centre of the room. This young woman had draped herself in a long
parti-colored shawl and she held a tambourine in her hand. There was in
her eyes a look of fear, as of one conscious of an impending
misfortune. As I gazed she danced more and more wildly. The man
standing by the porcelain stove was apparently making suggestions, to
which she paid no heed. At last her hair broke loose and fell over her
shoulders; and even this she did not notice, going on with her dancing
as though it were a matter of life and death. Then one of the doors
opened and another woman stood on the threshold. The man at the piano
ceased playing and left the instrument. The dancer paused unwillingly,
and looked pleadingly up into the face of the younger man as he came
forward and put his arm around her.

And then once more the light died away and I found myself peering into
a void blackness. This time, though I waited long, there were no
crackling sparks announcing another inexplicable vision. I peered
intently into the stand, but I saw nothing. At last I raised my head
and looked about me. Then on the hangings over another of the four
stands, over the one opposite to that into which I had been looking,
there appeared another message, the letters melting one into another in
lines of liquid light; and this told me that in the other stand I
could, if I chose, gaze upon combats as memorable as the delectable
dances I had been beholding.

I made no hesitation, but crossed the room and took my place before the
other stand and began at once to look through the projecting
eye-pieces. No sooner had I taken this position than the dots of fire
darted across the depth into which I was gazing; and then there came a
full clear light as of a cloudless sky, and I saw the walls of an
ancient city. At the gates of the city there stood a young man, and
toward him there ran a warrior, brandishing a spear, while the bronze
of his helmet and his armor gleamed in the sunlight. And trembling
seized the young man and he fled in fear; and the warrior darted after
him, trusting in his swift feet. Valiant was the flier, but far
mightier he who fleetingly pursued him. At last the young man took
heart and made a stand against the warrior. They faced each other in
light. The warrior hurled his spear and it went over the young man's
head. And the young man then hurled his spear in turn and it struck
fair upon the centre of the warrior's shield. Then the young man drew
his s