“We have nothing, so I cannot know of it,” cried the girl beside herself.

“Indeed!” drawled Keraunus with an embarrassed smile.  “And is that nothing which lies in the cup board there, and stands on the cornice shelf?  For your sakes I will part with these—­the onyx fibula, the rings, the golden chaplet, and the girdle of course.”

“They are of mere silver-gilt!” Selene interrupted, ruthlessly.  “All my grandfather’s real gold you parted with when my mother died.”

“She had to be cremated and buried as was due to our rank,” answered Keraunus; “but I will not think now of those melancholy days.”

“Nay, do think of them, father.”

“Silence!  All that belongs to my own adornment of course I cannot do without, for I must be prepared to meet Caesar in a dress befitting my rank; but the little bronze Eros there must be worth something, Plutarch’s ivory cup, which is beautifully carved, and above all, that picture; its former possessor was convinced that it had been painted by Apelles himself herein Alexandria.  You shall know at once what these little things are worth, for, as the gods vouchsafed, on my way home I met, here in the palace, Gabinius of Nicaea, the dealer in such objects.  He promised me that when he had done his business with the architect he would come to me to inspect my treasures, and to pay money down for anything that might suit him.  If my Apelles pleases him, he will give ten talents for that alone, and if he buys it for only the half or even the tenth of that sum, I will make you enjoy yourself for once, Selene.”

“We will see,” said the pale girl, shrugging her shoulders, and her sister exclaimed: 

“Show him the sword too, that you always declared belonged to Caesar, and if he gives you a good sum for it you will buy me a gold bracelet.”

“And Selene shall have one, too.  But I have the very slenderest hopes of the sword, for a connoisseur would hardly pronounce it genuine.  But I have other things, many others.  Hark! that is Gabinius, no doubt.  Quick, Selene, throw the chiton round me again.  My chaplet, Arsinoe.  A well-to-do man always gets a higher price than a poor one.  I have ordered the slave to await him in the ante-room; it is always done in the best houses.”

The curiosity dealer was a small, lean man, who, by prudence and good luck, had raised himself to be one of the most esteemed of his class and a rich man.  Having matured his knowledge by industry, and experience, he knew better than any man how to distinguish what was good from what was indifferent or bad, what was genuine from what was spurious.  No one had a keener eye; but he was abrupt in his dealings with those from whom he had nothing to gain.  In circumstances where there was profit in view, he could, to be sure, be polite even to subservience and show inexhaustible patience.  He commanded himself so far as to listen with an air of conviction to the steward as he told