first taste of so wonderful an experience.. The garden became something else, and the world another world..

"He loves you!" the sparrows chirped to her

"He loves you!" whispered the leaves on the trees

"He loves you! He loves you!" cooed the doves of the wood

"He loves you!" sang the spring breezes to her.

Her happiness was complete, and it was too great for her to notice, at first, the young man's absence..

A day passed.. two days.. a week.

"He can bear it no longer" — thought the statue — "he knows his love can come to nothing, and yet he is infatuated

with me." And the flood of her happiness wrapped her round like beautiful dreams...

After ten days the young man came back for the last time.. He was not alone, and he was not sad or absent-minded; with him was a lovely sweetheart, his arm about her waist.. their heads pressed close together, and they walked slowly, as though life stretched out before them without end.

The girl was beautiful as a peach-blossom, and her smile shone over her face, and he in his turn smiled back at her.

— Look, he said to her, here I used to come every day before visiting you, and rehearsed what I wished to say to you!

— You said it to the statue? said the girl, and she smiled at the

statue as though the world were empty of strange ironies..

— Are you jealous? But for the statue I would never have found the courage to confess my love to you..

The girl looked up at the statue and laughed, saying — And didn't she mind?

— Of course not! Isn't she a statue? And if she has a heart, it is a heart of stone!

With that they went off into the distance, for the rain had begun to fall, and near the lake they had a shelter of interlac-ing boughs..

And they did not see the "statue" weeping... weeping bitterly, as though her heart had broken...