ejoiced in the disgrace that
humbled the hated Ione. If Glaucus could not be her slave, neither
could he be the adorer of her rival. This was sufficient consolation
for any regret at his fate. Volatile and fickle, she began again to be
moved by the sudden and earnest suit of Clodius, and was not willing to
hazard the loss of an alliance with that base but high-born noble by any
public exposure of her past weakness and immodest passion for another.
All things then smiled upon Arbaces--all things frowned upon the
Athenian.

Chapter XI

NYDIA AFFECTS THE SORCERESS.

WHEN the Thessalian found that Arbaces returned to her no more--when she
was left, hour after hour, to all the torture of that miserable suspense
which was rendered by blindness doubly intolerable, she began, with
outstretched arms, to feel around her prison for some channel of escape;
and finding the only entrance secure, she called aloud, and with the
vehemence of a temper naturally violent, and now sharpened by impatient
agony.

'Ho, girl!' said the slave in attendance, opening the door; art thou bit
by a scorpion? or thinkest thou that we are dying of silence here, and
only to be preserved, like the infant Jupiter, by a hullabaloo?'

'Where is thy master? and wherefore am I caged here? I want air and
liberty: let me go forth!'

'Alas! little one, hast thou not seen enough of Arbaces to know that his
will is imperial! He hath ordered thee to be caged; and caged thou art,
and I am thy keeper. Thou canst not have air and liberty; but thou
mayst have what are much better things--food and wine.'

'Proh Jupiter!' cried the girl, wringing her hands; 'and why am I thus
imprisoned? What can the great Arbaces want with so poor a thing as I
am?'

'That I know not, unless it be to attend on thy new mistress, who has
been brought hither this day.'

'What! Ione here?'

'Yes, poor lady; she liked it little, I fear. Yet, by the Temple of
Castor! Arbaces is a gallant man to the women. Thy lady is his ward,
thou knowest.'

'Wilt thou take me to her?'

'She is ill--frantic with rage and spite. Besides, I have no orders to
do so; and I never think for myself. When Arbaces made me slave of
these chambers, he said, "I have but one lesson to give thee--while thou
servest me, thou must have neither ears, eyes, nor thought; thou must be
but one quality--obedience."'

'But what harm is there in seeing Ione?'

'That I know not; but if thou wantest a