Imagmary Co7i versa tion. 1 7 Thelymnia wore a dress like ours, and acceded to every advice of Critolaus, excepting that she would not consent so readily to entwine her head with ivy. At first she objected that there was not enough of it for alL Instantly two or three of us pulled down (for nothing is more brittle) a vast quantity from the rock, which loosened some stones, and brought down together with them a bird's nest of the last year. Then she said, / dare not use this ivy : the omen is a had one. Do you mean the nest., Thelymnia f said Critolaus. A^o, not the nest so much as the stones^ replied she, fal- tering. Ah ! those signify the dogmas of Euthymedes^ which you, my lovely Thelymnia^ are to loosen and throw down. At this she smiled faintly and briefly, and began to break off some of the more glossy leaves ; and we who stood around her were ready to take them and place them in her hair; when suddenly she held them tighter, and lett her hand drop. On her lover's asking her why she hesitated, she blushed deeply, and said, Phoroneus told me I look best in myrtle. Innocent and simple and most sweet (I remember) was her voice, and when she had spoken the traces of it were remaining on her lips. Her beautiful throat itself changed colour ; it seemed to undulate ; and the roseate predominated in its pearly hue. Phoroneus had been her admirer : she gave the preference to Critolaus : yet the name of Phoroneus at that moment had greater effect upon him than the re- collection of his defeat. Thelymnia recovered herself sooner. We ran wherever we saw myrtles, and there were many about, and she took a part of her coronal from every one of us, smiling on each ; but it was only of Critolaus that she asked if he thought that myrtle became her best. Phoroneus^ answered he, not without melancholy, is infallible as Paris. There was some- thing in the tint of the tender sprays resembling that of the hair they encircled: the blossoms too were white as her fore- head. She reminded me of those ancient fables which repre- sent the favorites of the gods as turning into plants; so ac- cordant and identified was her beauty with the flowers and foliage she had chosen to adorn it. Vol. II. No. 4. C
