ht, refuge with the
stronger, when I beheld two armed men." I kissed that, bosom, so full of
prudence, threw my arms around his neck and pressed him tightly against
my breast, that he might see unmistakably that he had gotten back into my
good graces, and that our friendship lived again in perfect confidence.

CHAPTER THE NINETY-SECOND.

Night had fallen by this time, and the woman to whom I had given my order
had prepared supper, when Eumolpus knocked at the door. "How many of you
are there?" I called out, and as I spoke, I peeped cautiously through a
chink in the door to see if Ascyltos had come with him; then, as I
perceived that he was the only guest, I quickly admitted him. He threw
himself upon the pallet and caught sight of Giton, waiting table,
whereupon, he nodded his head, "I like your Ganymede," he remarked,
"this day promises a good ending!" I did not take kindly to such an
inquisitive beginning, fearing that I had let another Ascyltos into my
lodging. Eumolpus stuck to his purpose. "I like you better than the
whole bathful," he remarked, when the lad had served him with wine, then
he thirstily drained the cup dry and swore that never before had he
tasted a wine with such a satisfying tang to it. "While I was bathing,"
he went on, "I was almost beaten up for trying to recite a poem to the
people sitting around the basin, and when I had been thrown out of the
baths, just like I was out of the theatre, I hunted through every nook
and cranny of the building, calling 'Encolpius, Encolpius,' at the top of
my voice. A naked youth at the other end, who had lost his clothes, was
bawling just as loudly and no less angrily for Giton! As for myself, the
slaves took me for a maniac, and mimicked me in the most insolent manner,
but a large crowd gathered around him, clapping its hands in awe-struck
admiration, for so heavy and massive were his private parts, that you
would have thought that the man himself was but an appendage of his own
member! Oh such a man! He could do his bit all right! I haven't a
doubt but that he could begin on the day before and never finish till the
day after the next! And he soon found a friend, of course: some Roman
knight or other, I don't know his name, but he bears a bad reputation, so
they say, threw his own mantle around the wanderer and took him off home
with himself, hoping, I suppose, to have the sole enjoyment of so huge a
prize. But I couldn't get my own clothing