If
I gazed intently, they seemed to vanish away, yet still to shine above
the azure if, raising my eyes, I looked again.
So, caring not how far I must go so long as my path lay beside these
breaking waters, I set out on the firm, white sands to prove this city
the mirage I deemed it.
What wonder, then, my senses fell asleep in that vast lullaby! And out
of a daydream almost as deep as that in which I first set out, I was
suddenly aroused by a light tapping sound, distinct and regular
between the roaring breakers.
I lifted my eyes to find the city I was seeking evanished away indeed.
But nearer at hand a child was playing upon the beach, whose spade
among the pebbles had caused the birdlike noise I had heard.
So engrossed was she with her building in the sand that she had not
heard me approaching. She laboured on at the margin of the cliff's
shadow where the sea-birds cried, answering Echo in the rocks. So
solitary and yet so intent, so sedate and yet so eager a little figure
she seemed in the long motionlessness of the shore, by the dark
heedlessness of the sea, I hesitated to disturb her.
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