ratitude and reverence upon my young soul, that it could
never unfold itself to you without reserve. I have also often heard
with discouragement the biting wit with which you mocked at all warmth
and softness of feeling; and a sharp expression about your proud and
closely-compressed mouth has always killed such feelings in me, as the
night-frost kills the first violets.'--(Well, at all events, he is
sincere!)--'But now I have found a friend--frank, warm, young, and
enthusiastic--and I feel a delight hitherto unknown to me. We are one
in heart and soul; we wander together on sunny days and moonlight
nights through the Elysian fields, and are never at a loss for winged
words. But I must soon close this letter. He is a Goth'--(that too!"
cried Cethegus, angrily)--"'and is named Totila.'"

Cethegus let drop the hand which held the letter. He said nothing. He
only shut his eyes for an instant, and then he quietly read on again:

"'And is named Totila. The day after my arrival in Neapolis, as I was
lounging through the Forum of Neptune, and admiring some statues under
the arches of a neighbouring house which had been exposed for sale by a
sculptor, there suddenly rushed at me, out of the door of this house, a
grey-haired man with a woollen apron, all over white with plaster, and
holding in his hand a pointed tool. He grasped my shoulder and shouted,
"Pollux, my Pollux! have I found thee at last!" I thought the old
fellow was mad, and said, "You mistake, old man, I am called Julius,
and come from Athens." "No," cried he; "thou art named Pollux, and come
from Olympus!" And before I knew what had happened, he had pushed me
into the house. There I gradually found out what was the matter. It was
the sculptor who had exposed the statues. In the ante-chamber stood
many half-finished works, and the sculptor explained to me that for
years he had been thinking of a group of the Dioscuri. For the Castor
he had found a charming model in a young Goth. "But in vain," he
continued, "have I prayed to Heaven for an inspiration for my Pollux.
He must resemble the Castor; like him, a brother of Helena and a son of
Jupiter. Complete similarity of feature and form must be there, and yet
the difference must be as apparent as the resemblance; they must each
be completely individual. In vain I sought in all the baths and
gymnasiums of Neapolis. I could not find the Leda-twin. And now a
god--Jupiter himself--has led thee to my door! It struck me like