GUINEVERE THE MYSTERIOUS 143 



little; but as a whole, they merely sagged and 

 drifted like some extraneous things entangled in 

 the body. 



Smoothly and gracefully Guinevere moved 

 about the aquarium. Her gills lifted and closed 

 rhythmically — twice as slowly as compared with 

 the three or four times every second of her 

 breathless young tadpolehood. Several times on 

 the fourteenth day, she came quietly to the sur- 

 face for a gulp of air. 



Looking at her from above, two little bulges 

 were visible on either side of the body — the en- 

 sheathed elbows pressing outward. Twice, when 

 she lurched forward in alarm, I saw these front 

 limbs jerk spasmodically; and when she was rest- 

 ing quietly, they rubbed and pushed impatiently 

 against their mittened tissue. 



And now began a restless shifting, a slow, 

 strange dance in mid-water, wholly unlike any 

 movement of her smaller companions; up and 

 down, slowly revolving on oblique planes, with 

 rhythmical turns and sinkings — this continued 

 for an hour, when I was called for lunch. And 

 as if to punish me for this material digression 

 and desertion, when I returned, in half an hour, 

 the miracle had happened. 



