observed Gazen.

"Oh, indeed!" responded Otāré, with pleased surprise. "Well, with us it
is a symbol of the continuous unfolding of things; the graceful progress
of development."

"So the path of evolution is the 'line of beauty,'" said the professor.

"Apparently," rejoined Otāré, "and as the ends of the curve point
oppositely, we say that a thing has not reached its final stage--that
its development is not complete--until it has turned to its opposite.
Thus man is not a finished being until hate and selfishness have turned
to love and self-sacrifice. The flower of the soul is love, and as the
sun is an emblem of the divine love, when the sacred lily opens and
displays all its beauty in the sunshine, it means to us that the flower
of the soul blooms in the smile of 'The Giver.'"

"I see," said the professor; "and what is done with the flower?"

"It is an offering," replied Otāré, "and after the Priestess of the
Lily, or Priestess of the Sun, as we call her, has shown it to the
people it will be treasured in the temple, and will never fade."

"Beautiful woman, the priestess! And so young."

"She is barely seventeen. The Priestess of the Sun Lily must be in the
flower of her age, and the early dawn of her womanhood. Every year by
the popular voice she is chosen from all the maidens of the country for
her intelligence, beauty, and goodness. For a year before the ceremony
she lives in the temple with her maidens, and never leaves the sacred