tors with a blanched and girlish hand, feeling with a mincing
gripe their great brawn and iron muscles, all lost in calculating
admiration at that manhood which he had spent his life in carefully
banishing from himself.

So have we seen at this day the beardless flutterers of the saloons of
London thronging round the heroes of the Fives-court--so have we seen
them admire, and gaze, and calculate a bet--so have we seen them meet
together, in ludicrous yet in melancholy assemblage, the two extremes of
civilized society--the patrons of pleasure and its slaves--vilest of all
slaves--at once ferocious and mercenary; male prostitutes, who sell
their strength as women their beauty; beasts in act, but baser than
beasts in motive, for the last, at least, do not mangle themselves for
money!

'Ha! Niger, how will you fight?' said Lepidus: 'and with whom?'

'Sporus challenges me,' said the grim giant; 'we shall fight to the
death, I hope.'

'Ah! to be sure,' grunted Sporus, with a twinkle of his small eye.

'He takes the sword, I the net and the trident: it will be rare sport. I
hope the survivor will have enough to keep up the dignity of the crown.'

'Never fear, we'll fill the purse, my Hector,' said Clodius:

'let me see--you fight against Niger? Glaucus, a bet--I back Niger.'

'I told you so,' cried Niger exultingly. 'The noble Clodius knows me;
count yourself dead already, my Sporus.'

Clodius took out his tablet. 'A bet--ten sestertia. What say you?'

'So be it,' said Glaucus. 'But whom have we here? I never saw this
hero before'; and he glanced at Lydon, whose limbs were slighter than
those of his companions, and who had something of grace, and something
even of nobleness, in his face, which his profession had not yet wholly
destroyed.

'It is Lydon, a youngster, practised only with the wooden sword as yet,'
answered Niger, condescendingly. 'But he has the true blood in him, and
has challenged Tetraides.'

'He challenged me,' said Lydon: 'I accept the offer.'

'And how do you fight?' asked Lepidus. 'Chut, my boy, wait a while
before you contend with Tetraides.' Lydon smiled disdainfully.

'Is he a citizen or a slave?' said Clodius.

'A citizen--we are all citizens here,' quoth Niger.

'Stretch out your arm, my Lydon,' said Lepidus, with the air of a
connoisseur.

The gladiator, with a significant glance at his companions, extended an
arm which, if not so huge in its girth as those of his comrades,