modesty,--examines these treasures of her sex with somewhat livelier
interest. A pair of corsets chance to be upon the counter; she
inspects them curiously, but knows not what to make of them. Then
she handles a fashionable silk with dim yearnings, thoughts that
wander hither and thither, instincts groping in the dark.

"On the whole, I do not like it," she observes, laying the glossy
fabric upon the counter. "But, Adam, it is very strange. What can
these things mean? Surely I ought to know; yet they put me in a
perfect maze."

"Poh! my dear Eve, why trouble thy little head about such nonsense?"
cries Adam, in a fit of impatience. "Let us go somewhere else. But
stay; how very beautiful! My loveliest Eve, what a charm you have
imparted to that robe by merely throwing it over your shoulders!"

For Eve, with the taste that nature moulded into her composition,
has taken a remnant of exquisite silver gauze and drawn it around
her forms, with an effect that gives Adam his first idea of the
witchery of dress. He beholds his spouse in a new light and with
renewed admiration; yet is hardly reconciled to any other attire
than her own golden locks. However, emulating Eve's example, he
makes free with a mantle of blue velvet, and puts it on so
picturesquely that it might seem to have fallen from heaven upon his
stately figure. Thus garbed they go in search of new discoveries.

They next wander into a Church, not to make a display of their fine
clothes, but attracted by its spire pointing upwards to the sky,
whither they have already yearned to climb. As they enter the
portal, a clock, which it was the last earthly act of the sexton to