all, towerlike building close to the garden wall, whose
single inner room was designed to imitate a rock cave. The walls were
covered with tufa and stalagmites, shells, mountain crystals, and
corals, and from the lofty ceiling hung large stalactites. From one of
the walls a fountain plashed into a large shell garlanded with green
aquatic plants and tenanted by several goldfish and frogs.

The single open window resembled a cleft in the rocks, and looked out
upon the road. Blocks of stone, flung one upon another without regard to
order, formed steps from which to look out of doors.

These stairs afforded a view of the road to the city. Barbara had often
used them when watching in the dusk of evening for her lover's litter
or, at a still later hour, for the torch-bearers who preceded it.

She could already walk firmly enough to mount the few rough steps which
led to the opening in the rocks and, obeying the tameless yearning of
her heart, she rose from the arm-chair and walked as rapidly as her
feeble strength permitted toward the frigidarium.

It was more difficult to traverse the path, illumined by the hot July
sun, than she had expected; but the pealing of the bells and the roar
of the cannon continued, and now it was drowned by the fanfare of the
trumpets and the shouts of the people.

All this thundering, ringing, clashing, chiming, and cheering was
a greeting to him for the sight of whom her whole being so ardently
longed; and when, halfway down the path, she felt the need of resting on
a bench under a weeping ash, she did not obey it, but forced herself to
totter on.

Drops of perspiration covered her forehead when she entered the
frigidarium, but there the most delicious coolness greeted her. Here,
too, however, she could allow herself no rest, for the boys in the top
of the beech, and some neighbouring trees, were already shouting their
clear voices hoarse and waving caps and branches.

With trembling knees she forced herself to climb one after another of
the blocks that formed the staircase. When a slight faintness attacked
her, a stalactite afforded her support, and it passed as quickly as it
came. Now she had reached her goal. The rock on which she stood gave her
feet sufficient support, as it had done many times before.

Barbara needed a few minutes in this wonderfully cool atmosphere to
recover complete self-control. Only the wild pulsation of her heart
still caused a painful feeling; but if she was