“Ernest, do you see?”
The young man slowly raised his pale face and looked. Veria, standing
on the very verge of the cliff, the soft night wind floating back her
snow-white dress and golden hair, her hands clasped and raised, as were
her soft eyes, to heaven,--stood ready for the leap.
Below, gazing up at her, as the moon below gazed up to the moon above,
floated Sulemair; her white form gleaming through the still water,
her yellow hair floating out upon the waves, her snowy arms extended
upward.
“Veria, Veria, stay!” shouted the young man in agony.
“Veria, Veria, come!” floated up from the water like a mocking echo, in
the silvery voice of Sulemair.
Ernest sprung forward; but Veria, with one wild glance backward, leaped
from the cliff, and was clasped in the white arms of Sulemair.
Mechanically, more with the idea of saving Veria than of greeting her
rival, Ernest rushed down the path leading to the beach, and stood a
moment, with the little laughing waves curling and plashing round his
feet.
A white, floating figure rose to the surface, and was borne gently
toward him;--plunging in, the young man swam toward her, reached her,
and drew her out. Then, standing on the moon-lit beach, he gazed in
astonishment at the being beside him. Fair and golden-haired, she had
the dove-like, spiritual eyes of Veria, but the laughing, rose-red
mouth and dimpled cheek of Sulemair. Upon her head and neck and arms
shone the crown and pearls of the sea-princess, but her form was
clothed in the modest garments of the earth-maiden. All that he had
loved, all that was best and dearest of each, was there. Who was it?
“Veria!--Sulemair!” stammered Ernest. “Which are you? What does this
mean? Speak to me!”
“Dear Ernest!” said a voice as true and loving as Veria, as arch and
playful as Sulemair, “I am both,--all. What each wanted, the other
possessed,--I am the childlike, frolicsome mer-maiden joined to the
true heart and immortal soul of Veria. When we clasped our arms about
each other, the heart of each leaped to meet that of the other; in a
moment we were one,--two in one. Do you like me, Ernest?”
“Like you, my queen, my angel?” exclaimed the youth, clasping her to
his heart; “I love you with twofold love. All my old love for Sulemair,
all my new love for Veria, has mingled in my heart, as you two have
mingled soul and body; and my love is as much stronger for you than for
either of those, as you now are more perfect and more charming than
either half could have been alone.”
“But my name?” murmured the maiden, “what will you call me, now that I
have lost both those which I bore before?”
“I will call you Una now, for you are perfect--you are one,--a woman;
and can be no better, no higher.”
And the moon beamed, and the wavelets crisped in her pure light at
their feet; and their hearts had room for no more joy.
[Illustration]