th a crown of ivy and linden leaves like a bacchante of Mount
Maenalus, to lie, hardly veiled by a cloud of tissue finer than woven
wind, upon a tiger-skin with silver claws and ruby eyes, or to stand
erect in a great shell of mother-of-pearl, with a dew of pearls falling
from her tresses in lieu of drops of sea-water.

When he had placed himself in the best position for observation,
he became absorbed in silent contemplation. His hand, tracing vague
contours in the air, seemed to be sketching the outlines for some
picture, and he would have remained thus for whole hours if Nyssia, soon
becoming weary of her role of model, had not reminded him in chill and
disdainful tones that such amusements were unworthy of royal majesty and
contrary to the holy laws of matrimony. 'It is thus,' she would exclaim,
as she withdrew, draped to her very eyes, into the most mysterious
recesses of her apartment, 'that one treats a mistress, not a virtuous
woman of noble blood!'

These wise remonstrances did not cure Candaules, whose passion augmented
in inverse ratio to the coldness shown him by the queen. And it had at
last brought him to that point that he could no longer keep the secrets
of the nuptial couch. A confidant became as necessary to him as to the
prince of a modern tragedy. He did not proceed, you may feel assured,
to fix his choice upon some crabbed philosopher of frowning mien, with
a flood of gray-and-white beard rolling down over a mantle in proud
tatters; nor a warrior who could talk of nothing save ballista,
catapults, and scythed chariots; nor a sententious Eupatrid full of
councils and politic maxims; but Gyges, whose reputation for gallantry
caused him to be regarded as a connoisseur in regard to women.

One evening he laid his hand upon his shoulder in a more than ordinarily
familiar and cordial manner, and after giving him a look of peculiar
significance, he suddenly strode away from the group of courtiers,
saying in a loud voice:

'Gyges, come and give me your opinion in regard to my effigy, which
the Sicyon sculptors have just finished chiselling on the genealogical
bas-relief where the deeds of my ancestors are celebrated.'

'O king, your knowledge is greater than that of your humble subject,
and I know not how to express my gratitude for the honour you do me in
deigning to consult me,' replied Gyges, with a sign of assent.

Candaules and his favourite traversed several halls ornamented in the
Hellenic styl