house, and
faithful guardian of its only daughter."

Semestre turned her wrinkled face towards the old man, opened her eyes
to their widest extent, and then called eagerly to Dorippe, who was
busied about the hearth, "We want to be alone!"

The girl walked slowly toward the door, and tried to conceal herself
behind the projecting pillars to listen, but Semestre saw her, rose from
her seat, and drove her out of doors with her myrtle-staff, exclaiming:

"Let no one come in till I call. Even Xanthe must not interrupt us."

"You won't stay alone, for Aphrodite and all the Loves will soon join
such a pair," cried the girl, as she sprang across the threshold,
banging the door loudly behind her.

"What did she say?" asked Semestre, looking suspiciously after the
maiden. "The vexations one has to endure from those girls, Jason, can't
be described, especially since they've grown deaf."

"Deaf?" asked the old man in astonishment.

"Yes, they scarcely understand a word correctly, and even Xanthe,
who has just reached her seventeenth year, is beginning to be hard of
hearing."

A smile flitted over Jason's face, and, raising his voice to a louder
tone, he said, flatteringly:

"Every one can't have senses as keen as yours, Semestre; have you time
to listen to me?"

The house-keeper nodded assent, leaned against the column nearest the
hearth, rested both hands on her staff, and bent forward to intimate
that she would listen attentively, and did not wish to lose a single
word.

Jason stood directly opposite, and, while thus measuring each other with
their eyes, Semestre looked like a cautious cat awaiting the attack of
the less nimble but stronger shepherd's dog.

"You know," Jason began, "that when, long ago, we two, you as nurse
and I as steward, came to this place, our present masters' fine estates
belonged undivided to their father. The gods gave the old man three
sons. The oldest, Alciphron, whom you nursed and watched through his
boyhood, went to a foreign land, became a great merchant in Messina,
and, after his father's death, received a large inheritance in gold,
silver and the city house at the port. The country estates were divided
between Protarch and Lysander. My master, as the elder of the two,
obtained the old house; yours built this new and elegant mansion.
One son, the handsome Phaon, has grown up under our roof, while yours
shelters the lovely Xanthe. My master has gone to Messina, not only
to sell our