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Nebris was equally bejewelled with turquoises and opals, but, somehow, they did not glitter like the jewelry on Doris, but partook of their wearer's subdued coloring. As Doris remarked next day: "Nebris is very graceful and almost pretty; but she was born faded, and nothing can brighten her." We found the girls housed in as neat, cosy and charming a little nest as heart could wish for.
Nebris kept looking from Agathemer to me, her pale gray eyes wide; but Doris kept her snapping brown eyes on Agathemer's face from his first word to his last. "My!" she cried, "you have had adventures! Or you are the biggest liar and the cleverest story-teller I ever met.
Doris, the dark-haired, red-cheeked, full-contoured lass, was plainly much taken with Agathemer and he with her; I always had a weakness for red-headed girls and felt genuinely pleased that Nebris, her long-limbed, long-fingered, pale-skinned, blurred, bleached comrade seemed equally taken with me.
The main dish was a wonderful stew of fish, for which, Nebris told us, Marseilles was famous. It was flavored with any number of vegetables and relishes, and had bits of meat in it, but fish was the chief ingredient and the blended flavors made it a most appetizing viand.
One of the slaves went out, slamming the door after him. "Doris," said Nebris, "can you really save these lads?" "I can!" Doris asserted. "With Pescennius Niger after them?" Nebris quavered. "Even with Pescennius Niger after them," Doris declared. "You must remember," she went on, "that Pescennius told these lads he would not expect to see them till tomorrow morning.
If there were tears in her eyes none ran down either cheek. Nebris, on the other hand, wept over me and clung to me, with many kisses. "There are not many like you," she sobbed. "You are gentle and courteous. Our friends are generous enough, but they drink too much and are boisterous and rough and coarse. I wish you weren't going. But I'm glad I've had you even for so short a time."
It was after sunset when we were back with Doris and Nebris, but still far from dark; in fact, light enough to see well. "Now Alopex," said Doris, briskly, "make your best speed to the harborside and see if you can find a sure ship sailing at dawn, with a captain we can trust, to get these lads out of Marseilles at once. I doubt if you can find one, but do your best."
I cannot help encouraging any man, or even lad, who moons about after me. But you have never had any reason to be jealous, you have none now, you never will have." I expressed my faith in her the best I could. "You are a dear, dear boy," she said, "and it is good of you not to be jealous, even when you have so little reason to be jealous. I have much more. Suppose I raged about Nebris or Septima?"
A goblet of wine and an hour's chat won't enervate you or make you less fit. Come in." A horrible old Lydian woman, one-eyed, obese, clean enough of body and clothing, but a foul old beast for all that, let us in. Agathemer introduced me as Felix and himself as Asper. The merry dark- haired girl was named Doris and her languorous comrade Nebris.
Doris and Nebris each had her bed-room furnished to harmonize with her own coloring. I complimented both on their taste. In Nebris's room Agathemer spied a flageolet. "Do you play on this?" he asked. "Sometimes," she said, "but Doris declares that my music makes her melancholy, it's so dismal." "I'll play you any number of lively tunes," Agathemer promised, possessing himself of the flageolet.