Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Serapis — Volume 02 by Georg Ebers
page 29 of 70 (41%)
promise you I shall not forget it, and I shall keep my eye upon you."

Orpheus made haste to light every lamp and taper, of which there were
plenty, for the barge was handsomely furnished, and when Dada was plainly
visible in the brilliant illumination Karnis exclaimed:

"You look like a senator's daughter! Long live the Fair!"

She ran up to him and kissed him; but when Orpheus walked all round her,
examining the fineness of the tissue and the artistic finish of the
clasps, and even turned the snake above her round elbow, she sharply bid
him let her be.

Medius, a man of the age of Karnis who had formerly been his intimate
companion, never took his eyes off the girl, and whispered to the old
musician that Dada would easily carry off the palm for beauty in
Alexandria, and that with such a jewel in his keeping he might recover
wealth and position and by quite honest means. At his suggestion she
then assumed a variety of attitudes; she stood as Hebe, offering nectar
to the gods--as Nausicae, listening to the tale of Odysseus--and as
Sappho, singing to her lyre. The girl was delighted at all this, and
when Medius, who kept close to her, tried to persuade her to perform in a
similar manner in the magical representations at the house of Posidonius,
before a select company of spectators, she clapped her hands exclaiming:

"You took me all round the city, father, and as your reward I should like
to earn back your pretty vineyards, I should stand like this, you know,
and like this--to be stared at. I only hope I might not be seized with a
sudden impulse to make a face at the audience. But if they did not come
too close I really might . . ."
DigitalOcean Referral Badge