Rome; and, in comparison, the description of the poet
seemed almost vapid,--

... "One as still as death
Hollowed her hands about her lamp, for fear
Some motion of the midnight, or her breath,
Should fan out the last flicker. Rosy clear
The light oozed through her fingers o'er her face.
There was a ruined beauty hovering there
Over deep pain, and dashed with lurid grace
A waning bloom."

The room with its costly, quaint, and tasteful furniture,--the
solitary and singularly beautiful woman; the wonderful picture,
growing beneath her hand; the solemn silence, broken only by the deep,
hollow murmur of the dimpling sea that sent its shimmer in at the
window to meet the painted shimmer in a marine view framed on the
wall,--all these wove a spell about the intruder that temporarily held
him a mute captive.

The artist laid a delicate green on the stripped and scattered leaves
from a wreath of Syrian lilies lying on the marble steps of the
bridegroom's mansion, and once more she read a passage from the open
book,--

... "'Then I beheld
A shadow in the doorway. And One came
Crown'd for a feast. I could not see the Face.
The Form was not all human. As the Flame
Streamed over it, a presence took the place
With awe. He, turning, took them by the hand
And led them each up the wide stairway, and
The door closed.'"

The sound of her voice, low but clear, and burdened with a sadness
that no language could exhaust or interpret, thrilled Dr. Grey's
steady nerves as no music had ever done, and, stepping forward, he
held out his card, and said,--

"Mrs. Gerome, a painful necessity has compelled me to intrude upon
your seclusion, and I trust you will acquit me of impertinence."

Rising, she fronted him with a frown severe as that which clouded
Artemis' brow when profane eyes peered through myrtle boughs into her
sacred retreat, and the changed voice seemed thick with bristling
icicles.

"Your business must be imperative, indeed, if it warrants this
intrusion. What servant admitted you?"

"None. I came in haste, and, seeing the window open, entered without
ringing. Madam, my card will explain my errand."

"Has Dr. Grey an unpaid bill? I was not aware the servants had needed
your services; but if so, present your claim to Robert Maclean, my
agent."

"Mrs. Gerome owes me nothing, and I came here reluctantly and in
compliance with Robert Maclean's request, to infor