end of her being, although she pretends to assume the most varied duties
and perform many parts in life, while really the poor puppet has nothing
on earth to do. Upon my word, I am satirical unawares, and seem to be
describing nine women out of ten in the person of my lay-figure. For
most purposes she has the advantage of the sisterhood. Would I were like
her!"

"How it changes her aspect," exclaimed Donatello, "to know that she is
but a jointed figure! When my eyes first fell upon her, I thought her
arms moved, as if beckoning me to help her in some direful peril."

"Are you often troubled with such sinister freaks of fancy?" asked
Miriam. "I should not have supposed it."

"To tell you the truth, dearest signorina," answered the young Italian,
"I am apt to be fearful in old, gloomy houses, and in the dark. I love
no dark or dusky corners, except it be in a grotto, or among the thick
green leaves of an arbor, or in some nook of the woods, such as I know
many in the neighborhood of my home. Even there, if a stray sunbeam
steal in, the shadow is all the better for its cheerful glimmer."

"Yes; you are a Faun, you know," said the fair artist, laughing at the
remembrance of the scene of the day before. "But the world is sadly
changed nowadays; grievously changed, poor Donatello, since those happy
times when your race used to dwell in the Arcadian woods, playing hide
and seek with the nymphs in grottoes and nooks of shrubbery. You have
reappeared on earth some centuries too late."

"I do not understand you now," answered Donatello, looking perplexed;
"only, signorina, I am glad to have my lifetime while you live; and