so make full disclosure.
But now, as, almost unconsciously to himself, Sergius spoke of her
baffled hopes and vaguely hinted at her altered position toward
himself--a change of which he believed her to be yet ignorant--her fount
of mercy became instantly scaled up, and her nearly melted heart again
turned to flint. Yes, she had almost forgotten her new destiny. But now
at once appeared before her, with all the vividness of reality, the
banquet hall, ringing with the shrill laughter of the heated revellers,
as, with the dice box, they decided her future fate. Like a flash the
softened smile fled from her face, leaving only cold, vindictive
defiance pictured there. And as Sergius, who had been led on from
utterance to utterance by the increasing signs of compassion he read in
her, saw the sudden and unaccountable change, he paused, in mingled
wonderment and dismay; and, with the conviction that his hopes had
failed him, he put off, in turn, his own softened mien, and glaring back
defiance upon her, prepared for desperate struggle.

'You speak of my new ownership--of the actor Bassus?' she exclaimed.

'You know it, then?' cried he. 'You have played the spy upon us?'

'Know it?' she repeated. 'When, in your wild revelling, your raised
voices told me how heedlessly you were bringing ruin upon yourself with
the dice, would I have been anything but a fool not to have remembered
that I, too, being your property, might pass away with the rest? Was it
not fit, then, that I should have stolen to the screen and listened? You
thought to keep it secret, perhaps, until Bassus should send to take me
away from here; for you imagined that I might attempt escape. But you do
not know me yet. Am I a child, to kick and scream, and waste my strength
in unavailing strife against a fate that, in my heart, I feel must
sooner or later be submitted to? Not long ago--it matters not how or
when--I could have avoided it all, but would not. Now that I have
sacrificed that chance, I will go to my doom with a smile upon my lips,
whatever heaviness may be in my heart; for, having chosen my path, I
will not shrink from following it. Thus much for myself. And as for you,
who have tossed me one side to the first poor brute who has begged for
me, and even at this instant have taunted me with the story of baffled
hopes, does it seem becoming in you to appeal longer to me, as you have
done, for comfort?'

No answer; but in the angry, heated glare with which