former ones.

Yet no! If he had ever met her, he would surely have remembered her
red-gold hair and the other peculiarities of a personality which was
remarkable in every respect.

It soon proved that they were total strangers, and he wished matters to
remain so.

He was glad that she attracted him so little, for at least she would
scarcely make the early departure to the Biamite, which he considered
his duty, a difficult task.

True, he admired from the first the rare milk-white line of her delicate
skin, which was wholly free from rouge--his artist eye perceived that
and the wonderfully beautiful shape of her hands and feet. The pose of
the head on the neck, too, as she turned toward him seemed remarkably
fine. This slender, pliant woman would have been an admirable model!

Again and again she reminded him of a gay Lesbian with whom he had
caroused for a night during the last Dionysia in Alexandria, yet, on
closer inspection, the two were as different as possible.

The former had been as free and reckless in her conduct as Althea was
reserved. The hair and eyebrows of the Lesbian, instead of reddish
gold, were the deepest black, and her complexion--he remembered it
perfectly--was much darker. The resemblance probably consisted merely in
the shape of the somewhat too narrow face, with its absolutely straight
nose, and a chin which was rather too small, as well as in the sound of
the high voice.

Not a serious word had reached his ears from the wanton lips of the
Lesbian, while Althea at once desired information concerning his art,
and showed that she was thoroughly familiar with the works and the
aspirations of the Alexandrian sculptors. Although aware that Hermon had
begun his career as an artist, and was the leader of a new tendency,
she pretended to belong to the old school, and thereby irritated him to
contradiction and the explanation of his efforts, which were rooted in
the demands of the present day and the life of the flourishing capital.

The Thracian listened to the description of the new art struggling
to present truth, as if these things were welcome surprises, grand
revelations, for which she had waited with eager longing. True, she
opposed every statement hostile to the old beliefs; but her extremely
expressive features soon betrayed to him that he was stirring her to
reflect, shaking her opinions, and winning her to his side.

Already, for the sake of the good cause, he devoted himself with the