been rewarded with a handful of gold-pieces, he tossed the coins in the
air, caught them like flies in the hollow of his hand, and then pitched
wheel fashion over head and heels from one end of the room to the other.
Then, when he stood on his feet once more, he went on, without a sign of
breathlessness:

"Forgive me, my lord! Nature asserts her rights. To play the pious for
three whole hours! Eternal gods, that is a hard task, and a man must--"

"I know all about it," Serapion broke in with a smile and a threatening
finger. "Now go and stretch your limbs, and then share your lightly
earned gains with some pretty flute-player. But I want you again this
evening; so, if you feel weak, I shall lock you up."

"Do," said Castor, as earnestly as if he had been promised some pleasure.
"What a merry, good-for-nothing set they are!-Dorothea will bring the
girl at the appointed hour. Everything is arranged."

Whereupon he danced out of the room, singing a tune.

"An invaluable creature!" said the Syrian, with an admiring glance.

"A better one spoiled," said Serapion. "He has the very highest gifts,
but is utterly devoid of conscience to set a limit to his excesses. How
should he have one? His father was one of a troupe of Ephesian
pantomimists, and his mother a golden-haired Cyprian dancer. But he
knows every corner of Alexandria--and then, what a memory! What an actor
he would have made! Without even a change of dress, merely by a grimace,
he at once becomes an old man, an idiot, or a philosopher."