t out,
the lamps pushed aside, and raised or lowered, and when at last a
tolerably suitable light was procured Pollux threw himself on a stool,
straddled his legs, craned his head forward as far as his neck would
allow, looking, with his hooked nose, like a vulture that strives to
descry his distant prey-cast his eyes down, raised them again to take in
something fresh, and after a long gaze looked down again while his
fingers and nails moved over the surface of the wax-figure, sinking into
the plastic material, applying new pieces to apparently complete
portions, removing others with a decided nip and rounding them off with
bewildering rapidity to use them for a fresh purpose.

He seemed to be seized with cramp in his hands, but still under his
knotted brow his eye shone earnest, resolute and calm, and yet full of
profound and speechless inspiration. Selene had said not a word that
permitted his using her as a model; but, as if his enthusiasm was
infectious, she remained motionless, and when, as he worked, his gaze met
hers she could detect the stern earnestness which at this moment
possessed her eager companion.

Neither of them opened their lips for some time. At last he stood back
from his work, stooping low to look first at Selene and then at his
statuette with keen examination from head to foot; and then, drawing a
deep breath, and rubbing the wax over with his finger, he said:

"There, that is how it must go! Now I will wet your father's handkerchief
and then we can go on again. If you are tired you can rest."

She availed herself but little of this permission and presently he began
work again. As he proceeded carefully to replace some folds of her
drapery which had fallen out of place, she moved her foot as if to draw
back, but he begged her earnestly to stand still and she obeyed his
request.

Pollux now used his fingers and modelling tools more calmly; his gaze was
less wistful and he began to talk again.

"You are very pale," he said. "To be sure the lamp-light and a sleepless
night have something to do with it."

"I look just the same by daylight, but I am not ill."

"I thought Arsinoe would have been like your mother, but now I see many
features of her face in yours again. The oval of their form is the same
and, in both, the line of the nose runs almost straight to the forehead;
you have her eyes and the same bend of the brow, but your mouth is
smaller and more sharply cut, and she could hardly have