race, half with
confusion.

"Many things, but I will have none of them," she answered.

"Now but thou art a strange girl!" cried Paula. "Here thou hast a lover,
on fire with love for thee, as all the world may see, and thou wilt
avail thyself nothing of him. By the girdle of Venus! Had I such a lover
pursuing me, I'd lead him such a dance that when I did yield he'd swear
there was no goddess in heaven like me, and the beckon of my finger
would be his command."

"Thou, Paula!" Gratia scoffed, and shook the peacock fan at her. "Thou
who hast more lovers than fingers on thy hands--"

"Ay, but truly none quite like Varia's here. Whom can you name so
strong, so masterful, so--well, so all that a girl would have? Varia, I
am jealous! Why chose he thee instead of me?"

"That were easy to tell," Nigidia murmured over the end of the peplus
she held. But Varia did not hear.

"I would that he had!" she said seriously, so that Gratia hugged her in
a gale of laughter. "I do not wish to be pursued, as you say."

"Now did ever woman wish that before!" cried Julia. "Even though we act
perforce as though we did not. But I will say, cara, that thou hast
succeeded very well with him. For it needs practice to treat a man with
icy disdain when all the while thou art secretly longing that he will be
bold and dare thy displeasure. When a girl knows how to tell a man that
he must not, but he may if he will, her education is complete."

"I do not understand," Varia said slowly, and flushed again. "I am very
stupid; but--may, if he will, do what?"

"Nay, never put such fancies in this innocent's head!" cried Gratia, in
a protest only half serious. "She will learn soon enough without thy
teaching."

Nigidia left the ivory casket and came and sat on a footstool at Varia's
feet, looking up at her with black eyes alight with raillery.

"Tell us, cara," she said, "dost love him very much, this so masterful
lover of thine?"

"Nay," said Varia, in all seriousness. "I love him not at all."

At once they fluttered around her, exchanging glances.

"Why, how may that be? Tell us of it! How did he woo thee? What did he
say and do?"

Varia, laughing because they laughed, considered a moment, her head on
one side.

"As thou sayest, he is strong and very masterful," she said. "How did he
woo me? Why, as ever a man wooes a maid, I suppose."

"You suppose?" said Nigidia, sweetly, with a glance at the others. "Do
you not know? Has none sough