rmilion on her lips gave additional whiteness to her teeth,
and the antimony on her eyelids greater length to her eyes. Her sandals,
which were cut out in bird's plumage, had very high heels, and she was
extraordinarily pale, doubtless on account of the cold.

At last she came close to Hamilcar, and without looking at him, without
raising her head to him:

"Greeting, eye of Baalim, eternal glory! triumph! leisure! satisfaction!
riches! Long has my heart been sad and the house drooping. But the
returning master is like reviving Tammouz; and beneath your gaze, O
father, joyfulness and a new existence will everywhere prevail!"

And taking from Taanach's hands a little oblong vase wherein smoked a
mixture of meal, butter, cardamom, and wine: "Drink freely," said she,
"of the returning cup, which your servant has prepared!"

He replied: "A blessing upon you!" and he mechanically grasped the
golden vase which she held out to him.

He scanned her, however, with such harsh attention, that Salammbo was
troubled and stammered out:

"They have told you, O Master!"

"Yes! I know!" said Hamilcar in a low voice.

Was this a confession, or was she speaking of the Barbarians? And he
added a few vague words upon the public embarrassments which he hoped by
his sole efforts to clear away.

"O father!" exclaimed Salammbo, "you will not obliterate what is
irreparable!"

Then he drew back and Salammbo was astonished at his amazement; for she
was not thinking of Carthage but of the sacrilege in which she found
herself implicated. This man, who made legions tremble and whom she
hardly knew, terrified her like a god; he had guessed, he knew all,
something awful was about to happen. "Pardon!" she cried.

Hamilcar slowly bowed his head.

Although she wished to accuse herself she dared not open her lips; and
yet she felt stifled with the need of complaining and being comforted.
Hamilcar was struggling against a longing to break his oath. He kept it
out of pride or from the dread of putting an end to his uncertainty; and
he looked into her face with all his might so as to lay hold on what she
kept concealed at the bottom of her heart.

By degrees the panting Salammbo, crushed by such heavy looks, let her
head sink below her shoulders. He was now sure that she had erred in
the embrace of a Barbarian; he shuddered and raised both his fists. She
uttered a shriek and fell down among her women, who crowded around her.

Hamilcar turned o