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Stopping her way a boat was lowered; her commander came on board. No sooner were the contents of the despatch he brought known than cheers rose from fore and aft, joined in by the poor fellows in their hammocks. The "Ione" was to return home immediately. Before long a breeze sprang up, the two ships parted, and the corvette, under all sail, steered for the Cape.

If we were ordered there also, we might find an opportunity; but, you see, the captain won't have the chances of meeting her without being observed, which he has here, and a hundred to one the uncle claps half a dozen lobsters as sentries over her, if he sees the Ione come off the place."

Do with me as thou wilt say that thou lovest not me; but say not that thou lovest another! 'Alas! began Ione; and then, appalled before his sudden and unlooked-for violence, she burst into tears. Arbaces came nearer to her his breath glowed fiercely on her cheek; he wound his arms round her she sprang from his embrace.

'Will you that I should sing of love? said she, fixing those eyes upon Glaucus. 'Yes, replied he, looking down. She moved a little way from the arm of Ione, still cast round her, as if that soft embrace embarrassed; and placing her light and graceful instrument on her knee, after a short prelude, she sang the following strain: NYDIA'S LOVE-SONG

It was as if the poetry of life gathered and fed itself in them, and in their hearts were concentrated the last rays of the sun of Delos and of Greece. But if Ione was independent in her choice of life, so was her modest pride proportionably vigilant and easily alarmed. The falsehood of the Egyptian was invented by a deep knowledge of her nature.

Thou wilt find me now, as ever, thy surest friend. But the public streets are not the fitting place for us to confer for me to console thee. Approach, slaves! Come, my sweet charge, the litter awaits thee. The amazed and terrified attendants gathered round Ione, and clung to her knees. 'Arbaces, said the eldest of the maidens, 'this is surely not the law!

To save her from the cruelty of Burbo, Glaucus had purchased her, and, in return, the blind girl had become devoted to him so devoted that her gentle heart was torn when he made it plain to her that his action was prompted by mere natural kindness of heart, and that it was his purpose to send her to Ione.

One evening, the fifth after their first meeting at Pompeii, Glaucus and Ione, with a small party of chosen friends, were returning from an excursion round the bay; their vessel skimmed lightly over the twilight waters, whose lucid mirror was only broken by the dripping oars.

'Did you say she was Athenian? whispered Glaucus, ere he passed into the peristyle. 'No, she is from Neapolis. 'Neapolis! echoed Glaucus; and at that moment the group, dividing on either side of Ione, gave to his view that bright, that nymph-like beauty, which for months had shone down upon the waters of his memory. THE story returns to the Egyptian.

Glaucus imagined that convulsion, in the vanity of his heathen religion, an especial interposition of the gods, less in behalf of his own safety than that of Ione. He offered up the sacrifices of gratitude at the temples of his faith; and even the altar of Isis was covered with his votive garlands as to the prodigy of the animated marble, he blushed at the effect it had produced on him.