Then she grasped his hand with her long, bony fingers, and placing it upon the head of the Hecate of the burning eyes, covered it with one of her own.
“Repeat after me!”
Leander repeated the oath.
“May all the gods curse me, if I reveal aught of this transaction!”
Leander turned to go.
“Thou art the first who hath entered here and not quailed! Farewell!”
Leander soon found himself again amid the crowds in the sunshine of the garden.
Was it a dream?
He thrust his hand under the secret fold of his tunic, and the phial was there.
It was now late in the afternoon, and the streets, leading from the Temple and its grounds towards the lower part of the city, were filled with groups of gay revellers on their return. There was an easy air of careless enjoyment which possessed all classes and ages. Young men and boys were waving banners or singing songs, and the flitting forms of women and girls in picturesque attire, with their ringing, playful laughter, were everywhere to be seen.