near the gate as a sign of hospitality; then,
three hours after twilight, come here with a bowl of the coldest and
purest water, and thou shalt learn all, according to the Thessalian lore
my mother taught me. But forget not the garden-gate--all rests upon
that: it must be open when you come, and for three hours previously.'

'Trust me,' replied the unsuspecting Sosia; 'I know what a gentleman's
feelings are when a door is shut in his face, as the cookshop's hath
been in mine many a day; and I know, also, that a person of
respectability, as a demon of course is, cannot but be pleased, on the
other hand, with any little mark of courteous hospitality. Meanwhile,
pretty one, here is thy morning's meal.'

'But what of the trial?'

'Oh, the lawyers are still at it--talk, talk--it will last over all
to-morrow.'

'To-morrow? You are sure of that?'

'So I hear.'

'And Ione?'

'By Bacchus! she must be tolerably well, for she was strong enough to
make my master stamp and bite his lip this morning. I saw him quit her
apartment with a brow like a thunderstorm.'

'Lodges she near this?'

'No--in the upper apartments. But I must not stay prating here longer.
Vale!'

Chapter XII

A WASP VENTURES INTO THE SPIDER'S WEB.

THE second night of the trial had set in; and it was nearly the time in
which Sosia was to brave the dread Unknown, when there entered, at that
very garden-gate which the slave had left ajar--not, indeed, one of the
mysterious spirits of earth or air, but the heavy and most human form of
Calenus, the priest of Isis. He scarcely noted the humble offerings of
indifferent fruit, and still more indifferent wine, which the pious
Sosia had deemed good enough for the invisible stranger they were
intended to allure. 'Some tribute,' thought he, 'to the garden god. By
my father's head! if his deityship were never better served, he would do
well to give up the godly profession. Ah! were it not for us priests,
the gods would have a sad time of it. And now for Arbaces--I am
treading a quicksand, but it ought to cover a mine. I have the
Egyptian's life in my power--what will he value it at?'

As he thus soliloquised, he crossed through the open court into the
peristyle, where a few lamps here and there broke upon the empire of the
starlit night; and issuing from one of the chambers that bordered the
colonnade, suddenly encountered Arbaces.

'Ho! Calenus--seekest thou me?' said the Egyptian; and there w