I
had heard that bees gather honey from the flowers. 'But where are the
flowers for them?' I asked. 'My lady's bees gather their honey from the
sun and the stars,' said the little man. 'Do let me see them,' I said.
'No. I daren't do that,' he answered. 'I have no business with them.
I don't understand them. Besides, they are so bright that if one were
to fly into your eye, it would blind you altogether.' 'Then you have
seen them?' 'Oh, yes! Once or twice, I think. But I don't quite know:
they are so very bright--like buttons of lightning. Now I've showed you
all I can to-night, and we'll go back to the room.' I followed him, and
he made me sit down under a lamp that hung from the roof, and gave me
some bread and honey.The lady had never moved. She sat with her forehead leaning on her hand, gazing out of the
little window, hung like the rest with white cloudy curtains. From where
I was sitting I looked out of it too, but I could see nothing. Her face
was very beautiful, and very white, and very still, and her hand was as
white as the forehead that leaned on it. I did not see her whole face--
only the side of it, for she never moved to turn it full upon me, or
even to look at me.How long I sat after I had eaten my bread and honey, I
don't know. The little man was busy about the room, pulling a string
here, and a string there, but chiefly the string at the back of the
door. I was thinking with some uneasiness that he would soon be wanting
me to go out and clean the windows, and I didn't fancy the job.
At last he came up to me with a great armful of dusters. 'It's time
you set about the windows,' he said; 'for there's rain coming, and if
they're quite clean before, then the rain can't spoil them.' I got up at
once. 'You needn't be afraid,' he said. 'You won't tumble off. Only you
must be careful. Always hold on with one hand while you rub with the
other.
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