We ascended a flight of stairs thickly carpeted, and bordered on each side by tropical ferns and flowers, placed in exquisitely painted china pots and vases.  I heard the distant singing of many birds mingled with the ripple and plash of waters.  We reached a landing where the afterglow of the set sun streamed through a high oriel window of richly stained glass.  Turning towards the left, Heliobas drew aside the folds of some azure satin hangings, and calling in a low voice “Zara!” motioned me to enter.  I stepped into a spacious and lofty apartment where the light seemed to soften and merge into many shades of opaline radiance and delicacy—­a room the beauty of which would at any other time have astonished and delighted me, but which now appeared as nothing beside the surpassing loveliness of the woman who occupied it.  Never shall I behold again any face or form so divinely beautiful!  She was about the medium height of women, but her small finely-shaped head was set upon so slender and proud a throat that she appeared taller than she actually was.  Her figure was most exquisitely rounded and proportioned, and she came across the room to give me greeting with a sort of gliding graceful movement, like that of a stately swan floating on calm sunlit water.  Her complexion was transparently clear—­most purely white, most delicately rosy, Her eyes—­large, luminous and dark as night, fringed with long silky black lashes—­ looked like

    “Fairy lakes, where tender thoughts
     Swam softly to and fro.”

Her rich black hair was arranged a la Marguerite, and hung down in one long loose thick braid that nearly reached the end of her dress, and she was attired in a robe of deep old gold Indian silk as soft as cashmere, which was gathered in round her waist by an antique belt of curious jewel-work, in which rubies and turquoises seemed to be thickly studded.  On her bosom shone a strange gem, the colour and form of which I could not determine.  It was never the same for two minutes together.  It glowed with many various hues—­now bright crimson, now lightning-blue, sometimes deepening into a rich purple or tawny orange.  Its lustre was intense, almost dazzling to the eye.  Its beautiful wearer gave me welcome with a radiant smile and a few cordial words, and drawing me by the hand to the low couch she had just vacated, made me sit down beside her.  Heliobas had disappeared.

“And so,” said Zara—­how soft and full of music was her voice!—­“so you are one of Casimir’s patients?  I cannot help considering that you are fortunate in this, for I know my brother’s power.  If he says he will cure you, you may be sure he means it.  And you are already better, are you not?”

“Much better,” I said, looking earnestly into the lovely star-like eyes that regarded me with such interest and friendliness.  “Indeed, to-day I have felt so well, that I cannot realize ever having been ill.”