Page 282 - Adventures in shadow-land

I don't feel as though she were that— that person.

Please ask if she has seen our friend.'1
“ Yes, my dear child/1 said Panope-— foT she it

was— answering the mermaid’s thought, (tI have
seen h im /’ and the immortal sighed,

** His family are very anxious about him, my
lady/’ said the whale, who was conscious of an

awe he had never known before, though he felt he
could trust the Sea-Nymph.

“ They need be anxious no more/1 said Paoope,
gently and sadly,

*'What has happened?11 asked the mermaid,
turning pale, but keeping herself very quiet.

Pan ope went to her, and the immortal daughter
of the sea put her white arms round the mermaid
and held her in a close and soft embrace.

<fMy dear/’ she said, very gently, “ your old

playmate is dead.”
If You don't say so, ma’am I" said Moby Dick,
with a great sigh; and then he swam away to a

little distance and left the mermaid to the care of
the Sea-Nymph, for he was a whale of very delicate

feelings.
The mermaid looked into the blue eyes of the