Garden.

'Now we begin our dancing!' said the Fairy; 'at the end when I dance
with you, as the sun goes down you will see me beckon to you and cry,
"Come with me", but do not come. I have to repeat it every night for a
hundred years. Every time you resist, you will grow stronger, and at
last you will not even think of following. To-night is the first time.
Remember my warning!'

And the Fairy led him into a large hall of white transparent lilies, the
yellow stamens in each formed a little golden harp which echoed the
sound of strings and flutes. Lovely girls, slender and lissom, dressed
in floating gauze, which revealed their exquisite limbs, glided in the
dance, and sang of the joy of living--that they would never die--and
that the Garden of Paradise would bloom for ever.

The sun went down and the sky was bathed in golden light which gave the
lilies the effect of roses; and the Prince drank of the foaming wine
handed to him by the maidens. He felt such joy as he had never known
before; he saw the background of the hall opening where the Tree of
Knowledge stood in a radiancy which blinded him. The song proceeding
from it was soft and lovely, like his mother's voice, and she seemed to
say, 'My child, my beloved child!'

Then the Fairy beckoned to him and said so tenderly, 'Come with me,'
that he rushed towards her, forgetting his promise, forgetting
everything on the very first evening that she smiled and beckoned to
him.

The fragrance in the scented air around grew stronger, the harps sounded