s her whole mood seemed to melt in
the fire of her own eloquence.

Nola hung her head, overwhelmed with shame. She was very young and the
great lady very kind and gentle. Her own simple heart, still filled with
the selfish desires of extreme youth, cried out for that same life of
ease and luxury which the beautiful lady depicted in such tempting
colours before her, whilst it shrank instinctively from the poverty, the
hard floors, the stewing-pots which awaited her in that squalid hut on
the Aventine where her mother dwelt.

She hung her head and made no reply, whilst from the group of the young
and idle sycophants who had hung on Dea Flavia's honeyed words just as
they had done round her litter a while ago, came murmurs of extravagant
adulation and well-chosen words in praise of her exquisite diction, her
marvellous pity, her every talent and virtue thus freely displayed.

Even the crowd stared open-mouthed and agape at this wonderful spectacle
of so great a lady stooping to parley with a slave.

The praefect alone remained seemingly unmoved; but the expression of
hidden wrath had once more crept into his eyes, making them look dark
and fierce and glowing with savage impotence; and his gaze had remained
fixed on the radiantly beautiful woman who stood there before him in all
the glory of her high descent, her patrician bearing, the exquisite
charm of her personality, seductive in its haughty aloofness, voluptuous
even in its disdainful calm.

Neither did Menecreta fall a victim to Dea Flavia's melodious voice. She
had listened from a respectful distance, and with the humble deference
born of years of bondage, to the honeyed words with which the great
lady deigned to cajole a girl-slave: but when Dea Flavia had finished
speaking and the chorus of admiration had died down around her, the
freedwoman, with steps which she vainly tried to render firm, approached
to the foot of the catasta and stood between the great lady and her own
child.

She placed one trembling, toil-worn hand on Nola's shoulder and said
gently:

"Nola, thou hast heard what my lady's grace hath deigned to speak. A
humble life but yet a free one awaits thee in thy mother's home on the
Aventine; a life of luxurious slavery doth my lady's grace offer thee.
She deigns to say that thou alone shalt choose thy way in life. Thou
wast born a slave, Nola, and shouldst know how to obey. Obey my lady
then. Choose thy future, Nola. The humble and free one whi