new stars, unknown to men, and gave them names.
Through the diamond lenses she saw sun systems, spirals of fire, shrivel up through the illimitableness of the universe. . . . But she kept gazing, for behind those sun systems, she knew, were other spheres, other heavens, and there farther still, inimitably far, was the Mystic Rose, which she could never see. . . .
Sometimes, when Psyche wandered round the castle, she knocked nervously, inquisitively at Astra’s door, who graciously allowed her to enter. When Astra stood before the board and reckoned out long sums, Psyche looked very earnestly at her sister’s star, which glistened on her head, in her coal-black hair. Or she went on to the terrace and peeped through the telescope, but she saw nothing but very bright light, which made her eyes ache. . . .