She pointed towards the east. Her companion gazed in that direction,
and uttered an exclamation,--almost a shout,--of wonder and
admiration. Within the space of the past few minutes the aspect of
the heavens had completely changed. The burning scarlet and violet
hues had all melted into a transparent yet brilliant shade of pale
mauve,--as delicate as the inner tint of a lilac blossom,--and
across this stretched two wing-shaped gossamer clouds of watery
green, fringed with soft primrose. Between these cloud-wings, as
opaline in lustre as those of a dragon-fly, the face of the sun
shone like a shield of polished gold, while his rays, piercing
spear-like through the varied tints of emerald, brought an unearthly
radiance over the landscape--a lustre as though the moon were, in
some strange way, battling with the sun for mastery over the visible
universe though, looking southward, she could dimly be perceived,
the ghost of herself--a poor, fainting, pallid goddess,--a perishing
Diana.

Bringing his glance down from the skies, the young man turned it to
the face of the maiden near him, and was startled at her marvellous
beauty--beauty now heightened by the effect of the changeful colors
that played around her. The very boat in which she sat glittered
with a bronze-like, metallic brightness as it heaved gently to and
fro on the silvery green water; the midnight sunshine bathed the
falling glory of her long hair, till each thick tress, each
clustering curl, appeared to emit an amber spark of light. The
strange, weird effect of the sky seemed to have stolen into her
eyes, making them shine with witch-like brilliancy,--the varied
radiance flashing about her brought into strong relief the pureness
of her profile, drawing as with a fine pencil the outlines of her