e serve--men or women, goddesses or gods; to such must we
submit and lose our will in that of the greater. Serve, then, the one
thou likest best. For myself, I think I like Diana as Hecate. She, I am
told, rules the underworld. I aspire no higher; my pinions were shorn
away, and I now grovel on the earth, and wish to worship in her bosom.'

'Of what mould art thou, Saronia? I understand thee not. I fear thee
somewhat; my soul quails before the power thou already wieldest. What
wouldst thou be with that great dark spirit of thine if thou only moved
out upon the great ocean of the Ephesian faith? Verily thou wouldst be a
bird of ill-omen to those thou didst hate. Didst thou ever love,
Saronia?'

'What is love?' said she. 'I know it not. Is it a new god?'

'Yes, girl, call it a god if thou pleasest. Call it Eros, call it Venus,
call it what thou mayest, thou wilt fall before it one day and
worship--worship madly and perchance too well. Haste thee now to thy
mistress, Nika; I have already kept thee too long.'

That night, when all were asleep, Saronia stood looking again towards
the great Temple of Artemis. Dimly could she see it by the stars. Two
great passions were arranging themselves within her bosom--not two
passions joined in common sympathy, but each one striving for itself,
and both against the great citadel of her heart. One she recognised,
that which drew her on like some great master mind beseeching her to
grasp the key and unlock the great secrets of Nature's goddess. The
other she knew not; it was a strange passion to her. It was wild,
tumultuous, and then calm as a summer's eve--like a storm which bows
down the lofty pines on Mount Coressus, and yet as gentle and melodious
as the softest Ionian music which ever broke the stillness of the
evening air. And as the maid stood there with her long tresses falling
over her graceful form, visions rose before her, visions of the future
stretching down the great highway leading into eternity, and a voice
rang through her soul, crying, 'What is love?'

And she said within herself: 'Can this strange passion be the messenger
of Eros?' A form rose before her mind like unto Chios. The great clouds
rolled up from the west, the lightnings flashed across the sky,
illuminating for a moment the great white marble Temple with its roof of
cedar and its plates of gold. The frightened, shivering girl drew her
garments tightly around her and hid her face.

How long she remained