"'

'Unfortunate Ione!'

'But it is well for her that those solemn cares to the dead which
religion enjoins have hitherto greatly absorbed her attention from
Glaucus and herself: and, in the dimness of her senses, she scarcely
seems aware that Glaucus is apprehended and on the eve of trial. When
the funeral rites due to Apaecides are performed, her apprehension will
return; and then I fear me much that her friends will be revolted by
seeing her run to succour and aid the murderer of her brother!'

'Such scandal should be prevented.'

'I trust I have taken precautions to that effect. I am her lawful
guardian, and have just succeeded in obtaining permission to escort her,
after the funeral of Apaecides, to my own house; there, please the gods!
she will be secure.'

'You have done well, sage Arbaces. And, now, yonder is the house of
Sallust. The gods keep you! Yet, hark you, Arbaces--why so gloomy and
unsocial? Men say you can be gay--why not let me initiate you into the
pleasures of Pompeii?--I flatter myself no one knows them better.'

'I thank you, noble Clodius: under your auspices I might venture, I
think, to wear the philyra: but, at my age, I should be an awkward
pupil.'

'Oh, never fear; I have made converts of fellows of seventy. The rich,
too, are never old.'

'You flatter me. At some future time I will remind you of your
promise.'

'You may command Marcus Clodius at all times--and so, vale!'

'Now,' said the Egyptian, soliloquising, 'I am not wantonly a man of
blood; I would willingly save this Greek, if, by confessing the crime,
he will lose himself for ever to Ione, and for ever free me from the
chance of discovery; and I can save him by persuading Julia to own the
philtre, which will be held his excuse. But if he do not confess the
crime, why, Julia must be shamed from the confession, and he must
die!--die, lest he prove my rival with the living--die, that he may be
my proxy with the dead! Will he confess?--can he not be persuaded that
in his delirium he struck the blow? To me it would give far greater
safety than even his death. Hem! we must hazard the experiment.'

Sweeping along the narrow street, Arbaces now approached the house of
Sallust, when he beheld a dark form wrapped in a cloak, and stretched at
length across the threshold of the door.

So still lay the figure, and so dim was its outline, that any other than
Arbaces might have felt a superstitious fear, lest he beheld one