'Does not beauty constrain our admiration?'
'Ah! subtle Greek, still do you fly the meaning of my words. But say, shall Julia be indeed your friend?'
'If she will so favor me, blessed be the gods! The day in which I am thus honored shall be ever marked in white.'
'Yet, even while you speak, your eye is resting—your color comes and goes—you move away involuntarily—you are impatient to join Ione!'
For at that moment Ione had entered, and Glaucus had indeed betrayed the emotion noticed by the jealous beauty.
'Can admiration to one woman make me unworthy the friendship of another? Sanction not so, O Julia the libels of the poets on your sex!'
'Well, you are right—or I will learn to think so. Glaucus, yet one moment! You are to wed Ione; is it not so?'
'If the Fates permit, such is my blessed hope.'
'Accept, then, from me, in token of our new friendship, a present for your bride. Nay, it is the custom of friends, you know, always to present to bride and bridegroom some such little marks of their esteem and favoring wishes.'
'Julia! I cannot refuse any token of friendship from one like you. I will accept the gift as an omen from Fortune herself.'