She could see that her thrust had pierced home; but with all her predilections for his handsome person, she cared not how she wounded the manly heart within.
“And being a slave,” she resumed, “you may be loaded and goaded like a mule! You may be kicked and beaten like a dog! You cannot even resent it with hoofs and fangs as the dumb animal does when his treatment is harsher than he deserves! You are a man, you know, though a barbarian! You must cringe, and whine, and bite your lips, and be patient!”
Every syllable from that sharp tongue seemed to sting him like a wasp: his whole frame quivered with anger at her taunts; but he scorned to show it, and putting a strong constraint upon his feelings, he only asked quietly—
“What would you with me? It was not to tell me this that you watched and tracked me here.”
Myrrhina thought she had now brought the metal to a sufficiently high temperature for fusion. She proceeded to mould it accordingly.
“I tracked you here,” she said, “because I wanted you. I wanted you, because it is in my power to render you a great service. Listen, Esca; you must come with me. It is not every man in Rome would require so much persuasion to follow the steps of a pretty girl.”
She looked very arch and tempting while she spoke, but her attractions were sadly wasted on the preoccupied Briton; and if she expected to win from him any overt act of admiration or encouragement, she was wofully disappointed.
“I cannot follow yours,” said he; “my way lies in another direction. You have yourself reminded me that I am not my own master.”
“That is the very reason,” she exclaimed, clapping her hands exultingly. “I can show you the way to freedom. [pg 91]No one else can help you but Myrrhina; and if you attend to her directions you can obtain your liberty without delay.”
“And why should you be disposed to confer on me such a benefit?” he asked, with instinctive caution, for the impulsive nature that jumps so hastily to conclusions, and walks open-eyed into a trap, is rarely born north of the Alps. “I am a barbarian, a stranger, almost an enemy. What have you and I in common?”