. But though the shadow made her face
inscrutable, the lines of her figure spoke, and not of weak timidity
or effeminate consternation. Womanly she was,--instinct with that
tender, sensitive power, the marvellous gift of God to woman only,
which almost moves the sick man to bless his sickness. A holy
gift,--surely the immediate influx of Christ's spirit. Man knows it
not, albeit when he and woman have become more closely united than
now, he may attain to share the Divine prerogative. Study nor skill
can counterfeit it; but in the true woman it is perfect at the first
appeal as at the last.

"He shall have my bed," said this young goddess Isis; "it is ready,
and my lamp is burning."

Balder stooped to uplift his insensible burden.

"O, not so!--more tenderly than that," she interposed, softly. A
moment's hesitation, and then she unfastened the golden
shoulder-clasp, and shook off her ample mantle. This was Manetho's
litter.

"I will help you carry him.--Why do you-weep, Nurse? he will awake, or
Balder would have told us."

Never, since Diana stooped to earth to love Endymion, was seen a
nobler sight than Gnulemah in her simple, clinging tunic, whose heavy
golden hem kissed her polished knee, while her round and clear-cut
arms were left bare. After the first glance, her lover lowered his
eyes, lest he should forget all else in gazing at her. But the blood
mounted silently to his cheeks and burned there. As for her,--she
trusted Balder more freely than herself.

Manetho was laid gently on the broad robe, and so upraised and borne
forwards; Balder at the head, Gnulemah at the foot. Heavy, heavy is a
lifeless body; but the man had cause to wonder at the woman's fresh
and easy strength. What a contrast was she to the disfigured creature
who hobbled moaning beside the litter, the relaxed hand clutched in
both hers, kissing it again and again with grotesque passion! Yet both
were women, and loved as women love.

The granite statues sitting serene at the doorway maintained the stony
calm which, only, deserves the name of supernatural. These passed, the
flowery heat of the dim conservatory brought them to Gnulemah's room.
The curtain was looped up and the passage clear. Thus first did the
wedded pair enter what should have been their bridal chamber, and laid
the lifeless body on the nuptial bed.

A fair, pure room; the clear walls frescoed with graceful wreaths of
floating figures. In the eastern window, through which