THE CHILDREN
dipped his cup into the water. Seeing the carved cup there he thought upon Valentine. He left it floating on the water. As it floated there another cup came out of the shadows, floating too. The two cups came together and touched rim to rim. John Ball thought he was dreaming as he looked upon them. The carvings on them were the same. Inside each had the same covering of yellow wax. No two cups could be so alike except the cups that Philemon had given Valentine and himself.
One of them was Valentine's for certainty. Then Valentine had been there. John Ball's heart was lifted up again. He stepped from the well, leaving the cups there and leaving Baldwin drinking at the well. He stepped away, and he called out Valentine's name.
But Valentine did not hear his name being called. He was in the chamber under the Nixie's pool, and he was drinking the honey-tasting drink that the Nixie had given him.
John Ball went farther and farther away from
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