. The sorceress of Rome. 306 THE MEETING abstracted state of mind, the tincertainty of the times and thecrowded state of the city, the host of the Mermaid only de-manded a sum equal to five times the customary charge, whichOtto paid without remonstrance, whereupon the worthy hostof the Mermaid called to witness all the saints of the calendar,that he deserved to spend the remainder of his life in a pig-sty,for having been so moderate in his reckoning. As one walking in a dream. Otto returned to his palace onthe Aventine. Had he wavered in the morning, had the dic-tates of reason still ventured
. The sorceress of Rome. 306 THE MEETING abstracted state of mind, the tincertainty of the times and thecrowded state of the city, the host of the Mermaid only de-manded a sum equal to five times the customary charge, whichOtto paid without remonstrance, whereupon the worthy hostof the Mermaid called to witness all the saints of the calendar,that he deserved to spend the remainder of his life in a pig-sty,for having been so moderate in his reckoning. As one walking in a dream. Otto returned to his palace onthe Aventine. Had he wavered in the morning, had the dic-tates of reason still ventured to assert themselves ?— the pasthour had silenced them for ever. Before his gaze floated theimage of her who had passed him in the BasiUca. At thethought of her he could hear the beating of his own — the dominion of the earth — with that one to shareit — delirium of ecstasy! Would it ever be realized! Thenindeed the dream of an earthly paradise would be no merefable! 207 CHAPTER II THE QUEEN OF NIGHT. WEEK had passed since Ottosarrival in Rome. Eckhardt,wrapped in his own dark fancies,had only appeared at the palaceon the Aventine when com-pelled to do so in the course ofhis newly resumed duties. Theterrible presentiment which hadhaunted him night and daysince he left the gray, bleakwinter skies of his native land, had become intensified duringthe past days. Day and night he brooded over the terriblefascination of those eyes which had laid their spell upon him,over the amazing resemblance of the apparition to the onelong dead in her grave. And the more he pondered the heaviergrew his heart within him, and vainly he groped for a ray oflight upon his dark and lonely path, vainly for a guiding handto conduct him from the labyrinth of doubt and fear. It had been a warm and sultry day. Towards eveningdark clouds had risen over the Tyrrhene Sea and spread in longheavy banks across the azure of the sky. Sudden squalls ofrain swept down at short intervals, driving th
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