Chapter 46
The Last PearlWE are in a rich, happy house, where the master, the
servants, the friends of the family are full of joy and felicity.
For on this day a son and heir has been born, and mother and child
are doing well. The lamp in the bed-chamber had been partly shaded,
and the windows were covered with heavy curtains of some costly
silken material. The carpet was thick and soft, like a covering of
moss. Everything invited to slumber, everything had a charming look
of repose; and so the nurse had discovered, for she slept; and well
she might sleep, while everything around her told of happiness and
blessing. The guardian angel of the house leaned against the head
of the bed; while over the child was spread, as it were, a net of
shining stars, and each star was a pearl of
