meanwhile I must give command to perfume the atrium."

But Chilo Chilonides, wrapping his new mantle about him, threw up on his
palm, under its folds, the purse received from Vinicius, and admired
both its weight and its jingle. Walking on slowly, and looking around
to see if they were not looking at him from the house, he passed the
portico of Livia, and, reaching the corner of the Clivus Virbius, turned
toward the Subura.

"I must go to Sporus," said he to himself, "and pour out a little wine
to Fortuna. I have found at last what I have been seeking this long
time. He is young, irascible, bounteous as mines in Cyprus, and ready
to give half his fortune for that Lygian linnet. Just such a man have I
been seeking this long time. It is needful, however, to be on one's
guard with him, for the wrinkling of his brow forebodes no good. Ah!
the wolf-whelps lord it over the world to-day! I should fear that
Petronius less. O gods! but the trade of procurer pays better at
present than virtue. Ah! she drew a fish on the sand! If I know what
that means, may I choke myself with a piece of goat's cheese! But I
shall know. Fish live under water, and searching under water is more
difficult than on land, ergo he will pay me separately for this fish.
Another such purse and I might cast aside the beggar's wallet and buy
myself a slave. But what wouldst thou say, Chilo, were I to advise thee
to buy not a male but a female slave? I know thee; I know that thou
wouldst consent. If she were beautiful, like Eunice, for instance, thou
thyself wouldst grow young near her, and at the same time wouldst have
from her a good and certain income. I sold to that poor Eunice two
threads from my old mantle. She is dull; but if Petronius were to give
her to me, I would take her. Yes, yes, Chilo Chilonides, thou hast lost
father and mother, thou art an orphan; therefore buy to console thee