'Her lovers--ah, there is the enigma!--Ione has but one vice--she is chaste. She has all Pompeii at her feet, and she has no lovers: she will not even marry.' 'No lovers!' echoed Glaucus. 'No; she has the soul of Vestal with the girdle of Venus.' 'What refined expressions!' said the umbra. 'A miracle!' cried Glaucus. 'Can we not see her?' 'I will take you there this evening, said Clodius; 'meanwhile...' added he, once more rattling the dice. 'I am yours!' said the complaisant Glaucus. 'Pansa, turn your face!' Lepidus and Sallust played at odd and even, and the umbra looked on, while Glaucus and Clodius became gradually absorbed in the chances of the dice. 'By Pollux!' cried Glaucus, 'this is the second time I have thrown the caniculae' (the lowest throw). 'Now Venus befriend me!' said Clodius, rattling the box for several moments. 'O Alma Venus--it is Venus herself!' as he threw the highest cast, named from that goddess--whom he who wins money, indeed, usually propitiates! 'Venus is ungrateful to me,' said Glaucus, gaily; 'I have always sacrificed on her altar.' 'He who plays with Clodius,' whispered Lepidus, 'will soon, like Plautus's Curculio, put his pallium for the stakes.' 'Poor Glaucus!--he is as blind as Fortune herself,' replied Sallust, in the same tone. 'I will play no more,' said Glaucus; 'I have lost thirty sestertia.' 'I am sorry...' began Clodius. 'Amiable man!' groaned the umbra. 'Not at all!' exclaimed Glaucus; 'the pleasure I take in your gain compensates the pain of my loss.' The conversation now grew general and animated; the wine circulated more freely; and Ione once more became the subject of eulogy to the guests of Glaucus. 'Instead of outwatching the stars, let us visit one at whose beauty the stars grow pale,' said Lepidus. Clodius, who saw no chance of renewing the dice, seconded the proposal; and Glaucus, though he civilly pressed his guests to continue the banquet, could not but let them see that his curiosity had been excited by the praises of Ione: they therefore resolved to adjourn (all, at least, but Pansa and the umbra) to the house of the fair Greek. They drank, therefore, to the health of Glaucus and of Titus--they performed their last libation--they resumed their slippers--they descended the stairs--passed the illumined atrium--and walking unbitten over the fierce dog painted on the threshold, found themselves beneath the light of the moon just risen, in the lively and still crowded streets of Pompeii. They passed the jewellers' quarter, sparkling with lights, caught and reflected by the gems displayed in the shops, and arrived at last at the door of Ione. The vestibule blazed with rows of lamps; curtains of embroidered purple hung on either aperture of the tablinum, whose walls and mosaic pavement glowed with the richest colors of the artist; and under the portico which surrounded the odorous viridarium they found Ione, already surrounded by adoring and applauding guests!