“Yes, and then⁠— you know, godmother. We’ll both jump up into the coach and six and go to Lizzie. This reminds me, godmother, to ask you a serious question. You are as wise as wise can be (having been brought up by the fairies), and you can tell me this: Is it better to have had a good thing and lost it, or never to have had it?”

“Explain, goddaughter.”

“I feel so much more solitary and helpless without Lizzie now, than I used to feel before I knew her.” (Tears were in her eyes as she said so.)

“Some beloved companionship fades out of most lives, my dear,” said the Jew⁠—“that of a wife, and a fair daughter, and a son of promise, has faded out of my own life⁠—but the happiness was.”