o Eunice.

"Hast thou received the lashes?"

She cast herself at his feet a second time, pressed the border of his
toga to her lips, and said,--"Oh, yes, lord, I have received them! Oh,
yes, lord!" In her voice were heard, as it were, joy and gratitude. It
was clear that she looked on the lashes as a substitute for her removal
from the house, and that now she might stay there. Petronius, who
understood this, wondered at the passionate resistance of the girl; but
he was too deeply versed in human nature not to know that love alone
could call forth such resistance.

"Dost thou love some one in this house?" asked he.

She raised her blue, tearful eyes to him, and answered, in a voice so
low that it was hardly possible to hear her,--"Yes, lord."

And with those eyes, with that golden hair thrown back, with fear
and hope in her face, she was so beautiful, she looked at him so
entreatingly, that Petronius, who, as a philosopher, had proclaimed the
might of love, and who, as a man of aesthetic nature, had given homage to
all beauty, felt for her a certain species of compassion.

"Whom of those dost thou love?" inquired he, indicating the servants
with his head.

There was no answer to that question. Eunice inclined her head to his
feet and remained motionless.

Petronius looked at the slaves, among whom were beautiful and stately
youths. He could read nothing on any face; on the contrary, all had
certain strange smiles. He looked then for a while on Eunice lying at
his feet, and went in silence to the triclinium.

After he had eaten, he gave command to bear him to the palace, and then
to Chrysothemis, with whom he remained till late at night. But when he
returned, he gave command to call Tiresias.

"Did Eunice receive the flogging?" inquired he.

"She did, lord. Thou didst not let the skin be cut, however."

"Did I give no other command touching her?"

"No, lord," answered the atriensis with alarm.

"That is well. Whom of the slaves does she love?"

"No one, lord."

"What dost thou know of her?"

Tiresias began to speak in a somewhat uncertain voice:

"At night Eunice never leaves the cubiculum in which she lives with
old Acrisiona and Ifida; after thou art dressed she never goes to the
bath-rooms. Other slaves ridicule her, and call her Diana."

"Enough," said Petronius. "My relative, Vinicius, to whom I offered her
to-day, did not accept her; hence she may stay in the house. Thou art
free to go."

"