And I told her how these were seven daughters of Atlas and
Pleione who herself was the daughter of the Sea, and how they
were all pure maidens, save one, and were the companions of
Artemis; how Orion the hunter, who was afterwards slain by
Artemis and whose three-starred girdle gleamed up there in the
sky, pursued them with evil intent, and how they prayed the gods
for deliverance and were changed into the everlasting stars; and,
lastly, how the one who was not a maiden, for she loved a mortal,
shrank away from her sisters through shame and was invisible to
the eye of man.
"She was ashamed," said Carlotta in a low voice, "because she
loved some one afterwards, one of the gods, who would not look at
her because she had given herself to a mortal. A woman then has
a fire here"--she clasped her hands to her bosom--"and wishes she
could burn away to nothing, nothing, just to air, and become
invisible."
She was rising hurriedly on the last word, but I brought my hands
down on her shoulders.
"Carlotta, my child," said I, "what do you mean?"
She seized my wrists and struggling to rise, panted out in
desperation:
"You are one of the gods, and I wish I were changed into an
invisible star.
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