CHAPTER XII. THE GARDEN.
Although Nycteris took care not to stay out long at a time, and usedevery precaution, she could hardly have escaped discovery so long, hadit not been that the strange attacks to which Watho was subject hadbeen more frequent of late, and had at last settled into an illnesswhich kept her to her bed. But whether from an access of caution orfrom suspicion, Falca, having now to be much with her mistress bothday and night, took it at length into her head to fasten the door asoften as she went by her usual place of exit; so that one night, whenNycteris pushed, she found, to her surprise and dismay, that the wallpushed her again, and would not let her through; nor with all hersearching could she discover wherein lay the cause of the change. Thenfirst she felt the pressure of her prison-walls, and turning, half indespair, groped her way to the picture where she had once seen Falcadisappear. There she soon found the spot by pressing upon which thewall yielded. It let her through into a sort of cellar, where was aglimmer of light from a sky whose blue was paled by the moon. From thecellar she got into a long passage, into which the moon was shining,and came to a door. She managed to open it, and, to her great joy,found herself in _the other place_, not on the top of the wall,however, but in the garden she had longed to enter. Noiseless as afluffy moth she flitted away into the covert of the trees and shrubs,her bare feet welcomed by the softest of carpets, which, by the verytouch, her feet knew to be alive, whence it came that it was so sweetand friendly to them. A soft little wind was out among the trees,running now here, now there, like a child that had got its will. Shewent dancing over the grass, looking behind her at her shadow, as shewent. At first she had taken it for a little black creature that madegame of her, but when she perceived that it was only where she keptthe moon away, and that every tree, however great and grand acreature, had also one of these strange attendants, she soon learnednot to mind it, and by and by it became the source of as muchamusement to her, as to any kitten its tail. It was long before shewas quite at home with the trees, however. At one time they seemed todisapprove of her; at another not even to know she was there, and tobe altogether taken up with their own business. Suddenly, as she wentfrom one to another of them, looking up with awe at the murmuringmystery of their branches and leaves, she spied one a little way off,which was very different from all the rest. It was white, and dark,and sparkling, and spread like a palm--a small slender palm, withoutmuch head; and it grew very fast, and sang as it grew. But it nevergrew any bigger, for just as fast as she could see it growing, it keptfalling to pieces. When she got close to it, she discovered that itwas a water-tree--made of just such water as she washed with--only itwas alive of course, like the river--a different sort of water fromthat, doubtless, seeing the one crept swiftly along the floor, and theother shot straight up, and fell, and swallowed itself, and roseagain. She put her feet into the marble basin, which was theflower-pot in which it grew. It was full of real water, living andcool--so nice, for the night was hot!
But the flowers! ah, the flowers! she was friends with them from thevery first. What wonderful creatures they were!--and so kind andbeautiful--always sending out such colours and such scents--red scent,and white scent, and yellow scent--for the other creatures! The onethat was invisible and everywhere, took such a quantity of theirscents, and carried it away! yet they did not seem to mind. It wastheir talk, to show they were alive, and not painted like those on thewalls of her rooms, and on the carpets.
She wandered along down the garden until she reached the river. Unablethen to get any further--for she was a little afraid, and justly, ofthe swift watery serpent--she dropped on the grassy bank, dipped herfeet in the water, and felt it running and pushing against them. For along time she sat thus, and her bliss seemed complete, as she gazed atthe river, and watched the broken picture of the great lamp overhead,moving up one side of the roof, to go down the other.