said. She would rather carry fuel to the hypocaustum in his house than
be chief servant in that of Vinicius. She would not, she could not go;
and she begged him to have pity on her. Let him give command to flog
her daily, only not send her away.

And trembling like a leaf with fear and excitement, she stretched her
hands to him, while he listened with amazement. A slave who ventured to
beg relief from the fulfilment of a command, who said "I will not and I
cannot," was something so unheard-of in Rome that Petronius could not
believe his own ears at first. Finally he frowned. He was too refined
to be cruel. His slaves, especially in the department of pleasure, were
freer than others, on condition of performing their service in an
exemplary manner, and honoring the will of their master, like that of a
god. In case they failed in these two respects, he was able not to
spare punishment, to which, according to general custom, they were
subject. Since, besides this, he could not endure opposition, nor
anything which ruffled his calmness, he looked for a while at the
kneeling girl, and then said,--"Call Tiresias, and return with him."

Eunice rose, trembling, with tears in her eyes, and went out; after a
time she returned with the chief of the atrium, Tiresias, a Cretan.

"Thou wilt take Eunice," said Petronius, "and give her five-and-twenty
lashes, in such fashion, however, as not to harm her skin."

When he had said this, he passed into the library, and, sitting down at
a table of rose-colored marble, began to work on his "Feast of
Trimalchion." But the flight of Lygia and the illness of the infant
Augusta had disturbed his mind so much that he could not work long.
That illness, above all, was important. It occurred to Petronius that