taken, she fled from room to room out into the hall.

Here she was met by the housekeeper, who took the lamp out of her hand
and was about to question her; but Katharina only screamed:

"The plague is in the house! Lock the doors!" and then rushed away, past
the leech who was coming in. With one bound she was in the chariot, and
as the horses started she wailed out to the nurse:

"The plague--they have the plague. Plotinus has taken the plague!"

The terrified woman tried to soothe her, assuring her that she must be
mistaken for such hellish fiends did not dare come near so holy a man.
But the girl vouchsafed no reply, merely desiring her to have a bath
made ready for her as soon as they should reach home.

She felt utterly shattered; on the spot where the old man's
plague-stricken hand had rested she was conscious of a heavy, hateful
pressure, and when the chariot at length drove into their own garden
something warm and heavy-something she could not shake off, still seemed
to weigh on her brain.

The windows were all dark excepting one on the ground-floor, where a
light was still visible in the room inhabited by Heliodora. A diabolical
thought flashed through her over-excited and restless mind; without
looking to the right hand or the left she obeyed the impulse and went
forward, just as she was, into her friend's sitting-room and then,
lifting a curtain, on into the bedroom. Heliodora was lying on her
couch, still suffering from a headache which had prevented her going to
visit their neighbors; at first she did not notice the late visitor who
stood by her side and bid her good evening.

A single lamp shed a dim light in the spacious room, and the young girl
had never thought their guest so lovely as she looked in that twilight.
A night wrapper of the thinnest material only half hid her beautiful
limbs. Round her flowing, fair hair, floated the subtle, hardly
perceptible perfume which always pervaded this favorite of fortune. Two
heavy plaits lay like sheeny snakes over her bosom and the white sheet.
Her face was turned upwards and was exquisitely calm and sweet; and as
she lay motionless and smiled up at Katharina, she looked like an angel
wearied in well-doing.

No man could resist the charms of this woman, and Orion had succumbed.
By her side was a lute, from which she brought the softest and most
soothing tones, and thus added to the witchery of her appearance.

Katharina's whole being was in wild revolt;