regardful of her words, but only
anxious to give utterance--no matter how rashly--to the suspicions which
she had so long and painfully repressed. 'It is even more than the mere
charms of this imperial city which entice you. It is that you are my
enemy, and would stay here to sting the hand that was so truly anxious
to protect you--that for your own purposes you would watch about my
path, and ever, as now, play the spy upon my actions, and--'

'Nay, nay!' cried the Greek, her flashing eye and erect attitude in
strong contrast with the softened tone in which, more from habit than
from prudence, she had spoken. 'When have I played the spy upon you? Not
now, indeed, for I have come in, not believing that I was doing harm,
but simply because my duty has led me hither. I came to tell you that
there is a stranger--an old man--standing in the court below, and that
he craves audience with you. Is this a wrong thing for me to do? Were I
to forbear performance of this duty, would not my neglect insure me
punishment?'

AEnone answered not, but, by a strong effort, kept back the words that
she would have uttered. Still angry and crushed with the sense of being
deceived, and yet conscious that it was not a noble or dignified thing
to be in disputation with her own slave, and that there was, moreover,
the remote possibility that the girl was not her enemy, and might really
dread returning to a desolated and devastated home, what could she say
or do? And while she pondered the matter, the door again opened.

'And this is he of whom I spoke. Do you doubt me now?' exclaimed the
Greek, in a tone in which a shade of malicious triumph mingled with soft
reproach. And she moved away, and left the room, while AEnone, lifting
her eyes, saw her father standing before her.

'A plague take the wench who has just left you!' he muttered. 'Did she
not tell you that I was below? I sent word by her, and here she has left
me for half an hour kicking my heels together in the courtyard. And I
might have stayed there forever, if I had not of myself found my way up.
Even then, there were some who would have stopped me, deeming me,
perhaps, too rough in appearance to be allowed to ascend. But I told
them that there was a time when members of the house of Porthenus did
not wait in antechambers, but stood beside the consuls of the old
republic, and I touched the hilt of my dagger; and whether it was the
one argument or the other which prevailed, here I am.