ht, until the
slender, athletic form of the young man had vanished behind the trees.
"How does he know my prayer?" she whispered softly, "and why did he smile
as he repeated it? Ah! surely Cousin Ludovicka has told him what a timid
little coward I was last night. But hark! Hulda is lowing. Yes, yes, I am
coming now!"

And the little girl flew across the grassplot, and flung both her arms
around the animal's neck, and stroked and coaxed it, calling it pet names,
and telling it of its beautiful calf, to which she would forthwith carry
some milk. And the cow lowed no more, but looked with its big intelligent
eyes into the child's face.

V.--MEDIA NOCTE.

"The gods have come down from Olympus! The gods greet the earth! They
greet beauty! They greet youth! They greet wisdom and the arts! The gods
greet the earth! Long live the gods! Live Venus, the mother of love! Long
live Minerva, the unapproachable virgin, full of wisdom! Long live Zeus,
the god of gods, men transformed into gods, and gods into men! Olympus
live on earth!"

So sang they and rejoiced in triumphant chorus, and high above from the
clouds pealed forth music, and from thicket and shrubbery sounded sweet
songs, dying away in gentle whispers. Then all was still, for the gods,
who had traversed the halls in dazzling procession, had now taken their
places at the long rose-crowned tables. An Olympic festival was being
solemnized that evening in the Media Nocte. Earth was forsaken now, and
the children of earth found themselves again on Olympus, changed to gods.
Those were not the drawing rooms in which they had been wont to assemble,
commingling in cheerful pastimes, in hilarious merriment, these people
clad in light Greek robes. No, this was cloud-capped Olympus, this was
heaven upon earth; rose-colored, luminous clouds encircled the space, and
behind them the galleries which ran round the hall had vanished. Instead
of the ceiling usually bounding this vast room, they now looked up to the
deep blue sky, and star after star twinkled there, and filled the
apartment with soft mild light. And not in a hall furnished with chairs
and divans did they find themselves this evening, but in a monstrous
grotto in the heart of Olympus--a grotto of sparkling, glittering mountain
crystal, bright and transparent as silver gauze, and behind this a magical
moving to and fro of beauteous human shapes, of genii and Cupids. Only the
long table in the middle of the grotto r