“Would that this swift alteration had concerned the direction of his art,” replied Proclus in a tone audible to her alone.

Both left the tent as he spoke, and Hermon uttered a sigh of relief as he looked after them.  She attributed the basest motives to him, and Daphne’s opinion of her was scarcely too severe.

He no longer needed to fear her power of attraction, though, now that he had seen her again, he better understood the spell which she had exerted over him.  Every movement of her lithe figure had an exquisite grace, whose charm was soothing to the artist’s eye.  Only there was something piercing in her gaze when it did not woo love, and, while making the base charge, her extremely thin lips had showed her sharp teeth in a manner that reminded him of the way the she-wolf among the King’s wild beasts in the Paneum gardens raised her lips when any one went near her cage.

Daphne was right.  Ledscha would have been infinitely better as a model for the Arachne.  Everything in this proud creature was genuine and original, which was certainly not the case with Althea.  Besides, stern austerity was as much a part of the Biamite as her hair and her hands, yet what ardent passion he had seen glow in her eyes!  The model so long sought in vain he had found in Ledscha, who in so many respects resembled Arachne.  Fool that he was to have yielded to a swift and false ebullition of feeling!

Since Myrtilus was again near him Hermon had devoted himself with fresh eagerness to his artistic task, while a voice within cried more and more loudly that the success of his new work depended entirely upon Ledscha.  He must try to regain her as a model for the Arachne!  But while pondering over the “how,” he felt a rare sense of pleasure when Daphne spoke to him or her glance met his.

At first he had devoted himself eagerly to his father’s old friends, and especially to Thyone, and had not found it quite easy to remain firm when, in her frank, kindly, cordial manner, she tried to persuade him to accompany her and the others to Pelusium.  Yet he had succeeded in refusing the worthy couple’s invitation.  But when he saw Philotas, whose resemblance to the King, his cousin, had just been mentioned by one of the officers, become more and more eager in his attentions to Daphne, and heard him also invited by Philippus to share the nocturnal voyage, he felt disturbed, and could not conceal from himself that the uneasiness which constantly obtained a greater mastery over him arose from the fear of losing his friend to the young aristocrat.

This was jealousy, and where it flamed so hotly love could scarcely be absent.  Yet, had the shaft of Eros really struck him, how was it possible that the longing to win Ledscha back stirred so strongly within him that he finally reached a resolution concerning her?

As soon as the guests left Tennis he would approach the Biamite again.  He had already whispered this intention to Myrtilus, when he heard Daphne’s companion say to Thyone, “Philotas will accompany us, and on this voyage they will plight their troth if Aphrodite’s powerful son accepts my sacrifice.”