'

'She set one, but I broke away.'

'You have a stout leg, then. But where are you, where are you? Is it
Hebe? It can hardly be Diana, she is so cold. Is it a Muse, or is it one
of the Graces?'

Ixion again shook his head.

'Come, my dear fellow,' said Cupid, quite in a confidential tone, 'you
have told enough to make further reserve mere affectation. Ease your
heart at once, and if I can assist you, depend upon my exertions.'

'Beneficent God!' exclaimed Ixion, 'if I ever return to Larissa, the
brightest temple in Greece shall hail thee for its inspiring deity. I
address thee with all the confiding frankness of a devoted votary. Know,
then, the heroine of my reverie was no less a personage than the Queen
of Heaven herself!'

'Juno! by all that is sacred!' shouted Cupid. 'I am here,' responded
a voice of majestic melody. The stately form of the Queen of Heaven
advanced from a neighbouring bower. Ixion stood with his eyes fixed
upon the ground, with a throbbing heart and burning cheeks. Juno stood
motionless, pale, and astounded. The God of Love burst into excessive
laughter.

[Illustration: page28]

'A pretty pair!' he exclaimed, fluttering between both, and laughing
in their faces. 'Truly a pretty pair! Well! I see I am in your way.
Good-bye!' And so saying, the God pulled a couple of arrows from his
quiver, and with the rapidity of lightning shot one in the respective
breasts of the Queen of Heaven and the King of Thessaly.

The amethystine twilight of Olympus died away. The stars blazed with
tints of every hue. Ixion and Juno returned to the palace. She leant
upon his arm; her eyes were fixed upon the ground; they were in sight of
the gorgeous pile, and yet she had not spoken. Ixion, too, was silent,
and gazed with abstraction upon the glowing sky.

Suddenly, when within a hundred yards of the portal, Juno stopped, and
looking up into the face of Ixion with an irresistible smile, she
said, 'I am sure you cannot now refuse to tell me what the Queen of
Mesopotamia's peacock's tail was made of!'

'It is impossible now,' said Ixion. 'Know, then, beautiful Goddess, that
the tail of the Queen of Mesopotamia's peacock was made of some plumage
she had stolen from the wings of Cupid.'

'And what was the reason that prevented you from telling me before?'

'Because, beautiful Juno, I am the most discreet of men, and respect the
secret of a lady, however trifling.'

'I am glad to hear that,' replied Juno, and