se graceful
flatteries to my person unwelcome. It was you who taught me to disdain
adulation: will you unteach your pupil?'

There was something so frank and charming in the manner of Ione, as she
thus spoke, that the Egyptian was more than ever enamoured, and more
than ever disposed to renew the offence he had committed; he, however,
answered quickly and gaily, and hastened to renew the conversation.

He led her through the various chambers of a house, which seemed to
contain to her eyes, inexperienced to other splendor than the minute
elegance of Campanian cities, the treasures of the world.

In the walls were set pictures of inestimable art, the lights shone over
statues of the noblest age of Greece. Cabinets of gems, each cabinet
itself a gem, filled up the interstices of the columns; the most
precious woods lined the thresholds and composed the doors; gold and
jewels seemed lavished all around. Sometimes they were alone in these
rooms--sometimes they passed through silent rows of slaves, who,
kneeling as she passed, proffered to her offerings of bracelets, of
chains, of gems, which the Egyptian vainly entreated her to receive.

'I have often heard,' said she, wonderingly, 'that you were rich; but I
never dreamed of the amount of your wealth.'

'Would I could coin it all,' replied the Egyptian, 'into one crown,
which I might place upon that snowy brow!'

'Alas! the weight would crush me; I should be a second Tarpeia,'
answered Ione, laughingly.

'But thou dost not disdain riches, O Ione! they know not what life is
capable of who are not wealthy. Gold is the great magician of earth--it
realizes our dreams--it gives them the power of a god--there is a
grandeur, a sublimity, in its possession; it is the mightiest, yet the
most obedient of our slaves.'

The artful Arbaces sought to dazzle the young Neapolitan by his
treasures and his eloquence; he sought to awaken in her the desire to be
mistress of what she surveyed: he hoped that she would confound the
owner with the possessions, and that the charms of his wealth would be
reflected on himself. Meanwhile, Ione was secretly somewhat uneasy at
the gallantries which escaped from those lips, which, till lately, had
seemed to disdain the common homage we pay to beauty; and with that
delicate subtlety, which woman alone possesses, she sought to ward off
shafts deliberately aimed, and to laugh or to talk away the meaning from
his warming language. Nothing in th