re thou mayest not follow. I know
not why I speak in this manner to thee. A fire seems eating up my very
vitals, my brain whirls, and a power which possesses me bids me defy
thee, and say: "The slave Saronia is as good as thou, and the time is
not distant--yea, well within the span of this brief mortal life--when
thou shalt seek me out for help, when thou shalt call for the Sidonian,
when thou shalt beg for aid from dark Saronia!"'

* * * * *

When Venusta returned, she found her daughter lying on the citrous couch
with head buried between her beautiful hands; but oh the horror depicted
on that lovely face as she raised it and gazed into her mother's eyes!

'Thou art suffering, Nika.'

'Thou sayest truly; my whole being seems to have been lashed into a
fury, like unto when the winds of winter sweep over the moaning sea, and
break the mast from out the noble ship, scatter her cordage, sever the
silver cord of her mariners, and leave her an abandoned wreck, the sport
of every yawning wave; and after this the mockery of calm and sunny sky.
And I, too, have now the calm, and I may truly call it mockery. 'Tis a
calm of awful stillness without a ray of hope--a calm so still, so
death-like, leaden, which leaves no room for doubt that I am left alone.
The spirits of the gods have left me. I am accursed!'

'By whom art thou accursed? What meanest thou, child?'

'I have received the curse of Hecate. In what form my destiny for ill
will work out, I know not; but as surely as the dying one gasping for
breath knows his end draws nigh, so feel I the power of this great curse
upon me.'

'Nonsense, poor girl: it is some quaint fantasy of the mind.'

'Nay, mother, would it were so; then time would rid me of this frightful
living death!'

'But speak plainly, Nika; tell me all.'

'It was thus. I spoke to Saronia; I tried to win from her by honeyed
words that which thou requested her to tell me. Then did she disclose to
me her knowledge of my hate, and after other words had passed she broke
forth like a chained lion, and, snapping her chains as if they were
threads of finest silk, she defied me. Standing with hair dishevelled
and eyes aflame, I saw her face take form like unto the face of the
resplendent statue of the goddess, and I knew she was possessed of
Hecate, and I cursed before the words of dreadful meaning had passed her
lips. Then spake she words aglow with fire, which burnt into me far