Nym

“ They may fear her when the sun has gone down, and when they are left all alone they begin to dread her mockery. Yet the nymph who sought for love and failed to gain what she sought must surely find some comfort on those bright days of summer and of spring when she gives the little children happiness and they give her their love.
When all the world was young, and nymphs and fauns and dryads dwelt in the forests, there was no nymph more lovely and more gay than she whose name was Echo. ”

“ You look like a nymph of sunshine when you’re all in yellow.”
“Very well, I will! I live but to please.” This was said gaily. “Be prepared now for a transformation scene: from an aproned sheller of peas to a nymph of sunshine.”
In fewer minutes than seemed possible, Jenny again appeared, and spreading her fresh yellow muslin skirt, she made a minuet curtsy. Then she asked merrily, “Mistress Lenora, pray tell how a nymph of sunshine should walk and what she should say when she calls upon the most Olympian person she knows. ”

“ She is the model of the gray-haired man on the left, a man of perhaps fifty, with kindly intelligent eyes and strong, nervous, expressive hands—hands that know how to model a colossal Greek war-horse, plunging in battle, or create a nymph scarcely a foot high out of a lump of clay, so charmingly that the French Government has not only bought the nymph, but given him a little red ribbon for his pains. ”

“ Instead of proceeding to besiege Nymegen, Maurice marched away as suddenly and quickly as before, and captured Hulst, on the borders of Zeeland and Brabant, a dozen miles only from Antwerp, and then turning again was, in three days, back at Nymegen, and had placed sixty-eight pieces of artillery in position. He opened fire on the 20th of October, and the next day the important city of Nymegen surrendered. This series of brilliant successes greatly raised the spirits of the Netherlanders, and proportionately depressed those of the Spaniards and their adherents. ”

“ Jellico snorted. "I don't think you'd get any repeats from your clients otherwise! What do we meet tomorrow? A herd of graz on stampede, or something even more subtle and deadly?"
Nymani got up and walked a little way from their rock shelter. He turned down-slope and Dane saw his nostrils expand as they had when he had investigated the cave.
"Something is dead," he said slowly. "A very large something. Or else—"
Asaki strode down to join his men. He gave a curt nod and Nymani skidded on down the mountain side. ”

“ Of the derivation of Alf, as just observed, we know nothing certain, [102] and the original meaning of Nympha would appear to be a new-married woman, [103] and thence a marriageable young woman; and it was applied to the supposed inhabitants of the mountains, seas, and streams, on the same principle that the northern nations gave them the appellation of men and women, that is, from their imagined resemblance to the human form.
Whatever its origin, the word Alf has continued till the present day in all the Teutonic languages. The Danes have Elv, pl. Elve; the Swedes, Elf pl. ”

“ Before the little girl had escaped from leading-strings, the prophecy of the nymph was fulfilled on her good mother; she fell suddenly ill, and died, without having time to think of the musk-apple, or with it, according to the arrangement of Nixa, to commend the little Matilda to her care. Her husband was then present at a tournament at Augsburg, and, honoured with the approbation of the Emperor Frederic, returned home. When the dwarf, from the tower, saw his lord riding in the distance, he blew his horn, according to custom ”

“ They are ever-present.
Longus in his Preface says that he made these four books as a votive to Eros, the Nymphs and Pan. The baby girl was exposed, nursed by a sheep and found by a shepherd in the cave of the Nymphs. [226] At critical moments in the lives of the hero and heroine the Nymphs appear in visions to guide or save. In Book I Lamo and Dryas, the foster-fathers, had the same dream the same night: they saw the Nymphs consign Daphnis and Chloe to the care of a young winged boy who touched both with the same arrow and bade each tend the flocks. ”

“ But thou, fair Nymph, thyself survey
In this sweet offspring of a day.
That miracle of face must fail,
Thy charms are sweet, but charms are frail:
Swift as the short-lived flower they fly,
At morn they bloom, at evening die:
Though Sickness yet a while forbears,
Yet Time destroys what Sickness spares:
Now Helen lives alone in fame,
And Cleopatra's but a name:
Time must indent that heavenly brow,
And thou must be what they are now. ”

