with
irregular and feeble steps, 'I myself would accompany thee. Well, thou
must wait.'

'But Glaucus is soon to wed that hated Neapolitan.'

'Wed!'

'Yes; in the early part of next month.'

'So soon! Art thou well advised of this?'

'From the lips of her own slave.'

'It shall not be!' said the Egyptian, impetuously. 'Fear nothing,
Glaucus shall be thine. Yet how, when thou obtainest it, canst thou
administer to him this potion?'

'My father has invited him, and, I believe, the Neapolitan also, to a
banquet, on the day following to-morrow: I shall then have the
opportunity to administer it.'

'So be it!' said the Egyptian, with eyes flashing such fierce joy, that
Julia's gaze sank trembling beneath them. 'To-morrow eve, then, order
thy litter--thou hast one at thy command?'

'Surely--yes,' returned the purse-proud Julia.

'Order thy litter--at two miles' distance from the city is a house of
entertainment, frequented by the wealthier Pompeians, from the
excellence of its baths, and the beauty of its gardens. There canst
thou pretend only to shape thy course--there, ill or dying, I will meet
thee by the statue of Silenus, in the copse that skirts the garden; and
I myself will guide thee to the witch. Let us wait till, with the
evening star, the goats of the herdsmen are gone to rest; when the dark
twilight conceals us, and none shall cross our steps. Go home and fear
not. By Hades, swears Arbaces, the sorcerer of Egypt, that Ione shall
never wed with Glaucus.'

'And that Glaucus shall be mine,' added Julia, filling up the
incompleted sentence.

'Thou hast said it!' replied Arbaces; and Julia, half frightened at this
unhallowed appointment, but urged on by jealousy and the pique of
rivalship, even more than love, resolved to fulfill it.

Left alone, Arbaces burst forth:

'Bright stars that never lie, ye already begin the execution of your
promises--success in love, and victory over foes, for the rest of my
smooth existence. In the very hour when my mind could devise no clue to
the goal of vengeance, have ye sent this fair fool for my guide?' He
paused in deep thought. 'Yes,' said he again, but in a calmer voice; 'I
could not myself have given to her the poison, that shall be indeed a
philtre!--his death might be thus tracked to my door. But the
witch--ay, there is the fit, the natural agent of my designs!'

He summoned one of his slaves, bade him hasten to track the steps of
Julia, and ac