The City of Delight

"After all," said the Greek, after a silence which said more than

words, "it is the consciousness of your own integrity which must

influence you; not what others think of you. It is not as if your

husband thought better of you than you really are."

"And you believe that I--" Laodice began and stopped, bewildered.

Amaryllis, smiling, moved toward the inner corridor of her house. At

the threshold of the arch she called back: "Please yourself, my friend," and was gone.

Laodice was, by this time, stunned and intensely repelled. The hand on

which Amaryllis had laid hers in passing tingled under the touch.

Unconsciously she shook off the sensation of contact. The whole clear

white interior of the hall became instantly unclean. Her standards of

right and wrong were shaken; the wholesale assaults on her ideals left

her shocked and unconfident. She felt the panic that all innocent

women feel when suddenly aroused to the unfitness of their

surroundings.

When she turned to hurry to her room, a flood of scarlet rushed into

her cheeks and she shrank back, shaken with surprise and delight.

Before her stood a man, pale and thin, with his eyes upon her.