there she knew not, but when she awoke from a
swoon and raised herself from the ground, the scarlet shafts of sunrise
were moving up the eastern sky, and the birds were singing from the
myrtle groves.

CHAPTER III

THE CURSE OF HECATE

The day had well-nigh lost its youth. Nika and her mother had retired to
the room called 'Golden,' because of the rich chasings of gold on its
walls of purest marble, and the threads of gold and vermilion which
interlaced in chaste design the polished floor of malachite and aqua
marine.

Across the entrance to this room hung a richly embroidered curtain, dyed
twice in Tyrian purple, which being drawn back exposed to view a
colonnade of varied beauty and richly carved, many of the carvings being
the work of Venusta's friends.

Behind the peristyle the walls were hung with beautiful pictures created
by artists long since dead, Parrhasius and Apelles, Evenor and Zeuxis;
each painting was framed with a panel of exquisite mosaic. Statuary of
rarest loveliness by Phidias, Praxiteles and Scopas, Thrason, Myron,
Pharax and Phradmon, stood between the pillars. Within the court were
fragrant flowers of every shade, and in the centre towered one grand
design in fountain form, from which came sprays of perfumed water,
hiding the sultry sky and falling back with musical rhythm into the
many-coloured marble basin. Slaves with fans of gorgeous plumage wafted
the perfumed air into the Golden Room.

In this retiring room, on a couch of citrus-wood inlaid with precious
stones and pearls, reclined Venusta. She was clothed in a linen robe of
saffron-yellow, with delicate pattern interwoven, and embroidered
borders from Phrygia and Babylon. Her face spoke plainly that the Romans
ruled the Ionians.

Close by her was Nika, standing like a beautiful dream. She was draped
in white silk from the Isle of Cos, and through this diaphanous dress
the outlines of her lovely form were seen. Around her waist circled a
zone of gems--ruby, sapphire, emerald, hyacinth, garnet, topaz, aqua
marine--blended together in magnificent confusion. A splendid opal
glinted above her brow, and her hair, like sunlight mixed with gold,
came forward shading eyes of loveliest blue, then flowed back like
rippling wavelets move towards the shore.

'Take the cithra and play one of thy sweetest melodies,' said Venusta.
'Play that soft Ionian air I heard from thee but yester eve