s the 'necklace of Venus'; that white nape on
whose alabaster surface little wild rebellious curls were disporting
and entwining themselves; those silver shoulders, half rising from the
opening of the chlamys, like the moon's disc emerging from an opaque
cloud. Candaules, half reclining upon his cushions, gazed with fondness
upon his wife, and thought to himself: 'Now Gyges, who is so cold, so
difficult to please, and so sceptical, must be already half convinced.'

Opening a little coffer which stood on a table supported by one leg
terminating in carven lion's paws, the queen freed her beautiful arms
from the weight of the bracelets and jewellery wherewith they had been
overburdened during the day--arms whose form and whiteness might well
have enabled them to compare with those of Hera, sister and wife of
Zeus, the lord of Olympus. Precious as were her jewels, they were
assuredly not worth the spots which they concealed, and had Nyssia been
a coquette, one might have well supposed that she only donned them
in order that she should be entreated to take them off. The rings and
chased work had left upon her skin, fine and tender as the interior pulp
of a lily, light rosy imprints, which she soon dissipated by rubbing
them with her little taper-fingered hand, all rounded and slender at its
extremities.

Then with the movement of a dove trembling in the snow of its feathers,
she shook her hair, which being no longer held by the golden pins,
rolled down in languid spirals like hyacinth flowers over her back
and bosom. Thus she remained for a few moments ere reassembling the
scattered curls and finally re-uniting them into one mass. It was
marvellous to watch the blond ringlets streaming like jets of liquid
gold between the silver of her fingers; and her arms undulating like
swans' necks as they were arched above her head in the act of twisting
and confining the natural bullion. If you have ever by chance examined
one of those beautiful Etruscan vases with red figures on a black
ground, and decorated with one of those subjects which are designated
under the title of 'Greek Toilette,' then you will have some idea of the
grace of Nyssia in that attitude which, from the age of antiquity to our
own era, has furnished such a multitude of happy designs for painters
and statuaries.

Having thus arranged her coiffure, she seated herself upon the edge
of the ivory footstool and commenced to untie the little bands which
fastened her