giant appeared lying at the feet of the Philistine damsel; anon, the kingly shoulders of the swift-footed Achilles towered helplessly above the heads of the island girls.  The noble head of Marcus Antoninus bowed in disgraceful homage before his wife; the gaunt figure of the stern Florentine trembled at the footsteps of the light Beatrice; the sister of Honorius, from the throne of half the world, saluted the sister of Theodosius, grasping the sceptre of the other half in her slender fingers.  Every instance of weak compliance with the whims, of devoted subjection to the power, of destructive attention to the caprices of women by men, since Eve ruined her lord with the fatal apple, was whimsically represented by the rapid configurations of this strange vapor.

Anthrops presently discovered Haguna half reclining on a raised moss-seat, and dreamily running her white fingers through her hair, which now fell unchecked to her feet.  He had lost sight of her but a few minutes, yet in that short time a strange change had come over her.  Perhaps it was because her rippling hair, which, slightly stirred by the faint air of the cavern, rose and fell around her in long undulations, made her appear as if floating in a golden brown haze.  Perhaps it was the familiarity with which she had taken possession of the grotto, as if it had been a palace that she had expected, prepared for her reception.  But for some reason she appeared a great way off,—­no longer a simple maiden, involved with him in a woodland adventure, but a subtle enchantress, who, through all the seeming accidents of the day, had been pursuing a deep-laid plot, and now was awaiting its triumphant consummation.  She did not at first notice Anthrops as he stood in curious astonishment in the doorway; but presently, looking up, she motioned him to another place beside herself.

“This is a pleasant place to rest in for a while before we rejoin our companions,” she said; “we are fortunate in finding so pretty a spot.”

The natural tone of her frank, girlish voice somewhat dissipated Anthrops’s vague bewilderment, and he accepted the proffered seat at her side.  He for the first time looked attentively at Haguna, as he had until now been gazing at the shifting diorama behind her.  He noticed, to his surprise, a number of bright shining points, somewhat like stars, glistening in her hair, and with some hesitation inquired their nature.  Haguna laughed, a low musical laugh, yet with an indescribable impersonality in it,—­as if a spring brook had just then leaped over a little hill, and were laughing mockingly to itself at its exploit.

“They are souls,” she said.

“Dear me!” exclaimed Anthrops; “are souls no bigger than that?”

“How do you know how large they are?” laughed Haguna, beginning to weave her hair into a curiously intricate braid.  “These are but the vital germs of souls; but I hold them bound as surely by imprisoning these.”