d. Domitian stared at her with his bleared and wicked eyes,
while a puzzled expression grew upon his face.

"Very odd!" he said, "but she seems to have changed! I thought her eyes
were blue, and that she had curling black hair. Now they are dark and
she has straight hair. Where's the necklace, too? Where's the necklace?
Pearl-Maiden, what have you done with your necklace? Yes, and why didn't
you wear the girdle I sent you to-day?"

"Sir," answered the Jewess, "I never had a necklace----"

"My lord Domitian," began Saturius with a nervous laugh, "there is a
mistake--I must explain. This girl is not Pearl-Maiden. Pearl-Maiden
fetched so great a price that it was impossible that I should buy her,
even for you----"

He stopped, for suddenly Domitian's face had become terrible. All the
drunkenness had left it, to be replaced by a mask of savage cruelty
through which glared the pale and glittering eyes. The man appeared as
he was, half satyr and half fiend.

"A mistake----" he said. "Oh! a mistake? And I have been counting on
her all these weeks, and now some other man has taken her from me--the
prince Domitian. And you--you dare to come to me with this tale, and
to bring this slut with you instead of my Pearl-Maiden----" and at the
thought he fairly sobbed in his drunken, disappointed rage. Then he
stepped back and began to clap his hands and call aloud.

Instantly slaves and guards rushed into the chamber, thinking that their
lord was threatened with some evil.

"Men," he said, "take that woman and kill her. No, it might make a stir,
as she was one of Titus's captives. Don't kill her, thrust her into the
street."

The girl was seized by the arms and dragged away.

"Oh! my lord," began Saturius.

"Silence, man, I am coming to you. Seize him, and strip him. Oh! I know
you are a freedman and a citizen of Rome. Well, soon you shall be a
citizen of Hades, I promise you. Now, bring the heavy rods and beat him
till he dies."

The dreadful order was obeyed, and for a while nothing was heard save
the sound of heavy blows and the smothered moans of the miserable
Saturius.

"Wretches," yelled the Imperial brute, "you are playing, you do not hit
hard enough. I will teach you how to hit," and snatching a rod from one
of the slaves he rushed at his prostrate chamberlain, the others drawing
back to allow their master to show his skill in flogging.

Saturius saw Domitian come, and knew that unless he could change his
purpo