who ate up one of them in the twinkling of
an eye."

No warning or persuasion, however, had any
effect on his companions. They went up to a
pair of folding doors at the farther end of the
hall, and throwing them wide open, passed into
the next room. Eurylochus, meanwhile, had
stepped behind a pillar. In the short moment
while the folding doors opened and closed again,
he caught a glimpse of a very beautiful woman
rising from the loom, and coming to meet the
poor weather-beaten wanderers, with a hospita-
ble smile, and her hand stretched out in welcome.
There were four other young women, who joined
their hands and danced merrily forward, making
gestures of obeisance to the strangers. They
were only less beautiful than the lady who
seemed to be their mistress. Yet Eurylochus
fancied that one of them had sea-green hair, and
that the close-fitting bodice of a second looked
like the bark of a tree, and that both the others
had something odd in their aspect, although he
could not quite determine what it was, in the
little while that he had to examine them.

The folding doors swung quickly back, and

[[182]]

p181 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p182w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p183

v?