They arrived, meeting no one, at the entrance of the Grotto of Pluto.
“Let us go in,” said Ephialtes softly. “There is a new statue of Iacchos I would show you.”
“Some other time, Ephialtes. There is no one here. Tell me what you said you wished to tell me when we were in the Telesterion.”
Ephialtes was keenly disappointed that the girl would not enter the grotto with him. His impulse was to carry her bodily there, but he knew her utterances of remonstrance would attract attention, so he silently obeyed her wish, feeling impotent rage.
“On the second night of the next full moon, there is to be a festival of Dionysus on the island of Naxos. Will you go with me, Persephone?”
He was standing before her; he clasped her hand and gazed pleadingly into her eyes. She hesitated and turned thoughtfully away.
“I will go with you if I may take Agne as chaperone,” she replied.
Ephialtes answered with well concealed irritation: “Very well, if you insist, but surely you do not mistrust a friend of such long standing as myself, and oh my dear Persephone, will you not change your answer to my question which was put to you last when we drifted together in the barge off of Salamis?”
“My answer is the same, and by the way, have you found any clue to the identity of the traitor of Thermopylæ?”
The young man glanced furtively about him and made answer: “Not yet, but you may rest assured I will find him since my future happiness depends upon it. Goodbye now, sweet Persephone, till the second night of the full moon. I shall count the hours as lost till I see you.”