white breasts it glared forth a glittering Menace; . . a warning of
unimaginable horror; and Theos, gazing at it fixedly, felt a
curious thrill run through him, as if, so to speak, a hook of
steel had been suddenly thrust into his quivering veins to draw
him steadily and securely on toward some pitfall of unknown
tortures. Then he remembered what Sah-luma had said about the
"all-reflecting Eye, the weird mirror and potent dazzler of human
sight," and wondered whether its mystical properties were such as
to compel men to involuntarily declare their inmost thoughts, for
it seemed to him that its sinister glow penetrated into the very
deepest recesses of his mind, and there discovered all the hidden
weaknesses, follies, and passions of the worst side of his nature!

He trembled and grew faint,--his dazed eyes wandered over the
dainty grace and marvel of Lysia's almost unclad loveliness with
mingled emotions of allurement and repugnance. Fascinated, yet at
the same time repelled, his soul yearned toward her as the soul of
the knight in the Lore-lei legend yearned toward the singing
Rhine-siren, whose embrace was destruction; and then.. ... he
became filled with a strange, sudden fear; fear, not for himself,
but for Sah-luma, whose ardent glance burned into her dark,
languid-lidded, amorous orbs with the lustre of flame meeting
flame--Sah-luma, whose beautiful flushed face was as that of a god
inspired, or lover triumphant. What could he do to shield and save
this so idolized friend of his?--this dear familiar for whom he
had such close and ever-increasing sympathy! Might he not possibly
guard him in some way and ward off impending danger? But what
danger? What spectral shadow of dread hovered above this brilliant
scene of high feasting and voluptuous revelry? None that he could
imagine or define, and yet he was conscious, of an omimous,