-which is little likely--to indicate to thee, noble
tribune, whither she has fled and where she has hidden."

"That is well," said Vinicius, who was pleased with the precision of the
answer. "What means hast thou to do this?"

Chilo smiled cunningly. "Thou hast the means, lord; I have the wit
only."

Petronius smiled also, for he was perfectly satisfied with his guest.

"That man can find the maiden," thought he. Meanwhile Vinicius wrinkled
his joined brows, and said,--"Wretch, in case thou deceive me for gain,
I will give command to beat thee with clubs."

"I am a philosopher, lord, and a philosopher cannot be greedy of gain,
especially of such as thou hast just offered magnanimously."

"Oh, art thou a philosopher?" inquired Petronius. "Eunice told me that
thou art a physician and a soothsayer. Whence knowest thou Eunice?"

"She came to me for aid, for my fame struck her ears."

"What aid did she want?"

"Aid in love, lord. She wanted to be cured of unrequited love."

"Didst thou cure her?"

"I did more, lord. I gave her an amulet which secures mutuality. In
Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, is a temple, O lord, in which is
preserved a zone of Venus. I gave her two threads from that zone,
enclosed in an almond shell."

"And didst thou make her pay well for them?"

"One can never pay enough for mutuality, and I, who lack two fingers on
my right hand, am collecting money to buy a slave copyist to write down
my thoughts, and preserve my wisdom for mankind."

"Of what school art thou, divine sage?"

"I am a Cynic, lord, because I wear a tattered mantle; I am a Stoic,
because I bear poverty patiently; I am a Peripatetic, for, not owning a
litter, I go on foot from one wine-shop to another, and on the way teach
those who promise to pay for a pitcher of wine."

"And at the pitcher thou dost become a rhetor?"

"Heraclitus declares that 'all is fluid,' and canst thou deny, lord,
that wine is fluid?"

"And he declared that fire is a divinity; divinity, therefore, is
blushing in thy nose."

"But the divine Diogenes from Apollonia declared that air is the essence
of things, and the warmer the air the more perfect the beings it makes,
and from the warmest come the souls of sages. And since the autumns are
cold, a genuine sage should warm his soul with wine; and wouldst thou
hinder, O lord, a pitcher of even the stuff produced in Capua or Telesia
from bearing heat to all the bones of a perishable human body?"