and whose appellation we cannot render by any proper word in modern
language) monopolized all the graces of their countrywomen. In the
same cities were many of unblemished virtue and repute who possessed
equal cultivation and attraction, but whom a more decorous life has
concealed from the equivocal admiration of posterity; though the
numerous female disciples of Pythagoras throw some light on their
capacity and intellect. Among such as these had been the mother of
Cleonice, not long since dead, and her daughter inherited and equalled
her accomplishments, while her virgin youth, her inborn playfulness
of manner, her pure guilelessness, which the secluded habits of the
unmarried women at Byzantium preserved from all contagion, gave to
qualities and gifts so little published abroad, the effect as it were
of a happy and wondrous inspiration rather than of elaborate culture.

Such was the fair creature whom Diagoras, looking up from his pastime,
thus addressed:--

"And so, perverse one, thou canst not love this great hero, a proper
person truly, and a mighty warrior, who will eat you an army of
Persians at a meal. These Spartan fighting-cocks want no garlic, I
warrant you.[20] And yet you can't love him, you little rogue."

"Why, my father," said Cleonice, with an arch smile, and a slight
blush, "even if I did look kindly on Pausanias, would it not be to my
own sorrow? What Spartan--above all, what royal Spartan--may marry
with a foreigner, and a Byzantine?"

"I did not precisely talk of marriage--a very happy state, doubtless,
to those who dislike too quiet a life, and a very honourable one, for
war is honor itself; but I did not speak of that, Cleonice. I would