vanished door was a window, the sight of which came suddenly before me
like a celestial vision. Sunshine, wind, cloud and rain had evidently
inspired the artist who designed it, but I did not at the time
understand the meaning of the symbolic figures appearing in the picture.
Below, with loosened dark golden-red hair and amber-colored garments
fluttering in the wind, stood a graceful female figure on the summit of
a gray rock; over the rock, and as high as her knees, slanted the thin
branches of some mountain shrub, the strong wind even now stripping them
of their remaining yellow and russet leaves, whirling them aloft and
away. Round the woman's head was a garland of ivy leaves, and she was
gazing aloft with expectant face, stretching up her arms, as if to
implore or receive some precious gift from the sky. Above, against the
slaty-gray cloud-wrack, four exquisite slender girl-forms appeared, with
loose hair, silver-gray drapery and gauzy wings as of ephemerae, flying
in pursuit of the cloud. Each carried a quantity of flowers, shaped like
lilies, in her dress, held up with the left hand; one carried red
lilies, another yellow, the third violet, and the last blue; and the
gauzy wings and drapery of each was also touched in places with the same
hue as the flowers she carried. Looking back in their flight they were
all with the disengaged hand throwing down lilies to the standing
figure.

This lovely window gave a fresh charm to the whole apartment, while the
sunlight falling through it served also to reveal other beauties which I
had not observed. One that quickly drew and absorbed my attention was a
piece of statuary on the floor at some distance from me, and going to it
I stood for some time gazing on it in the greatest delight. It was a
statue about one-third the size of life, of a young woman seated on a
white bull with golden horns. She had a graceful figure and beautiful
countenance; the face, arms and feet were alabaster, the flesh tinted,