eyes, she pretended to be asleep in
order to have the pleasure of being cared for by her darling.

Towards noon she dismissed the Magian and allowed herself a short
interval of rest and sleep; but as soon as she woke she collected her
wits, and set to work again with fresh zeal and diligence. When, at
last, she had mastered all the signs and omens, she knew for certain
that nothing could avert the awful doom foretold by the oracles of old.

The fall of Serapis and the end of the world were at hand.

The Magian covered his head as he saw, plainly demonstrated, how she had
reached this conclusion, and he groaned in sincere terror; she, however,
dismissed him with perfect equanimity, handing him her purse, which she
had filled in the morning, and saying:

"To last till the end."

The sun was now long past the meridian and the old woman, quite worn
out, threw herself back in her chair and desired Gorgo to let no one
disturb her; nay, not to return herself till she was sent for. As soon
as Damia was alone she gazed at herself in a mirror for some little
time, murmuring the seven vocables incessantly while she did so; and
then she fixed her eyes intently on the sky. These strange proceedings
were directed to a particular end, she was endeavoring to close her
senses to the external world, to become blind, deaf, and impervious to
everything material--the polluting burthen which divided her divine and
spiritual part from the celestia fount whence it was derived; to set her
soul free from its earthly shroud--free to gaze on the god that was its
father. She had already more than once nearly attained to this state by
long fasting and resolute abstraction and once, in a moment she could
never forget, had enjoyed the dizzy ecstasy of feeling herself float,
as it were through infinite space, like a cloud, bathed in glorious
radiance. The fatigue that had been gradually over powering her now
seconded her efforts; she soon felt slight tremor; a cold sweat broke
out all over her; she lost all consciousness of her limbs, and all sense
of sighs and hearing; a fresher and cooler air seemed to revive not her
lungs only, but every part of her body, while undulating rays of red and
violet light danced before her eyes. Was not their strange radiance
an emanation from the eternal glory that she sought? Was not some
mysterious power uplifting her, bearing her towards the highest goal?
Was her soul already free from the bondage of the flesh? H