Page 63 - Adventures in shadow-land

body was ringed with scarlet and gold, whose long,

slender black legs shone like polished jetj and
whose eyes were like bright-green emeralds; a

spider handsome enough to be the king of all the
spiders*

And while Eva was admiring the beautiful colors
of the inscct, Aster let go her hand, and, stooping

down, passed his finger gently over its gold and
scarlet back. Then the spider raised its head, and

looked at Eva with its bright-green eyes, which,
as Eva gazed at them, appeared to grow larger and
brighter, and dazzled her own; and then a mist

seemed to come over them, and everything began

to fade slowly away; and she never noticed how
Aster went, slowly, Dearer and nearer to the in­
sect, crouching down into the path as he did so,

nor how the spider, by degrees, began to grow
larger, and moved towards the side of the path,

till a sudden cry from Aster, “ Eva! E va! help
me I” roused her from the trance in which she

stood, in which she saw nothing but the emerald
eyes, like two gleaming lights; and then she saw

that the beautiful spider had enveloped Aster in a
large web which it had spun around him, and was