Everyone now looked seven times more beautiful than before,
which, in the case of the gods and goddesses, is saying a good deal.
The children remembered how at the raspberry vinegar feast
Mademoiselle had said that gods and goddesses always wore
wreaths for meals.
Hebe herself arranged the roses on the girls heads and Aphrodite
Urania, the dearest lady in the world, with a voice like mother's at
those moments when you love her most, took them by the hands
and said: "Come, we must get the feast ready. Eros Psyche Hebe
Ganymede all you young people can arrange the fruit."
"I don't see any fruit," said Kathleen, as four slender forms
disengaged themselves from the white crowd and came towards
them.
"You will though," said Eros, a really nice boy, as the girls
instantly agreed; "you've only got to pick it."
"Like this," said Psyche, lifting her marble arms to a willow
branch. She reached out her hand to the children it held a ripe
pomegranate.
"I see," said Mabel. "You just " She laid her fingers to the willow
branch and the firm softness of a big peach was within them.
"Yes, just that," laughed Psyche, who was a darling, as any one
could see.
After this Hebe gathered a few silver baskets from a convenient
alder, and the four picked fruit industriously. Meanwhile the elder
statues were busy plucking golden goblets and jugs and dishes
from the branches of ash-trees and young oaks and filling them
with everything nice to eat and drink that anyone could possibly
want, and these were spread on the steps.
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