting him to me as a gift. How precious this gift of yours is, O great Carnival!”

The King bowed his head, then took the child's head between his hands and kissed his forehead; and a tear fell from his eyes and rolled slowly down until it came to rest on Fernando's hand. Then he turned his back with a swift move-ment and vanished more quickly than he had appeared. The child cried out, deeply moved: “Father, does the King of the Carnival weep? Does this happy one know tears? Look — it is his tear; he has given it to me!” Damon gazed at something hidden and far away and said: “Yes, my child. His heart is wide enough for our sorrows as it is wide for our joys. He gives us his short life that we may suck its hours to the last drop and drink all the joy and happiness that is in it. Perhaps he wept just now for joy, because he made you happy — or perhaps in pain, grieving for you. We are a hopeful, merry people who live for the day, and how quickly we throw our sorrows behind us! You threw yours away yesterday, my child, and I threw

mine away today, into the heart of the Carnival; and from that same heart we took our mirth in exchange for what we gave. And perhaps this tear of his was a cry of pain from his heart, which scatters its joys over the people — the people you see scattering them over one another just as they scatter handfuls of rice,

exactly alike!!

Come, my child, come, let us dance. We have forgotten your beautiful friend — come, let us look for her before the King of the Carnival snatches her away from you!!!”

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