Emeralda, that was the name of her eldest sister. Surpassingly
beautiful was Emeralda, dazzling fair as no woman in the kingdom, no
princess in other kingdoms. Exceedingly tall she was, and majestic in
stature; erect she walked, stately and proudly; she was very proud,
for after the death of the king she was to reign on the throne of the
Kingdom of the Past. Jealous of all the power which would be hers,
she rejected all the princes who sued for her hand. She never spoke
but to command, and only to her father did she bow. She always wore
heavy brocade, silver or gold, studded with jewels, and long mantles
of rustling silk, fringed with broad ermine; a diadem of the finest
jewels always glittered on her red golden hair and her eyes also were
jewels; two magnificent green emeralds, in which a black carbuncle
was the pupil; and people whispered secretly that her heart was cut
out of one single, gigantic ruby.
Oh, Psyche was so afraid of her!
When Psyche wandered through the castle and suddenly saw
Emeralda coming, preceded by pages, torches, shield-bearers, and
maids-in-waiting, who bore her train, and a score of halberdiers,
then she was struck with fear, and hastily concealed herself behind a
door, a curtain, no matter where, and then Emeralda rustled by with a
great noise of satin and gold and all the trampling of her retinue, and
Psyche's heart beat loudly like a clock, tick! tick! tick! tick! till
she thought she would faint....
Then she shut her eyes so as not to see the cold, proud look of
Emeralda's green emeralds, which pierced through the curtains, and
saw Psyche well enough, though she pretended not to see her. And
when Emeralda was gone, then Psyche fled upstairs, high up on to the
battlements, fetched a deep breath, pressed her hands to her bosom,
and long afterwards her little wings trembled from fear.
Astra, that was the name of the second princess. She wore a living
star upon her head; she was very wise and learned; she knew much more
than all the philosophers and learned men in the kingdom, who came
to her for counsel.
She lived in the highest tower of the castle, and sometimes, along
the bars of her window, she saw clouds pass by, like spirits of
the mist. She never left the tower. She sat, surrounded by rolls of
parchment, gigantic globes, which she turned with a pressure of her
finger; and after hours of contemplation she described, with great
compasses, on a slab of black marble, circle after circle, or reckoned
out long sums, with numbers so great that no one could pronounce them.
Sometimes she sat surrounded by the sages of the land, and the king
himself came and listened to his daughter, as in a low, firm voice
she explained things. But because she possessed all the wisdom of
the earth, she despised all the world, and she had had constructed on
the terrace of her tower a telescope, miles long, through which she
could look to every part of the illimitable firmament. And when the
sages were gone, and she was alone, then she went on to the terrace
and peered through the giant, which she turned to all the points of
the compass. Through the diamond lenses, cut without facets, she saw
new stars, unknown to men, and gave them names.
Through the diamond lenses she saw sun systems, spirals of fire,
shrivel up through the illimitableness of the universe.... But she
kept gazing, for behind those sun systems, she knew, were other
spheres, other heavens, and there farther still, illimitably far,
was the Mystic Rose, which she could never see....
Sometimes, when Psyche wandered round the castle, she knocked
nervously, inquisitively at Astra's door, who graciously allowed her to
enter. When Astra stood before the board and reckoned out long sums,
Psyche looked very earnestly at her sister's star, which glistened
on her head, in her coal-black hair. Or she went on to the terrace
and peeped through the telescope, but she saw nothing but very bright
light, which made her eyes ache....