ill-side like a vaulted way;
and glancing in, we saw far gleams of water; crossed, here and there,
by long-flung distant shadows of domes and columns. All Venice seemed
within.

From a stack of golden palm-stalks, the damsels now made torches; then
stood grouped; a sheaf of sirens in a sheaf of frame.

Illuminated, the cavern shone like a Queen of Kandy's casket: full of
dawns and sunsets.

From rocky roof to bubbling floor, it was columned with stalactites;
and galleried all round, in spiral tiers, with sparkling, coral ledges.

And now, their torches held aloft, into the water the maidens softly
glided; and each a lotus floated; while, from far above, into the air
Hautia flung her flambeau; then bounding after, in the lake, two
meteors were quenched.

Where she dived, the flambeaux clustered; and up among them, Hautia
rose; hands, full of pearls.

"Lo! Taji; all these may be had for the diving; and Beauty, Health,
Wealth, Long Life, and the Last Lost Hope of man. But through me
alone, may these be had. Dive thou, and bring up one pearl if thou
canst."

Down, down! down, down, in the clear, sparkling water, till I seemed
crystalized in the flashing heart of a diamond; but from those
bottomless depths, I uprose empty handed.

"Pearls, pearls! thy pearls! thou art fresh from the mines. Ah, Taji!
for thee, bootless deep diving. Yet to Hautia, one shallow plunge
reveals many Golcondas. But come; dive with me:--join hands--let me
show thee strange things."

"Show me that which I seek, and I will dive with thee, straight
through the world, till we come up in oceans unknown."

"Nay, nay; but join hands, and I will take thee, where thy Past shall
be forgotten; where thou wilt soon learn to love the living, not the
dead."

"Better to me, oh Hautia! all the bitterness of my buried dead, than
all the sweets of the life thou canst bestow; even, were it eternal."

CHAPTER XCI
Mardi Behind: An Ocean Before

Returned from the cave, Hautia reclined in her clematis bower,
invisible hands flinging fennel around her. And nearer, and nearer,
stole dulcet sounds dissolving my woes, as warm beams, snow. Strange
languors made me droop; once more within my inmost vault, side by
side, the Past and Yillah lay:--two bodies tranced;--while like a
rounding sun, before me Hautia magnified magnificence; and through her
fixed eyes, slowly drank up my soul.

Thus we stood:--snake and victim: life ebbing out from me, to her.