CHAPTER VIII 
THE BRIDE-WIDOW 
N the heat and glow of the fine June morning 
you may see her, the young virgin queen, 
making ready for her nuptial flight. 
At first she is all hesitancy; wandering to and 
fro amidst the crowd on the _hive-threshold; 
coquetting with the sunshine; loath to return to 
the dim, pent, murmurous twilight she has for- 
saken, yet hardly daring to launch herself on 
wings that are still untried. 
For three long days and nights since her release 
from the prison-cell she has been a curiously soli- 
tary figure in the busy throng within the hive. 
Instead of the enthusiastic, welcoming world she 
expected, she finds none but unregarding strangers 
about her. Not a drone glances her way, and the 
worker-bees go upon their business in seeming 
unconcern at her presence. They do not even 
trouble themselves to feed her, and she is left to 
forage for herself as best she may. A con- 
spiracy of indifference is on the clan—all part of 
a deep design for her education, if she only 
117 
