slender
feet took dainty steps to the rhythm of a flute and a pair of Indian
bells. Her round white arms seemed ever beckoning and striving to
entice to her side some youth who was fleeing from her allurements. She
appeared to pursue him, with movements light as a butterfly; her whole
mien was like that of an inquisitive Psyche, or a floating spirit that
might at any moment dissolve and disappear.

Presently the plaintive notes of the gingras, a small flute of
Phoenician origin, replaced the tinkling bells. The attitudes of the
dancing nymph now denoted overpowering lassitude. Her bosom heaved with
sighs, and her whole being expressed profound languor, although it was
not clear whether she sighed for an absent swain or was expiring of love
in his embrace. With half-closed eyes and quivering form, she caused
mysterious undulations to flow downward over her whole body, like
rippling waves, while her face remained impassive and her twinkling feet
still moved in their intricate steps.

Vitellius compared her to Mnester, the famous pantomimist. Aulus was
overcome with faintness. The tetrarch watched her, lost in a voluptuous
reverie, and thought no more of the real Herodias. In fancy he saw her
again as she appeared when she had dwelt among the Sadducees. Then the
vision faded.

But this beautiful thing before him was no vision. The dancer was
Salome, the daughter of Herodias, who for many months her mother had
caused to be instructed in dancing, and other arts of pleasing, with
the sole idea of bringing her to Machaerus and presenting her to the
tetrarch, so that he should fall in love with her fresh young beauty
and feminine wiles. The plan had proved successful, it seemed; he was
evidently fascinated, and Herodias felt that at last she was sure of
retaining her power over him!

And now the graceful dancer appeared transported with the very delirium
of love and passion. She danced like the priestesses of India, like the
Nubians of the cataracts, or like the Bacchantes of Lydia. She whirled
about like a flower blown by the tempest. The jewels in her ears
sparkled, her swift movements made the colours of her draperies appear
to run into one another. Her arms, her feet, her clothing even, seemed
to emit streams of magnetism, that set the spectators' blood on fire.

Suddenly the thrilling chords of a harp rang through the hall, and the
throng burst into loud acclamations. All eyes were fixed on Salome, who
paused in her