“ If this strange gentleman should be saying anything improper to his daughter M. Nioche would entreat him huskily, as a particular favour, to forbear; but he would admit at the same time that he was very presumptuous to ask for particular favours.
"Monsieur has bought my picture," said Mademoiselle Noémie. "When it's finished you'll carry it to him in a cab."
"In a cab!" cried M. Nioche; and he stared, in a bewildered way, as if he had seen the sun rising at midnight.
"Are you the young lady's father?" said Newman. "I think she said you speak English." ”

“ Ned did not reply, for Jim entered just then, and looking round with a smile, took his seat opposite to them.
'Now, Jim, tell us all about your trip, and what you saw, and how you managed, and where you bought the things, and all about it.'
'Oh, Ned; I cannot tell you half that I witnessed in that great city. You must go there yourself one of these days; it is a great place, and every one is busy, and all seem to be in a hurry to get along, as though they had something to do that must be done at once. ”

“ But a few centuries later, when the simple old Saxon names in a had very much died out, Emma coming in as something quite new, and with the stamp of Norman prestige, became at once, as appears from the Liber Vitæ, a name in favour. As to the etymology, which is considered by the Germans to be obscure, I have elsewhere ventured to suggest Old Northern ymia, stridere; whence the name of the giant Ymir, in Northern mythology. The sense is that of a harsh and loud voice, which suggests huge stature. ”

“ The Princess threw her arms around her dear brother and hugged Ned, so great was her delight.
Ned ran over to his little friend, the Gnome, and thanked him again and again for his aid, and was about to lean out of the doorway to also thank the Fairy Queen when the Gnome restrained him.
"Not so fast, Ned, my boy! All is not yet over." [152]
"No, indeed," answered Ned, "we must rescue the giant."
"Aye, there's the rub," replied the Gnome. "How are we ever to get him in the bubble, either as a tree or as a giant?" ”

“ Perhaps the flames yet lurk and dart beneath.'
'It is possible,' said Glaucus, musingly.
'Thou sayest thou art slow to believe in magic,' said Nydia, suddenly. 'I have heard that a potent witch dwells amongst the scorched caverns of the mountain, and yon cloud may be the dim shadow of the demon she confers with.'
'Thou art full of the romance of thy native Thessaly,' said Glaucus; 'and a strange mixture of sense and all conflicting superstitions.'
'We are ever superstitious in the dark,' replied Nydia. 'Tell me,' she added, after a slight pause, 'tell me, O Glaucus! ”

“ He looked at Newman from head to foot; he looked at his daughter and then at the picture. Take care you don't spoil it!" he cried almost sublimely.
"We must go home," said Mademoiselle Noémie. "This is a good day's work. Take care how you carry it!" And she began to put up her utensils.
"How can I thank you?" asked M. Nioche. "My English is far from sufficing."
"I wish I spoke French half so well," said man good-naturedly. "Your daughter too, you see, makes herself understood."
"Oh sir!" and M. Nioche looked over his spectacles with tearful eyes, nodding out of his depths of sadness. ”

“ Nambu looked at me reproachfully. The man-eater of the ranges does not rudely raise his voice unless he happens to be raiding a village; then—but you men who have been through the war don't need to be told. We are like the colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady, all one family under our skins.
"Did you say there was a dim-dim girl here?" I cried. "Who is she. How long has she been here? And how—how—how did she get here?"
You cannot say "how the devil" in any native language; it is a pity.
"What's a dim-dim girl?" asked Rothery, who knew the word for "woman." ”

“ From him spring all our race, and hence are we so strong and mighty.'"
"How did the race of Ymir spread itself?" asked Gangler; "or dost thou believe that this giant was a god?"
"We are far from believing him to have been a god," replied Har, "for he was wicked as are all of his race, whom we call Frost-giants. And it is said that, when Ymir slept, he fell into a sweat, and from the pit of his left arm was born a man and a woman, and one of his feet engendered with the other a son, from whom descend the Frost-giants, and we therefore call Ymir the old Frost-giant." ”

