“And in his care I would trust myself to descend, like Orpheus, into Hades.”
“Happy Pontius!”
“Most happy Verus!”
“What am I to understand by those words, charming Balbilla?”
“The poor architect is able to please by being a good guide, while to you belongs the whole heart of Lucilla, your sweet wife.”
“And she has the whole of mine so far as it is not full of Balbilla. Good-night, saucy Muse; sleep well.”
“Sleep ill, you incorrigible tormentor!” cried the girl, drawing the curtain across her window.
CHAPTER VIII.
The sleepless wretch on whom some trouble has fallen, so long as night surrounds him, sees his future life as a boundless sea in which he is sailing round and round like a shipwrecked man, but when the darkness yields, the new and helpful day shows him a boat for escape close at hand, and friendly shores in the distance.