dedicating it to Venus, the mother of Love.

"It was found," I explained, "in the ruins of the temple, somewhere on
the site of your studio: so, at least, the man said from whom I bought
it."

Waldemar looked at it long. "So," he said, "this little cavity was to
burn the incense in; or rather, I suppose, since it has two little
gutters running into it, for collecting the blood of the victim? Well,
well! they were wiser in that day, to wring the neck of a pigeon or
burn a pinch of incense than to eat their own hearts out, as we do, all
along of Dame Venus;" and he laughed, and left me with that odd
ferocious lighting-up of his face. Presently there came a knock at my
door. It was Waldemar. "Doctor," he said very quietly, "will you do
me a favor? Lend me your little Venus altar--only for a few days, only
till the day after tomorrow. I want to copy the design of it for the
pedestal of my statue: it is appropriate." I sent the altar to him: the
lad who carried it told me that Waldemar had set it up in the studio,
and calling for a flask of wine, poured out two glasses. One he had
given to my messenger for his pains; of the other he had drunk a
mouthful, and thrown the rest over the altar, saying some unknown
words. "It must be some German habit," said my servant. What odd
fancies this man has!

_July 25_.

You ask me, dearest Excellency, to send you some sheets of my book: you
want to know what I have discovered. Alas! dear Donna Evelina, I have
discovered, I fear, that there is nothing to discover; that Apollo was
never in Styria; that Chaucer, when he called the Queen of the Fairies