of cakes which he had desired her to buy, and set it down by the side
of the children's porridge, he chuckled so heartily that his fat person
shook and swayed; and he had very good reason to be happy in his way,
for Plutarch quite early in the morning, had sent a heavy purse of gold
pieces for his ivory cup, and a magnificent bunch of roses to Arsinoe;
he might give his children a treat, buy himself a solid gold fillet,
and dress Arsinoe as finely as though she were the prefect's favorite
daughter.

His vanity was gratified in every particular.

And what a splendid fellow was the slave who now--with a superbly
reverential bow-presented him with a roast chicken and who was to walk
behind him in the afternoon to the council-chamber. The tall Thessalian
who marched after the Archidikastes to the Hall of justice, carrying his
papers, was hardly grander than his "body-servant." He had bought him
yesterday at quite a low price. The well-grown Samian was scarcely
thirty years old; he could read and write and was in a position
therefore to instruct the children in these arts; nay, he could even
play the lute. His past, to be sure, was not a spotless record, and
it was for that reason that he had been sold so cheaply. He had stolen
things on several occasions; but the brands and scars which he bore upon
his person were hidden by his new chiton and Keraunus felt in himself
the power to cure him of his evil propensities.

After desiring Arsinoe to let nothing he about of any value, for their
new house-mate seemed not to be perfectly honest, he answered his
daughter's scruples by saying:

"It would be better, no doubt, that he should be as honest as the old
skeleton I gave in exchange for him, but I reflect that even if my
body-servant should make away with some of the few drachmae we carry
about with us, I need not repent of having bought him, since I got him
for many thousand drachmae less than he is worth, on account of his
thefts, while a teacher for the children would have cost more than he
can steal from us at the worst. I will lock up the gold in the chest
with my documents. It is strong and could only be opened with a
crow-bar. Besides the fellow will have left off stealing at any rate at
first, for his late master was none of the mildest and had cured him of
his pilfering I should think, once for all. It is lucky that in selling
such rascals we should be compelled to state what their faults are; if
the seller fails to