Thomas, to give all his employer's money away to the poor: but
breaches of contract are bad foundations; and I believe, it was
not he, but St. Barbara, who overlooked the work in all the
buildings you and I care about. However that may be, it was
certainly she whom I saw in my dream with Neith. Neith was sitting
weaving, and I thought she looked sad, and threw her shuttle
slowly; and St. Barbara was standing at her side, in a stiff
little gown, all ins and outs, and angles; but so bright with
embroidery that it dazzled me whenever she moved; the train of it
was just like a heap of broken jewels, it was so stiff, and full
of corners, and so many-colored and bright. Her hair fell over her
shoulders in long, delicate waves, from under a little three
pinnacled crown, like a tower. She was asking Neith about the laws
of architecture in Egypt and Greece; and when Neith told her the
measures of the pyramids, St. Barbara said she thought they would
have been better three-cornered and when Neith told her the
measures of the Parthenon, St. Barbara said she thought it ought
to have had two transepts. But she was pleased when Neith told her
of the temple of the dew, and of the Caryan maidens bearing its
frieze: and then she thought that perhaps Neith would like to hear
what sort of temples she was building herself, in the French
valleys, and on the crags of the Rhine.
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