‘Let me go with thee, noble Julia,’ said she at length; ’my presence is no protection, but I should like to be beside thee to the last.’

‘Thine offer pleases me much,’ replied the daughter of Diomed.  ’Yet how canst thou contrive it? we may not return until late, they will miss thee.’

‘Ione is indulgent,’ replied Nydia.  ’If thou wilt permit me to sleep beneath thy roof, I will say that thou, an early patroness and friend, hast invited me to pass the day with thee, and sing thee my Thessalian songs; her courtesy will readily grant to thee so light a boon.’

‘Nay, ask for thyself!’ said the haughty Julia.  ’I stoop to request no favor from the Neapolitan!’

’Well, be it so.  I will take my leave now; make my request, which I know will be readily granted, and return shortly.’

‘Do so; and thy bed shall be prepared in my own chamber.’  With that, Nydia left the fair Pompeian.

On her way back to Ione she was met by the chariot of Glaucus, on whose fiery and curveting steeds was riveted the gaze of the crowded street.

He kindly stopped for a moment to speak to the flower-girl.

’Blooming as thine own roses, my gentle Nydia! and how is thy fair mistress?—­recovered, I trust, from the effects of the storm?’

‘I have not seen her this morning,’ answered Nydia, ‘but...’

‘But what? draw back—­the horses are too near thee.’

’But think you Ione will permit me to pass the day with Julia, the daughter of Diomed?—­She wishes it, and was kind to me when I had few friends.’

’The gods bless thy grateful heart!  I will answer for Ione’s permission.’

‘Then I may stay over the night, and return to-morrow?’ said Nydia, shrinking from the praise she so little merited.

’As thou and fair Julia please.  Commend me to her; and hark ye, Nydia, when thou hearest her speak, note the contrast of her voice with that of the silver-toned Ione.  Vale!’

His spirits entirely recovered from the effect of the past night, his locks waving in the wind, his joyous and elastic heart bounding with every spring of his Parthian steeds, a very prototype of his country’s god, full of youth and of love—­Glaucus was borne rapidly to his mistress.

Enjoy while ye may the present—­who can read the future?

As the evening darkened, Julia, reclined within her litter, which was capacious enough also to admit her blind companion, took her way to the rural baths indicated by Arbaces.  To her natural levity of disposition, her enterprise brought less of terror than of pleasurable excitement; above all, she glowed at the thought of her coming triumph over the hated Neapolitan.

A small but gay group was collected round the door of the villa, as her litter passed by it to the private entrance of the baths appropriated to the women.

‘Methinks, by this dim light,’ said one of the bystanders, ’I recognize the slaves of Diomed.’