little daughter Parysatis, my youngest favorite, to come out alone with
me to-night, this wonderful sight would have been my last; tomorrow there
would have been one pair of eyes less in the world."

Bartja took Sappho's hand and held it fast, saying, "I fancy one wife
will content me as long as I live." The young mother pressed his hand
warmly again, and said, turning to Zopyrus: "I don't quite trust you, my
friend. It seems to me that it is not the anger of your wives you fear,
so much as the commission of an offence against the customs of your
country. I have been told that my poor Bartja gets terribly scolded in
the women's apartments for not setting eunuchs to watch over me, and for
letting me share his pleasures."

"He does spoil you terribly," answered Zopyrus, "and our wives are
beginning to quote him as an example of kindness and indulgence, whenever
we try to hold the reins a little tight. Indeed there will soon be a
regular women's mutiny at the king's gate, and the Achaemenidae who
escaped the swords and arrows of the Egyptians, will fall victims to
sharp tongues and floods of salt tears."

"Oh! you most impolite Persian!" said Syloson laughing. "We must make
you more respectful to these images of Aphrodite."

"You Greeks! that's a good idea," answered the youth. "By Mithras, our
wives are quite as well off as yours. It's only the Egyptian women, that
are so wonderfully free."

"Yes, you are quite right," said Rhodopis. "The inhabitants of this
strange land have for thousands of years granted our weaker sex the same
rights, that they demand for themselves. Indeed, in many respects, they