of surprise and admiration swept through the multitude. A beautiful
young girl had just entered the apartment, and stood motionless for an
instant, while all eyes were turned upon her.

Through a drapery of filmy blue gauze that veiled her head and
throat, her arched eyebrows, tiny ears, and ivory-white skin could be
distinguished. A scarf of shot-silk fell from her shoulders, and was
caught up at the waist by a girdle of fretted silver. Her full trousers,
of black silk, were embroidered in a pattern of silver mandragoras, and
as she moved forward with indolent grace, her little feet were seen to
be shod with slippers made of the feathers of humming-birds.

When she arrived in front of the pavilion she removed her veil. Behold!
she seemed to be Herodias herself, as she had appeared in the days of
her blooming youth.

Immediately the damsel began to dance before the tetrarch. Her slender
feet took dainty steps to the rhythm of a flute and a pair of Indian
bells. Her round white arms seemed ever beckoning and striving to
entice to her side some youth who was fleeing from her allurements. She
appeared to pursue him, with movements light as a butterfly; her whole
mien was like that of an inquisitive Psyche, or a floating spirit that
might at any moment dissolve and disappear.

Presently the plaintive notes of the gingras, a small flute of
Phoenician origin, replaced the tinkling bells. The attitudes of the
dancing nymph now denoted overpowering lassitude. Her bosom heaved with
sighs, and her whole being expressed profound languor, although it was
not clear whether she sighed for an absent swain or was expiring of love
in his embrace. With half-closed eyes and quivering form, she caused