"A galley! What do you mean?" "A real Liburnian galley." He immediately began to unroll his present, but suddenly aware that Amaryllis was watching him, he felt ineffable shame, became confused, and with an imploring look at the damsel, slid the ship into the basin of the fountain. "You see, Amaryllis ... it is a trireme ... a real trireme, with--with--sails ... and ... its rudder.... Look how well it gets under way!" But Amaryllis laughed heartily. "What an odd boy you are! What in the world should I do with your trireme? I fear it wouldn't take me very far. It's a ship for mice and flies. Make a present of it to Psyche; she will be delighted with it." Julian, though deeply hurt, assumed indifference, while tears choked his speech. Controlling himself, he said disdainfully, but with trembling lips-- "I see that you don't understand anything ... about art." Amaryllis laughed yet more heartily. To add insult to injury, a summons came for her to receive her betrothed, a rich merchant from Samos, who dressed badly, perfumed his person, and spoke vile grammar. Julian hated him, and when he learnt of the arrival of the Samian, the charm of the house vanished so far as he was concerned. From the neighbouring room he could hear the distracting chatter of Amaryllis and the voice of her lover. Without uttering a word, and filled with cold hatred, Julian seized his cherished trireme--the real Liburnian trireme which had cost him such endless pains--and before the startled eyes of Psyche, snapped the mast, tore down the sails, tangled the rigging, and stamped the toy into atoms with his feet. Amaryllis returned. Her face bore traces of a strange happiness, of that superfluity of life and love-joy which awakens in young girls an imperious need to embrace and to kiss those near them. "Julian ... forgive me ... I have pained you. Forgive me, dear! you know well that I love you." And before he had time to make up his mind, Amaryllis, throwing back her tunic, imprisoned his head in her fresh bare arms. A delightful dread stopped the beating of Julian's heart; he saw her great dark dewy eyes so close to him, the sweet odour of her body so overwhelmed him, and she locked him so close against her breast, that the boy grew giddy. He closed his eyes and felt a kiss long, too long, pressed upon his lips. The voice of the Samian broke the enchantment-- "Amaryllis, Amaryllis! where art thou?" Julian putting forth all his strength pushed the girl away, his heart overflowed with pain and hatred, and crying, "Let me go, let me go!" snatched himself free and fled.