There came breathing-space. I went to her to enjoy it, as I would have gone with some intoxicating blossom to share with her its perfume,--with any band of wandering harpers, that together our ears might be delighted. I went as when, utterly weary, I had always gone and rested awhile with her I loved in the sweet old palace-garden: I had my ways, undreamed of by army or police or populace. There had I lingered, soothed at noon by the hum of the bee, at night by that spirit that scatters the dew, by the tranquillity and charm of the place, ever rested by her presence, the repose of her manner, the curve of her dropping eyelid, so that looking on her face alone gave me pleasant dreams. Now, as I entered, she threw down her work,--some handkerchief for her shoulders, perhaps, or yet a banner for those unrisen men of Rome, I said,--a white silk square on which she had wrought a hand with a gleaming sickle, reversed by tall wheat whose barbed grains bent full and ripe to the reaper, and round the margin, half-pictured, wound the wild hedge-roses of Paestum. She threw it down and came toward me in haste, and drew me through an inner apartment. "He has returned, they say," she said presently,--mentioning the Neapolitan,--"and it would be unfortunate, if you met." "Unfortunate for _him_, if we met here!" "How fearless! Yet he is subtler than the snake in Eden. I fear him as I detest him." "Why fear him?" "That I cannot tell. Some secret sign, some unspeakable intuition, assures me of injury through him." "Dearest, put it by. The strength of all these surrounding leagues with their swarm does not flow through his wrist, as it does through mine. He is more powerless than the mote in the air." "You are so confident!" she said. "How can I be anything else than confident? The very signs in the sky speak for us, and half the priests are ours, and the land itself is an oath. Look out, Lenore! Look down on these purple fields that so sweetly are taking nightfall; look on these rills that braid the landscape and sing toward the sea; see yonder the row of columns that have watched above the ruins of their temple for centuries, to wait this hour; behold the heaven, that, lucid as one dome of amethyst, darkens over us and blooms in star on star;--was ever such beauty? Ah, take this wandering wind,--was ever such sweetness? And since every inch of earth is historic,--since here rose glory to fill the world with wide renown,--since here the heroes walked, the gods came down,--since Oreads haunt the hill, and Nereïds seek the shore"-- "Whereabout do Nereïds seek the shore?" she archly asked. "Why, if you must have data," I answered, laughing, "let us say Naples." "What is that you have to say of Naples?" demanded a voice in the door-way,--and turning, I confronted the Neapolitan. She had started back at the abrupt apparition, and before she could recover, stung by rage and surprise I had replied,--