agination might have invested her forehead with
a halo, so magnificent was the lustrous effect of the sun upon the
silken glossiness of that luxuriant hair.

The Mediterranean was the lady's bath: and, in spite of the oppressive
nature of the waking thoughts which had succeeded her delicious dream,
in spite of that conviction of loneliness which lay like a weight of
lead upon her soul, she disported in the waters like a mermaid.

Now she plunged beneath the surface, which glowed in the sun like a vast
lake of quicksilver: now she stood in a shallow spot, where the water
rippled no higher than her middle, and combed out her dripping tresses;
then she waded further in, and seemed to rejoice in allowing the little
wavelets to kiss her snowy bosom. No fear had she, indeed, no thought of
the monsters of the deep: could the fair surface of the shining water
conceal aught dangerous or aught terrible? Oh! yes, even as beneath that
snowy breast beat a heart stained with crime, often agitated by ardent
and impetuous passions, and devoured by raging desire.

For nearly an hour did Nisida disport in Nature's mighty bath until the
heat of the sun became so intense that she was compelled to return to
the shore and resume her apparel. Then she took some bread in her hand,
and hastened to the groves to pluck the cooling and delicious fruits
whereof there was so marvelous an abundance. She seated herself on a bed
of wild flowers on the shady side of a citron and orange grove,
surrounded by a perfumed air. Before her stretched the valley, like a
vast carpet of bright green velvet fantastically embroidered with
flowers of a thousand varied hues. And in the midst meandered the
crystal stream, with stately swans and an infinite number of other
aquatic birds floating on its bosom. And the birds of the groves, too,
how beautiful were they, and how joyous did they seem! What variegated
plumage did they display, as they flew past the Lady Nisida, unscared by
her presence! Some of them alighted from the overhanging boughs, and as
they descended swept her very hair with their wings; then, almost to
convince her that she was not an unwelcome intruder in that charming
land, they hopped round her, picking up the crumbs of bread which she
scattered about to attract them.

For the loneliness of her condition had already attuned the mind of this
strange being to a susceptibility of deriving amusement from incidents
which a short time previously she