nerally passes his summer with us. There is little stirring
in the ocean at that season.' 'I am anxious to see Mars.'

'Oh! a brute, more a bully than a hero. Not at all in the best set.
These mustachioed gentry are by no means the rage at present in Olympus.
The women are all literary now, and Minerva has quite eclipsed Venus.
Apollo is our hero. You must read his last work.'

'I hate reading.'

'So do I. I have no time, and seldom do anything in that way but glance
at a newspaper. Study and action will not combine.'

'I suppose I shall find the Goddesses very proud?'

'You will find them as you find women below, of different dispositions
with the same object. Venus is a flirt; Minerva a prude, who fancies she
has a correct taste and a strong mind; and Juno a politician. As for the
rest, faint heart never won fair lady; take a friendly hint, and do not
be alarmed.'

'I fear nothing. My mind mounts with my fortunes. We are above the
clouds. They form beneath us a vast and snowy region, dim and irregular,
as I have sometimes seen them clustering upon the horizon's ridge at
sunset, like a raging sea stilled by some sudden supernatural frost
and frozen into form! How bright the air above us, and how delicate
its fragrant breath! I scarcely breathe, and yet my pulses beat like
my first youth. I hardly feel my being. A splendour falls upon your
presence. You seem, indeed, a God! Am I so glorious? This, this is
Heaven!'

The travellers landed on a vast flight of sparkling steps of
lapis-lazuli. Ascending, they entered beautiful gardens; winding
walks that yielded to the feet, and accelerated your passage by their
rebounding pressure; fragrant shrubs covered with dazzling flowers, the
fleeting tints of which changed every moment; groups of tall trees, with
strange birds of brilliant and variegated plumage, singing and reposing
in their sheeny foliage, and fountains of perfumes.

Before them rose an illimitable and golden palace, with high spreading
domes of pearl, and long windows of crystal. Around the huge portal of
ruby was ranged a company of winged genii, who smiled on Mercury as he
passed them with his charge.

'The Father of Gods and men is dressing,' said the son of Maia. 'I shall
attend his toilet and inform him of your arrival. These are your rooms.
Dinner will be ready in half an hour. I will call for you as I go down.
You can be formally presented in the evening. At that time, inspired by
liqueurs and hi