"What I shall never again forget! a face, friends, of unimagined beauty. Cypris and Artemis in one! I was dazzled. But I hurried back, lifted the Ares from its niche, gave it to the Punic slave, refused her money, and staggered into my house as confused as if I had seen a wood-nymph."
"Well, that is wonderful," laughed Massurius; "you are else no novice in the works of Eros."
"But," asked Cethegus, "how do you know that your charmer was a Goth?"
"She had dark-red hair, and a milk-white skin, and black eyebrows."
"Oh, ye gods!" thought Cethegus. But he was silent and waited. No one present uttered the name. "They do not know her.--And when was this?" he asked his host.
"During the last calendars."
"Quite right," thought Cethegus. "She came at that time from Tarentum through Rome to Ravenna. She rested here for three days."
"And so," said Piso, laughing, "you gave your Ares for a look at a beautiful woman! A bad bargain! This time, Mercury and Venus were allies. Poor Kallistratos!"
"Oh," said Kallistratos, "the bust was not worth so very much. It was modern work. Ion of Neapolis made it three years, ago. But I tell you, I would give a Phidias for such a look."
"An ideal head?" asked Cethegus indifferently, and lifted admiringly the bronze mixing-vase which stood before him.