ending is Thamar’s way with her victim. The final pounce one awaits as inevitable: the interval is filled with the exquisite agony of suspense. Embodiment of action in arrest is Queen Thamar as, for a brief moment, she regards the figure of the unsuspecting stranger. Then, loosing suddenly her restraint, she springs upon him, and reaching up a slender arm with eager fingers tears the bandage from his face. Fiercely she scans him: he is fair to see. So, too, is Thamar, and if in that swift interchange of searching looks the wild blood courses more hotly through the siren’s veins, be sure that passion scarce a whit less fiery kindles in the youth, so strangely and suddenly confronted by the glowing, sinister beauty of the Queen. At a sign from Thamar attendants come forward to relieve the stranger of his travelling gear. Disengaging herself from his grasp, the Queen retires to a table at the side, on which stands a wine cup and flagon. From the background she watches avidly while her women are busy. The stranger’s cloak and high-crowned hat are removed, and he stands revealed--handsome, well-favoured, a very proper figure of a man. He gazes about him rapt in admiration and delight, but ere he can espy again the figure of the arch enchantress, a group of dancing girls advances and encircles him. The graceful measures which they tread distract his attention as he stands, pleased and diverted, in their midst. The bevy of girls gives way to a more potent allurement. Thamar herself, darting forward, now begins a dance of fascination before the stranger’s eager eyes. With her first lithe movements she asserts her mastery over his enraptured senses. As the moth round the flame of the candle, he hovers on the outskirts of her mazy dance, the reviving blood within him gaining warmth as he feasts his quickening senses on her beauty and grace. [Illustration] As Thamar continues to dance, so increasingly wavers the young man’s hold upon himself. She saps his power of restraint to the very verge; then on a sudden interrupts the dance, and runs to the table. Ere the stranger can collect himself she is before him, offering with regal courtesy a brimming wine cup. He hesitates to drink, but held by the fascination of her eye he suffers her to lead him, unresisting, to the couch. As they gain the steps of the divan a troupe of dancers enters. Musicians, with quaint stringed instruments, are already seated along the walls, and forthwith, a joyous revel is begun.