d speaking to her too long, but he would have
deemed it criminal to startle her from this attitude. So must Arachne
have stood when the goddess, in unjust anger, raised the weaver's
shuttle against the more skilful mortal; for while Ledscha's brow
frowned angrily, a triumphant smile hovered around her mouth. At the
same time she slightly opened her exquisitely formed lips, and the
little white teeth which Hermon had once thought so bewitchingly
beautiful glittered between them.

Like the astronomer who fixes his gaze and tries to imprint upon his
memory some rare star in the firmament which a cloud is threatening to
obscure, he now strove to obtain Ledscha's image. He would and could
model her in this attitude, exactly as she stood there, without her
veil, which had been torn from her during the hand-to-hand conflict when
she was captured, with her thick, half-loosened tresses falling over
her left shoulder; nav, even with the slightly hooked nose, which was
opposed to the old rule of art that permitted only the straight bridge
of the nose to be given to beautiful women. Her nature harmonized with
the ideal even in the smallest detail; here any deviation from reality
must tend to injure the work.

She remained motionless for minutes in the same attitude, as if she knew
that she was posing to an artist; but Hermon gazed at her as if spell
bound till the fettered Gaul again called her name.

Then she left the supporting pillar, approached the barrier, stopped at
the rope which extended from one short stake to another, and gazed at
the man who was following her outside of the rope.

It was a Greek who stood directly opposite to her. A black beard adorned
his grave, handsome countenance. He, too, had a chlamys, such as she had
formerly seen on another. Only the short sword, which he wore suspended
at his right side in the Hellenic fashion, would not suit that other;
but suddenly a rush of hot blood crimsoned her face. As if to save
herself from falling, she flung out both arms and clutched a stake with
her right and her left hand, thrusting her head and the upper portion of
her body across the rope toward the man whose appearance had created so
wild a tumult in her whole being.

At last she called Hermon's name in such keen suspense that it fell upon
his ear like a shrill cry.

"Ledscha," he answered warmly, extending both hands to her in sincere
sympathy; but she did not heed the movement, and her tone of calm
self-