ectators supposed that she would
again use a cloth; but, instead of asking anything more from the
assistants, she cast aside even the peplos that covered her shoulders.

Now, almost lean in her slenderness, she stood with downcast eyes; but
suddenly she loosed the double chain, adorned with flashing gems, from
her neck, the circlets from her upper arms and wrists, and, lastly, even
the diadem, a gift bestowed by her relative, Queen Arsinoe, from her
narrow brow.

The female slaves received them, and then with swift movements Althea
divided her thick long tresses of red hair into narrower strands, which
she flung over her back, bosom, and shoulders.

Next, as if delirious, she threw her head so far on one side that it
almost touched her left shoulder, and stared wildly upward toward the
right, at the same time raising her bare arms so high that they extended
far above her head.

It was again her purpose to present the appearance of defending herself
against a viewless power, yet she was wholly unlike the Niobe whom she
had formerly personated, for not only anguish, horror, and defiance,
but deep despair and inexpressible astonishment were portrayed by her
features, which obediently expressed the slightest emotion.

Something unprecedented, incomprehensible even to herself, was
occurring, and to Ledscha, who watched her with an expectation as
passionate as if her own weal and woe depended upon Althea's every
movement, it seemed as if an unintelligible marvel was happening before
her eyes, and a still greater one was impending; for was the woman up
there really a woman like herself and the others whose eyes were now
fixed upon the hated actress no less intently than her own?

Did her keen senses deceive her, or was not what was occurring actually
a mysterious transformation?

As Althea stood there, her delicate arms seemed to have lengthened and
lost even their slight roundness, her figure to have become even more
slender and incorporeal, and how strangely her thin fingers spread
apart! How stiffly the strands of the parted, wholly uncurled locks
stood out in the air!

Did it not seem as if they were to help her move?

The black shadow which Althea's figure and limbs cast upon the surface
of the brightly lighted pedestal-no, it was no deception, it not only
resembled the spinner among insects, it presented the exact picture of a
spider.

The Greek's slender body had contracted, her delicate arms and narrow
bra