“ Newman asked with interest about Mademoiselle Noémie, and M. Nioche at first, for answer, simply looked at him in lachrymose silence.
"Don't press me on that subject, sir. I sit and watch her, but I can do nothing."
"Do you mean she gives you serious cause—?"
"I don't know, sir, what I mean! I can't follow her. I don't understand her. She has something in her head; who can say what's in the head of a little person so independent, so dreadful—and so pleasing? She's too deep for her poor papa." ”

“ Nimmo. He had long been a dependant of H——’s, whence he derived this strange designation. Little more than the shadow of a recollection of him remains as materiel for description. He bore somewhat of the same relation to his principal which Silence bears to Shallow, in Henry IV.,—that is, he was an exaggerated specimen of the same species, and exhibited the peculiarities of H——’s habits and character in a more advanced stage. He was a prospective indication of what H—— was to become. H——, like Mr. Thomas Campbell’s “coming events,” cast his “shadow before;” and Nimmo was this shadow. ”

“ And when the heated blasts from Muspelheim met the rime, so that it melted into drops, then, by the might of him who sent the heat, the drops quickened into life and took the likeness of a man, who got the name Ymer. But the Frost giants call him Aurgelmer. Thus it is said in the short Prophecy of the Vala (the Lay of Hyndla) :
All the valas are From Vidolf descended; All wizards are Of Vilmeide's race; All enchanters Are sons of Svarthofde; All giants have Come from Ymer. ”

“ I send these by one whom thou wilt receive for her own sake, if not for mine. She, like us, is a stranger; her fathers' ashes lie under brighter skies: but, less happy than we, she is blind and a slave. Poor Nydia! I seek as much as possible to repair to her the cruelties of Nature and of Fate, in asking permission to place her with thee. She is gentle, quick, and docile. She is skilled in music and the song; and she is a very Chloris to the flowers. She thinks, Ione, that thou wilt love her: if thou dost not, send her back to me. ”

“ Then he looked at Nimeh (who was still disguised as a woman) and said to the princess, “O my sister, what damsel is this by Num’s side?” “O Commander of the Faithful,” answered she, “she is one of thy slave-girls and the bosom friend of Num, who will neither eat nor drink without her.” And she repeated the words of the poet:
Two opposites, dissevered still in charms and straitly knit, And each one’s beauty brightlier shows against its opposite. ”

“ His glance found quick reassurance; he liked the young man's face; it strongly resembled that of Madame de Cintré, whose brother he would clearly be. The young man, on his side, had made a rapid inspection of Newman's person. He had taken the card and was about to enter the house with it when another figure appeared on the threshold—an older man, of a fine presence, habited in evening-dress. He looked hard at Newman and Newman met his examination. "Madame de Cintré," the younger man repeated as an introduction of the visitor. ”

“ But the old lady, with the serenity of supreme power, let her son make her epigrams for her. She only smiled, almost sweetly, shaking her head and repeating, “But once, Mr. Newman; but once!”
Nothing that Newman had ever seen or heard gave him such a sense of marble hardness as this movement and the tone that accompanied it. “Could anything compel you?” he asked. “Do you know of anything that would force you?”
“This language, sir,” said the marquis, “addressed to people in bereavement and grief is beyond all qualification.” ”

“ You would have said that she had received some very good news.
“Something has happened here!” said Newman, without sitting down.
“You find me in a very fine moment,” she repeated. “Two gentlemen—one of them is M. de Bellegarde, the pleasure of whose acquaintance I owe to you—have just had words about your humble servant. Very big words too. They can’t come off without crossing swords. A duel—that will give me a push!” cried Mademoiselle Noémie clapping her little hands. “C’est ça qui pose une femme!”
“You don’t mean to say that Bellegarde is going to fight about you!” ”

“ What beloved friends, lost and missed in the gloom, might they not bear to safety and to shelter!
In the silence of the general sleep, Nydia rose gently. She bent over the face of Glaucus—she inhaled the deep breath of his heavy slumber—timidly and sadly she kissed his brow—his lips; she felt for his hand—it was locked in that of Ione; she sighed deeply, and her face darkened. Again she kissed his brow, and with her hair wiped from it the damps of night. 'May the gods bless you, Athenian!' she murmured: 'may you be happy with your beloved one!—may you sometimes remember Nydia! Alas! ”