mains, he will
scarcely leave her, or Myrtilus either. Probably she will take both
hunting with her, for, though a kind, fair-minded woman, she loves the
chase, and as both have finished their work, they probably will not be
reluctant to go with Daphne."

He stepped into the boat as he spoke, but Ledscha again detained him,
asking impatiently: "And 'the work,' as you call it? It was covered
with a cloth when I visited the studio, but Hermon himself termed it the
statue of a goddess. Yet what it represents--Does it look like my sister
Taus--enough like her, I mean, to be recognised?"

A half-compassionate, half-mocking smile flitted over the Biamite's
copper-coloured visage, and in a tone of patronizing instruction assumed
by the better informed, he began: "You are thinking of the face? Why no,
child! What that requires can be found in the countenance of no Biamite,
hardly even in yours, the fairest of all."

"And the goddess's figure?" asked Ledscha eagerly.

"For that he first used as a model the fair-haired Heliodora, whom
he summoned from Alexandria, and as the wild cat could endure the
loneliness only a fortnight, the sisters Nico and Pagis came together.
But Tennis was too quiet for them too. The rabble can only be contented
among those of their own sort in the capital. But the great preliminary
work was already finished before we left Alexandria."

"And Gula--my sister?"

"They were not used for the Demeter," said the slave, smiling. "Just
think, that slender scarcely grown creature, Taus, and the matronly
patroness of marriage. And Gula? True, her little round face is fresh
and not ill-looking--but the model of a goddess requires something more.
That can only be obtained in Alexandria. What do not the women there do
for the care of the body! They learn it in the Aphrodision, as the boys
study reading and writing. But you! What do you here know even about
colouring the eyelids and the lips, curling the hair, and treating the
nails on the hands and feet? And the clothes! You let them hang just as
you put them on, and my master's work is full of folds and little lines
in the robe and the peplos--But I have staid too long already. Do you
really insist upon meeting Hermon again?

"I will and must see him," she eagerly declared.

"Well, then," he answered harshly. "But if you cast my warning to the
winds, pity will also fly away with it."

"I do not need it," the girl retorted in a contemptuous tone.

"Then