the poison cup. So he said in a voice which he strove to bring back to
earth:

"Where did you get the beautiful thing? She is of untold value, of
course you know?"

Halcyone took the marble into her hands lovingly.

"She came to me out of the night," she said. "Some day I might tell you
how--but not to-day. I must put her back again. No one knows but Cheiron
and me--and now--you--that she is in existence, and no one else must
ever know."

He did not speak; he watched her while she wrapped the head in its folds
of silk.

"Aphrodite never had so true a priestess, nor one so pure," he thought,
and a strange feeling of sadness came over him, and he thanked her
rather abruptly for showing him her treasure, and they went silently
back through Sir Timothy's rooms, and down the stair; and in the Italian
parlor he said good-by at once, and left.

The wind had got up and blew freshly in his face. There would be a gale
before morning. It suited his mood. He struck across the park, but
instead of making for the haw-haw, he turned into Cheiron's little gate.
He wanted understanding company, he wanted to talk cynical philosophy,
and he wanted the stimulus of his old master's biting wit.

But when he got there, he found Cheiron very taciturn--contributing
little more than a growl now and then, while he smoked his long pipe and