The greater the congeniality, the greater the attraction, she argued; but behold, was this iron Hesper, the man of all force, to be dashed and shaken by the rich loveliness of Laodice, who was simply a woman?
"Such attachments do not last," she argued hopefully.

"Such attachments make unfaithful husbands.

They are monotonous and wearisome.

She is but a mirror giving back the blaze of the sun, one-surfaced and blinding.

It is the many lights of the diamond that make it charming." She had arrived at no definite resolution when she met Laodice in the hall that led to the quarters of the artists, as the Greek went that way for her day's observation of their work.
"What an unrefreshed face!" the Greek said softly, as the light from the cancelli showed the weariness and distress that had begun to make inroads on the animation of the girl's beauty.