soil, I could bear thee to lands where heaven and man alike smile
benignant on love? Might I not hope then?"

"Do nothing to sully your fame."

"Is it, then, dear to thee?"

"It is a part of thee," said Cleonice falteringly; and as if she had
said too much, she covered her face with her hands.

Emboldened by this emotion, the Spartan gave way to his passion and
his joy. He clasped her in his arms--his first embrace--and kissed,
with wild fervour, the crimsoned forehead, the veiling hands. Then,
as he tore himself away, he cast his right arm aloft.

"O Hercules!" he cried, in solemn and kindling adjuration, "my
ancestor and my divine guardian, it was not by confining thy labours
to one spot of earth, that thou wert borne from thy throne of fire to
the seats of the Gods. Like thee I will spread the influence of my
arms to nations whoso glory shall be my name; and as thy sons, my
fathers, expelled from Sparta, returned thither with sword and spear
to defeat usurpers and to found the long dynasty of the Heracleids,
even so may it be mine to visit that dread abode of torturers and
spies, and to build up in the halls of the Atridae a power worthier of
the lineage of the demigod. Again the signal! Fear not, Cleonice, I
will not tarnish my fame, but I will exchange the envy of abhorring
rivals for the obedience of a world. One kiss more! Farewell!"

Ere Cleonice recovered herself, Pausanias was gone, his wild and
uncomprehended boasts still ringing in her ear. She sighed heavily,