Arlington, pointing down stream.

"I suppose you are right. The _Western Navigator_ locates the spot
somewhere about here. But beware of illusions, my friend. I begin to
doubt the testimony of my senses. Perhaps yonder prospect is a mirage,
and Byle was only a goblin of the mind. This interminable river is
enchanted. I sympathize with La Salle's conviction that the Ohio runs
to Cathay. Maybe we have sailed round the globe and are now in sight
of the Indies. Or we have come to Arabia. Does not the vision resemble
some Mohammedan Isle of the Blest--one of the happy seats reserved
for blameless souls such as yours and mine? I shall expect to discover
the rivers of clarified honey, the couches adorned with gold, and the
damsels having complexions like rubies and pearls, as the Koran
promises."

Arlington laughingly replied in the same extravagant vein.

"Colonel, you have eaten of the insane root. This island belongs to
the Hesperides, not to the East. The best luck we can hope for is to
steal one or two golden apples."

"That may prove a risky adventure even for a bold Virginian. If there
is a dragon to slay I leave the bloody business to you. I stick to my
Oriental paradise."

"Very well; golden apples for me and pearl-ruby damsels for you. But I
am scandalized that a Puritan Senator permits himself to dream of
Mohammed's heaven, and its honey and houri felicities."

"Mr. Arlington, you are the first and only anchorite that Virginia has
produced. You will grant that it is in character for a Senator to pay
his _devoirs_ to a sultana. Something too much of this. See there over
the willows; that must be the house."

They both gazed forward, and caught glimpses of the secluded mansion,
gleaming, snow-white, through forest vistas. Burke Pierce, who knew
the private wharf, steered to the landing, and the boat was moored
fast to a huge sycamore tree.

The travellers disembarked, and following a path which wound among
mazes of shrubbery and early blooming flowers, came to the
semicircular plot of green sward fronting the piazza.

"The place _is_ marvellously beautiful!" remarked Arlington.

"A new Garden of Eden!" answered the other.

On approaching the main entrance, they heard, within, the twangling
music of a harp.

The hall door was decorated with a large, bronze knocker of curious
design. A tap of the falling hammer on its metallic plate, brought to
the threshold a jet-black maid-servant wearing a gaudy turba