hen
(to Leon, who wishes to withdraw). No! no! Remain. Have pity on me.

Leon.--May God have pity on us both. (He goes away.)

Jadwiga.--It is done!

A Servant (entering).--Count Skorzewski!

Jadwiga.--Ha! Show him in! Show him in! Ha! ha! ha!

PART FOURTH

THE VERDICT

Apollo and Hermes once met toward evening on the rocks of Pnyx and
were looking on Athens.

The evening was charming; the sun was already rolled from the
Archipelago toward the Ionian Sea and had begun to slowly sink its
radiant head in the water which shone turquoise-like. But the summits
of Hymettus and Pentelicus were yet beaming as if melted gold had been
poured over them, and the evening twilight was in the sky. In its
light the whole Acropolis was drowned. The white walls of Propyleos,
Parthenon, and Erechtheum seemed pink and as light as though the
marble had lost all its weight, or as if they were apparitions of a
dream. The point of the spear of the gigantic Athena Promathos shone
in the twilight like a lighted torch over Attica.

In the space hawks were flying toward their nests in the rocks, to
pass the night.

The people returned in crowds from work in the fields. On the road
to Piraeus, mules and donkeys carried baskets full of olives and
wine-grapes; behind them, in the red cloud of dust, marched herds of
nannygoats, before each herd there was a white-bearded buck; on the
sides, watchdogs; in the rear, shepherds, playing flutes of thin
oat-stems.

Among the herds chariots slowly passed, carrying holly barlet, pulled
by slow, heavy oxen; here and there passed a detachment of Hoplites or
heavy armed troops, corseleted in copper, going to guard Piraeus and
Athens during the night.

Beneath, the city was full of animation. Around the big fountain at
Poikile, young girls in white dresses drew water, singing, laughing,
or defending themselves from the boys, who threw over them fetters
made of ivy and wild vine. The others, having already drawn the water,
with the amphorae poised on their shoulders, were turned homeward,
light and graceful as immortal nymphs.

A light breeze blowing from the Attic valley carried to the ears of
the two gods the sounds of laughter, singing, kissing. Apollo, in
whose eyes nothing under the sun was fairer than a woman, turned to
Hermes and said:

"O Maya's son, how beautiful are the Athenian women!"

"And virtuous too, my Radiant," answered Hermes; "they are under
Pallas' tutelage."