Olinthus bowed assent. He passed through the streets with a hasty step,
but a quick and observant eye. Every now and then he exchanged a
significant glance, a slight sign, with some passenger, whose garb
usually betokened the wearer to belong to the humbler classes; for
Christianity was in this the type of all other and less mighty
revolutions--the grain of mustard-seed was in the heart of the lowly.
Amidst the huts of poverty and labor, the vast stream which afterwards
poured its broad waters beside the cities and palaces of earth took its
neglected source.
Chapter II
THE NOONDAY EXCURSION ON THE CAMPANIAN SEAS.
'BUT tell me, Glaucus,' said Ione, as they glided down the rippling
Sarnus in their boat of pleasure, 'how camest thou with Apaecides to my
rescue from that bad man?'
'Ask Nydia yonder,' answered the Athenian, pointing to the blind girl,
who sat at a little distance from them, leaning pensively over her lyre;
'she must have thy thanks, not we. It seems that she came to my house,
and, finding me from home, sought thy brother in his temple; he
accompanied her to Arbaces; on their way they encountered me, with a
company of friends, whom thy kind letter had given me a spirit cheerful
enough to join. Nydia's quick ear detected my voice--a few words
sufficed to make me the companion of Apaecides; I told not my associates
why I left them--could I trust thy name to their light tongues and
gossiping opinion?--Nydia led us to the garden gate, by which we
afterwards bore thee--we entered, and were about to plunge into the
mysteries of that evil house, when we heard thy cry in another
direction. Thou knowest the rest.'
Ione blushed deeply. She then raised her eyes to those of Glaucus, and
he felt all the thanks she could not utter. 'Come hither, my Nydia,'
said she, tenderly, to the Thessalian.
'Did I not tell thee that thou shouldst be my sister and friend? Hast
thou not already been more?--my guardian, my preserver!'
'It is nothing,' answered Nydia coldly, and without stirring.
'Ah! I forgot,' continued Ione, 'I should come to thee'; and she moved
along the benches till she reached the place where Nydia sat, and
flinging her arms caressingly round her, covered her cheeks with kisses.
Nydia was that morning paler than her wont, and her countenance grew
even more wan and colorless as she submitted to the embrace of the
beautiful Neapolitan. 'But how camest thou, Nydia,' whispered Ione, 'to
surmise so faithfully the danger I was exposed to? Didst thou know
aught of the Egyptian?'
'Yes, I knew of his vices.'
'And how?'
'Noble Ione, I have been a slave to the vicious--those whom I served
were his minions.'
'And thou hast entered his house since thou knewest so well that private
entrance?'
'I have played on my lyre to Arbaces,' answered the Thessalian, with
embarrassment.
'And thou hast escaped the contagion from which thou hast saved Ione?'
returned the Neapolitan, in a voice too low for the ear of Glaucus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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