"Why have I been brought here?"

"You are too idle in the forest," Lycabetta answered, "and so you are sent here to be apprenticed to my trade."

Perpetua moved a little nearer to her, questioning her with eyes and speech.

"What is your trade?"

Lycabetta turned to the bronze image of Venus and held out her hands to it.

"The oldest in the world. We were busy before Babylon was built or Troy burned. We shall be busy till the world grows gray."

Perpetua repeated her question.

"Speak plainly. What is your trade?"

Lycabetta answered her frankly.

"The trade of love. We sell smiles and kisses and sweet hours, and men buy them gladly, even at the price of their souls."

"I know you now," Perpetua said, crossing herself. "Though I dwell with innocence upon the heights, I am not ignorant of the world's depths. I know you now, and God knows I pity you. Let me go."

Lycabetta shook her head.

"Why should you pity me? You should rather envy me. I am the joy of life. I grasp and clasp all pleasures, heedless of the passing hour. I make the most of our little summer, our fleeting sunlight. To drink, to love, to laugh is the swallow flight of my soul. You shall be as wise as I am and as happy."

"Have you no fear of God?" Perpetua asked, in sad curiosity. Brought face to face with sin, her soul felt its pity stronger than its horror.

Lycabetta laughed, and her laughter sounded to Perpetua like the music of birds in a magic wood.

"I fear nothing but old age. Chilling kisses, the death of desire, the sands that overwhelm the altar of youth, the dying lights and fading garlands of life's waning feast--these things I fear, but these things are not yet for you or for me, and when they come there is always the hemlock."

"You speak despair," Perpetua insisted, eager with the eagerness of untainted youth. "I answer with God's mercy that can cleanse and save you. You are the Strange Woman--but you are a woman, born of a woman, made to bear the burden of women. Woman to woman, let me go."

"I love you too well to lose you," Lycabetta retorted. "You dream too much. I shall take great joy in teaching you realities. You do not know the value of your violet freshness. You will make a sweet priestess of love."

Perpetua thrust out her hands as if to ward off her enemy, while she cried:

"You are the Strange Woman! Were you a devil, do you think you could ever make me like you?"

Lycabetta nodded ominously.

"I will conquer your mad maidenhood, I promise you, and when you sleep in silk and shine in splendor you will thank me devoutly. Already your cheek flushes gratitude."

The girl's cheeks were flushed, but her eyes were unchanged in defiance as she answered:

"Your words sting me like blows, and my face flames at them. But you are not so wise as you think, if you hope to tempt me or terrify me."

Lycabetta watched her, catlike.

"Torture may change your mind, as shame shall change your body."

Perpetua crossed herself again.

"Nothing that you can do to me will change my soul. That I will carry with me pure to heaven."

"You may long for death ere I have done with you," Lycabetta whispered, sourly. She would have said more, but her speech was interrupted by the sudden entrance of Lysidice through the curtained portal. Lycabetta questioned her, frowning.

"Why do you come here?"

Lysidice answered, hurriedly:

"There is one outside muffled like oblivion, whose command is to see you in the King's name."

Lycabetta gave a cry of joy.

"It is the King! Admit him. Wait!" She turned to Perpetua. "You shall have leisure, my woodfinch, to grow wise in. School yourself into submission ere I send for you again."

Perpetua folded her arms across her breast.

"I am as changeless as the sun," she said, proudly.

"The sun sets," Lycabetta sneered.

"Ay," Perpetua answered, "to rise again in heaven."

Chafing at the girl's obstinacy, Lycabetta clapped her hands and the black slaves entered.

"Take her away," she commanded, pointing to Perpetua.

Zal and Rustum seized Perpetua, who, knowing herself powerless, offered no vain resistance, and drew her through the curtained space behind the statue of Venus, and thence to a more distant room, in which they left her in darkness and alone.

The darkness was full of strange perfumes--full of strange sounds. To a child of the mountains, bred in the perfect mountain air, the heavy odors of the House of Pleasure were nauseating, almost insupportable.

Below in the garden a woman's voice sang softly in Sicilian the song of the "Two-and-Twenty Subtle Caresses." Women listened to it and laughed, for the only sounds that floated up were the sounds of women's voices.

Perpetua put her hands over her ears and shuddered. She had come to womanhood sanely, sweetly, innocent, not ignorant, and she knew that the world of the valley was not the world of the hill. But it hurt her to the heart that any world could make such use of women, and she knew the fate that was meant to wait for her in the hateful place. But she knew no fear, not even the fear of death. She prayed once and no more; she was not one to weary Heaven with vain repetition. Then she waited in patience for the moment when she should hear again the footsteps outside the fastened door.

IX

THE LILY OF SICILY

As soon as Perpetua was withdrawn, Lycabetta turned to Lysidice.

"Entreat the King to enter," she commanded. To her surprise Lysidice made no move, but stood staring at Lycabetta with bright eyes of wonder.

"Why do you linger?" Lycabetta shrilled at her minion. The slight child answered, timidly:

"Daughter of the gods, I am amazed."