The Labyrinth Spider 319 



wherein the passers-by are caught. Each 

 species, in this way, possesses a primary archi- 

 tectural model which is followed as a whole, in 

 spite of altered conditions. The animal knows 

 its trade thoroughly, but it does not know and 

 will never know aught else, being incapable of 

 originality. 



Now this palace of silk, when all is said, is 

 nothing more than a guard-house. Behind the 

 soft, milky opalescence of the wall glimmers 

 the egg-tabernacle, with its form vaguely sug- 

 gesting the star of some order of knighthood. 

 It is a large pocket, of a splendid dead-white, 

 isolated on every side by radiating pillars which 

 keep it motionless in the centre of the tapestry. 

 These pillars are about ten in number and are 

 slender in the middle, expanding at one end 

 into a conical capital and at the other into a 

 base of the same shape. They face one another 

 and mark the position of the vaulted corridors 

 which allow free movement in every direction 

 around the central chamber. The mother walks 

 gravely to and fro under the arches of her 

 cloisters ; she stops first here, then there ; she 

 makes a lengthy auscultation of the egg-wallet ; 



