e princess, and
the rosy hue which its red fabric cast on her face reminded him of the
_Horae_ that precede the sun-god's chariot at dawn, their forms glowing
with purple and rose-coloured tints in the morning light.

"I am very glad I happened to meet you," said Blanka, speaking more
sedately this time. "The party I came with is down below listening to
an archaeological lecture on the _cunei_, the _podium_, the _vomitorium_,
and heaven knows what all, in which I am not interested. So I have time
to discuss with you, if you will let me, a point which you raised the
other day and which I have been puzzling over ever since. You said that
where you used to live revenge is unknown; and that, though you were
suffering under a grievous injury and had the means to exact full
satisfaction, yet you would not take your revenge. I too am suffering in
the same manner, and that is why I am now in Rome. I have pondered your
words and have imitated your example. Possessing the means of revenge, I
refused to use them. I loosed my enemy's hands when they were bound. Did
I do well?"

"Yes."

"No, I did not. I should have taken my revenge. Revenge is man's right."

"Revenge is the brute's right," Manasseh corrected her. "It never
repairs an injury that has once been done. In this I and the handful of
my fellow-believers differ from mankind in general. In our eyes war is
revenge, the duel is revenge, capital punishment is revenge, revolution
is revenge. Those who profess themselves followers of Jesus too often
forget that when he was dying on the cross he said, 'Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do.'"

"That was said by Jesus the man; but Jesus the God has ascended into
heaven, whence he will come to judge the quick and the dead. And that is
revenge."

"That conception of the Judgment is one that I cannot entertain,"
returned Manasseh. "Man has made a god of the noblest of men, and has
made him like those earlier divinities who slew Niobe's innocent
children with their arrows."

Blanka was sitting so far back on the stone railing that the artist felt
obliged to warn her of her danger.

"Oh, I am protected by guardian angels," she replied, lightly. She
wished to learn whether one of those angels was then before her. "I
received this morning an anonymous letter," she continued, "and as it
contains certain facts which only you could know, my first thought was
that you had written it."

"I assure you, I have never w