Panathenaea affected me less deeply."

After a few moments of serious silence, she continued: "I saw it last
night, for the first time since my childhood; for you know I was very
ill when the festival was last celebrated. It was truly a beautiful and
majestic scene! The virgins all clothed in white; the heifers decorated
with garlands; the venerable old men bearing branches of olive; the
glittering chariots; the noble white horses, obeying the curb with such
proud impatience; the consecrated image of Pallas carried aloft on its
bed of flowers; the sacred ship blazing with gems and gold; all moving
in the light of a thousand torches! Then the music, so loud and
harmonious! It seemed as if all Athens joined in the mighty sound. I
distinguished you in the procession; and I almost envied you the
privilege of embroidering the sacred peplus, and being six long months
in the service of Pallas Athenae. I have had so much to say since you
returned, and Phidias has so many guests, that I have found little time
to ask concerning the magnificent sights you saw within the Acropolis."

"The night would wear away, ere I could describe all I witnessed within
the walls of the Parthenon alone," rejoined her companion: "There is the
silver-footed throne, on which Xerxes sat, while he watched the battle
of Salamis; the scimitar of Mardonius, captured at Plataeae; a beautiful
ivory Persephone, on a pedestal of pure gold; and a Methymnean lyre,
said to have belonged to Terpander himself, who you know was the first
that used seven strings. Victorious wreaths, coins, rings, and goblets
of shining gold, are there without number; and Persian couches, and
Egyptian sphynxes, and--",

"What do you find so interesting beyond the walls?" asked Eudora,
smiling at the earnestness with which her friend gazed in the distance:"