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Updated: June 3, 2025
He had sought Julia; he had detailed to her the confession of Nydia; he had easily, therefore, lulled any scruple of conscience which might have led her to extenuate the offence of Glaucus by avowing her share in his frenzy: and the more readily, for her vain heart had loved the fame and the prosperity of Glaucus not Glaucus himself, she felt no affection for a disgraced man nay, she almost rejoiced in the disgrace that humbled the hated Ione.
She bent to inhale their odor. She touched them timidly and caressingly. She felt, along their stems, if any withered leaf or creeping insect marred their beauty. And as she hovered from flower to flower, with her earnest and youthful countenance and graceful motions, you could not have imagined a fitter handmaid for the goddess of the garden. 'Nydia, my child! said Glaucus.
'I see not the magician, said Julia, looking round: when, as she spoke, the Egyptian slowly emerged from the neighboring foliage, and the light fell palely over his sweeping robes. 'Salve, sweet maiden! But ha! whom hast thou here? we must have no companions! 'It is but the blind flower-girl, wise magician, replied Julia: 'herself a Thessalian. 'Oh! Nydia! said the Egyptian.
Can you conceal, can you even regulate, your love for Ione? 'Love! dear Nydia: ah! that is quite another matter, answered the young preceptor. 'I thought so! returned Nydia, with a melancholy smile. 'Glaucus, wilt thou take my poor flowers? Do with them as thou wilt thou canst give them to Ione, added she, with a little hesitation.
In fancy he could see the Roman galleys, the fighting triremes, the canopied pleasure-craft, just as they were two thousand years ago. Yonder, the temples and baths of Nero of the Golden House; thither, the palaces of the grim Tiberius; beyond, Pompeii, with Glaucus, lone, and Nydia, the blind girl.
'I have promised. 'And now, then, I will gather the flowers. Silently, Nydia took from the hand of Glaucus the costly and jewelled vase, in which the flowers vied with each other in hue and fragrance; tearlessly she received his parting admonition.
'But by one little stopper I withdraw it now the draught gives no odor. Strange, that that which speaks to neither sense should thus command all! 'Is the effect instantaneous? 'Usually but sometimes it remains dormant for a few hours. 'Oh, how sweet is this perfume! said Nydia, suddenly, as she took up a small bottle on the table, and bent over its fragrant contents.
'Thou wert right, Glaucus, said Nydia, abruptly. 'The dear child speaks for thee, returned the Athenian. 'But permit me to move opposite to thee, or our light boat will be over-balanced. So saying, he took his seat exactly opposite to Ione, and leaning forward, he fancied that it was her breath, and not the winds of summer, that flung fragrance over the sea.
'Is not Glaucus, replied Julia, with the customary deceit of her sex. 'Glaucus no! Nydia drew her breath more freely, and after a short pause Julia recommenced. 'But talking of Glaucus, and his attachment to this Neapolitan, reminded me of the influence of love-spells, which, for ought I know or care, she may have exercised upon him.
He did not dare to knock loud to call out lest Arbaces should overhear him, and discover how he had been duped; and Nydia, meanwhile, had probably already gained the garden-gate, and was fast on her escape. 'But, thought he, 'she will go home, or, at least, be somewhere in the city.
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