“You are welcome, Paphnutius, you who profess the Christian faith.  I myself have some respect of a religion that has now become imperial.  The divine Constantine has placed your co-religionists in the front rank of the friends of the empire.  Latin wisdom ought, in fact, to admit your Christ into our pantheon.  It was a maxim of our forefathers that there was something divine in every god.  But no more of that.  Let us drink and enjoy ourselves while there is yet time.”

Old Cotta spoke tranquilly.  He had just studied a new model for a galley, and had finished the sixth book of his history of the Carthaginians.  He felt sure he had not lost his day, and was satisfied with himself and the gods.

“Paphnutius,” he added, “you see here several men who are worthy to be loved—­Hermodorus, the High Priest of Serapis; the philosophers Dorion, Nicias, and Zenothemis; the poet Callicrates; young Chereas and young Aristobulus, both sons of dear old comrades; and near them Philina and Drosea, who deserve to be praised for their beauty.”

Nicias embraced Paphnutius, and whispered in his ear—­

“I warned you, brother, that Venus was powerful.  It is her gentle force that has brought you here in spite of yourself.  Listen:  you are a man full of piety, but if you do not confess that she is the mother of the gods, your ruin is certain.  Do you know that the old mathematician, Melanthes, used to say, ’I cannot demonstrate the properties of a triangle without the aid of Venus’?”

Dorion, who had for some seconds been looking at the new-comer, suddenly clapped his hands and uttered a cry of surprise.

“It is he, friends!  His look, his beard, his tunic—­it is he himself!  I met him at the theatre whilst our Thais was acting.  He was furiously excited, and spoke with violence, as I can testify.  He is an honest man, but he will abuse us all; his eloquence is terrible.  If Marcus is the Plato of the Christians, Paphnutius is the Demosthenes.  Epicurus, in his little garden, never heard the like.”

Philina and Drosea, however, devoured Thais with their eyes.  She wore on her fair hair a wreath of pale violets, each flower of which recalled, in a paler hue, the colour of her eyes, so that the flowers looked like softened glances, and the eyes like sparkling flowers.  It was the peculiar gift of this woman; on her everything lived, and was soul and harmony.  Her robe, which was of mauve spangled with silver, trailed in long folds with a grace that was almost melancholy and was not relieved by either bracelets or necklaces.  The chief charm of her appearance was her beautiful bare arms.  The two friends were obliged to admire, in spite of themselves the robe and head-dress of Thais, though they said nothing to her on the subject.

“How beautiful you are!” said Philina.  “You could not have been more so when you came to Alexandria.  Yet my mother, who remembers seeing you then, says there were few women who were worthy to be compared with you.”