der--an Arachne that is worth looking at. But this
strange beauty is one of the most obstinate of her sex, and if I let her
carry out her bold visit in broad daylight she will get the better of
me completely. The blood must first be washed from my hands here. The
wounded sea eagle tore the skin with its claw, and I concealed the
scratch from Daphne. A strip of linen to bandage it! Meanwhile, let
the impatient intruder learn that her sign is not enough to open every
door."

Then he entered his sitting room, greeted Ledscha curtly, invited her to
go into the studio, unlocked it, and left her there alone while he
went to his chamber with the slave and had the slight wound bandaged
comfortably.

While Bias was helping his master he repeated with sincere anxiety his
warning against the dangerous beauty whose eyebrows, which had grown
together, proved that she was possessed by the demons of the nether
world.

"Yet they increase the austere beauty of her face," assented the artist.
"I should not want to omit them in modelling Arachne while the goddess
is transforming her into a spider! What a subject! A bolder one was
scarcely ever attempted and, like you, I already see before me the
coming spider."

Then, without the slightest haste, he exchanged the huntsman's chiton
for the white chlamys, which was extremely becoming to his long, waving
beard, and at last, exclaiming gaily, "If I stay any longer, she will
transform herself into empty air instead of the spider," he went to her.

CHAPTER VIII.

While waiting in the studio Ledscha had used the time to satisfy her
curiosity.

What was there not to be seen!

On pedestals and upon the boards of the floor, on boxes, racks, and
along the wall, stood, lay, or hung the greatest variety of articles:
plaster casts of human limbs and parts of the bodies of animals, male
and female, of clay and wax, withered garlands, all sorts of sculptor's
tools, a ladder, vases, cups and jars for wine and water, a frame over
which linen and soft woollen materials were spread, a lute and a zither,
several seats, an armchair, and in one corner a small table with three
dilapidated book rolls, writing tablets, metal styluses, and reed pens.

All these articles were arranged haphazard, and showed that Bias
possessed more wisdom than care in the use of duster and broom.

It would have been difficult to count the number of things brought
together here, but the unusually long, wide room was