"Or," added the dancer, "envoys from King Antiochus. But--goose that I
am!--then they would not be received here, but in the royal harbour at
the Lochias. See if I don't prove to be right! Divine honours are to be
paid to some newly attracted hero of the intellect. But--just follow my
finger! There--yonder--it comes floating along at the left of the island
of Antirrhodus. That may be his galley! Magnificent! Wonderfully
beautiful! Brilliant! Like a swan! No, no, like a swimming peacock!
And the silver embroidery on the blue sails! It glitters and sparkles
like stars in the azure sky."

Meanwhile the elder actor, shading his eyes with his hand, had been
gazing at the harbour, where, amid the innumerable vessels, the expected
one, whose sails were just being reefed, was steered by a skilful hand.
Now he interrupted the blond beauty with the exclamation: "It is
Archias's Proserpina! I know it well." Then, in a declamatory tone, he
continued: "I, too, was permitted on the deck of the glittering vessel,
lightly rocked by the crimson waves, to reach my welcome goal; as the
guest of peerless Archias, I mean. The most magnificent festival in his
villa! There was a little performance there in which Mentor and I
allowed ourselves to be persuaded to take part. But just see how the
beautiful ship uses the narrow passage between the two triremes, as if it
had the bloodleech's power of contraction! But to return to the festival
of Archias: the oyster ragout served there, the pheasant pasties--"

Here he interrupted himself, exclaiming in surprise: "By the club of
Hercules, the Proserpina is to be received with a full chorus! And there
is the owner himself descending the stairs! Whom is she bringing?"

"Come! come!" cried the dancing girl to her companion, dragging him after