y the
wind, had fallen like a rain of dust upon a land in ruins.

Following an old guard, they climbed the blue, tiled steps of the
temple of Neptune. Above, within four rows of columns, was the real
sanctuary, the _cella_. Their footsteps on the tiled flags, separated
by deep cracks filled with grass, awoke all the animal world that was
drowsing there in the sun.

These actual inhabitants of the city,--enormous lizards with green
backs covered with black warts,--ran in all directions. In their flight
they scurried blindly over the feet of the visitors. The doctor raised
her skirts in order to avoid them, at the same time breaking into
nervous laughter to hide her terror.

Suddenly Freya gave a cry, pointing to the base of the ancient altar.
An ebony-hued snake, his sides dotted with red spots, was slowly and
solemnly uncoiling his circles upon the stones. The sailor raised his
cane, but before he could strike he felt his arm grasped by two nervous
hands. Freya was throwing herself upon him with a pallid face and eyes
dilated with fear and entreaty.

"No, Captain!... Leave it alone!"

Ulysses thrilled upon feeling the contact of her firm, curving bosom
and noting her respiration, her warm breath charged with distant
perfume. It would have suited him if she had remained in this position
a long time, but Freya freed herself in order to advance toward the
reptile, coaxing it and holding out her hands to it as though she were
trying to caress a domestic animal. The black tail of the serpent was
just slipping away and disappearing between two square tiles. The
doctor who had fled down the steps at this apparition, by her repeated
calls, obliged Freya also to descend.

The captain's aggressive attitude awoke in his companion a nervous
animosity. She believed she knew this reptile. It was undoubtedly the
divinity of the dead temple that had changed its form in order to live
among the ruins. This serpent must be twenty centuries old. If it had
not been for Ferragut she would have been able to have taken it up in
her hands.... She would have spoken to it.... She was accustomed to
converse with others....

Ulysses was about to express his doubts rudely as to the mental
equilibrium of the exasperated widow when the doctor interrupted them.
She was contemplating the swampy plains of acanthus and ferns trembling
under the shrill chirping of the cicadas, and this spectacle of green
desolation made her recall the roses of Pae