138 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
So fondly do I adore thee,” continued Love, “that 
I will bear thee away to a cave, where Jupiter once 
sheltered a fair mortal like thyself from the jealous 
eyes of Juno ; where it shall ever be light as noon¬ 
day when I am absent, but dark as the hollow of 
a mountain, into which the air of heaven never 
breathed, when I visit thee, in all the immortality 
of my love.” Love bore her away to the beautiful 
cavern which had opened at the bidding of Jupiter, 
under one of the mountains of Arcadia; and went 
arching far beneath it; the entrance was concealed 
under masses of rugged underwood, while all around 
stretched an impenetrable barrier of gorse-bushes, 
their sharp-pointed spears half hidden by the deep 
gold of the blossoms with which they were overhung. 
As a bird bears the feathered seed in its beak, even 
so lightly did Love fly along, enclosing the beautiful 
Psyche in his embrace, while her white arm was 
twined, as if for security, around his neck. A score 
of times was she about to raise her eyes and look 
into his face, when she recalled the doom of death 
which she knew she must endure ; and as she re¬ 
membered the fiat of the Thunderer, she clung more 
closely to Love, and embraced more firmly the 
divinity that clasped her in his arms. Once only 
did she catch a glimpse of his countenance as they 
passed over a clear stream, and although it was but 
a momentary glance, she saw in it a beauty which 
