middle of the ceiling was open to
the sky, was now rolled back, and the moon and stars looked down into
the room. It was well adapted to its purpose as a refuge from the
heat of the summer day, for the walls were lined with cool, colored
earthenware tiles, the floor was a brightly-tinted mosaic of patterns
on a ground of gold glass, and in the circular central ornament of this
artistic pavement stood the real source of freshness: a basin, two
man's length across, of brown porphyry flecked with white, from which
a fountain leaped, filling the surrounding air with misty spray. A few
stools, couches and small tables, all of cool-looking metal, formed the
sole furniture of this lofty apartment which was brilliantly lighted by
numerous lamps.

A light air blew in through the open roof and doors, made the lamps
flicker, and played with Paula's brown hair as she sat absorbed, as
it seemed, in the game. Orion, who stood behind her, had several times
endeavored to attract her attention, but in vain. He now eagerly offered
his services to fetch her a handkerchief to preserve her from a chill;
this, however, she shortly and decidedly declined, though the breeze
came up damp from the river and she had more than once drawn her peplos
more closely across her bosom.

The young man set his teeth at this fresh repulse. He did not know that
his mother had told Paula what he had yesterday agreed to, and could
not account for the girl's altered behavior. All day she had treated him
with icy coldness, had scarcely answered his questions with a distant
"Yes," or "No;" and to him, the spoilt favorite of women, this conduct
had become more and more intolerable. Yes, his mother had judged her
rightly: she allowed herself to be swayed in a most extraordinary
manner by her moods; and now even he was to feel the insolence of
her haughtiness, of which he had as yet seen nothing. This repellent
coldness bordered on rudeness and he had no mind to submit to it for
long. It was with deep vexation that he watched every turn of her hand,
every movement of her body, and the varying expression of her face; and
the more the image of this proud maiden sank into his heart the more
lovely and perfect he thought her, and the greater grew his desire to
see her smile once more, to see her again as sweetly womanly as she
had been but yesterday. Now she was like nothing so much as a splendid
marble statue, though he knew indeed that it had a soul--and what a
glo