at.

She told her of these things, of others as well; and now and then in the
telling of them a fat little man with beady eyes would wander in, the
smell of garlic about him, and stare at Mary's lips. His name was Pappus;
by Sephorah he was treated with great respect, and Mary learned that he
was rich and knew that Sephorah was poor.

When the Passover had come and gone, Sephorah detected that Mary had
ceased to be a child; and of the gods and goddesses with whose adventures
she was wont to entertain her, gradually she confined herself to Mylitta;
and in describing the wonderlands which she knew so well, she spoke now
only of Babylon, where the great tower was, and the gardens that hung in
the air.

It was all very marvellous and beautiful, and Sephorah described it in
fitting terms. There was the Temple of the Seven Spheres, where the
priests offered incense to the Houses of the Planets, to the whole host of
heaven, and to Bel, Lord of the Sky. There was the Home of the Height, a
sheer flight of solid masonry extending vertiginously, and surmounted by
turrets of copper capped with gold. In its utmost pinnacle were a
sanctuary and a dazzling couch. There the priests said that sometimes Bel
came and rested. For the truth of that statement, however, Sephorah
declined to vouch. She had never seen him; but the hanging gardens she had
seen, long before they were demolished. She had walked in them, and she
described their loveliness, and related that they were erected to pleasure
a Persian princess whose eyes had wearied of the monotony of the
Babylonian plain.

Once when Pappus was present--and latterly he had been often there--she
passed from the gardens to the grove where the temple of Mylitta stood. At
the steps of the shrine, she declared, were white-winged lions, and
immense bulls with human heads. Within were dovecotes and cisterns, the
emblems of fecundity, and a block of stone which she did not describe.
Without, among the terebinths and evergreens, were little cabins and an
avenue bordered by cypress trees, in which men with pointed hats and long
embroidered gowns passed slowly, for there the maidens of Babylon sat,
chapleted with cords, burning bran for perfume, awaiting the will of the
first who should toss a coin in their lap and in the name of Mylitta
invite them to perform the sacred rite.

"That," said Sephorah, "is the worship Mylitta exacts." As she spoke she
drew herself up, her height increased, an un