"There is no stint to the honour the Empress puts upon me," I
said, as I knelt down and took my seat.

She gave me one of her queer, sidelong looks. "Deucalion may
have more beside, if he asks for it prettily. He may have what all
the other men in the known world have sighed for, and what none of
them will ever get. But I have given enough of my own accord; he
must ask me warmly for those further favours."

"I ask," I said, "first, that I may sweep the boundaries clear
of this rabble which is clamouring against the city walls."

"Pah," she said, and frowned. "Have you appetite only for the
sterner pleasures of life? My good Deucalion, they must have been
rustic folk in that colony of yours. Well, you shall give me news
now of the toothsomeness of this feast."

Dishes and goblets were placed before us, and we began to eat,
though I had little enough appetite for victual so broken and so
highly spiced. But if this finicking cookery and these luscious
wines did not appeal to me, the other diners in that gorgeous hall
appreciated it all to the full. They sat about in groups on the
pavement beneath the light-jets like a tangle of rainbows for
colour, and according to the new custom they went into raptures and
ecstasies over their enjoyment. Women and men both, they lingered
over each titillation of the palate as though it were a caress of
the Gods.

Phorenice, with her quick, bright eyes, looked on, and
occasionally flung one or another a few words between her talk with