“Bacchis has had her mirror stolen: Theano has just said so.”
“But when?”
“Who has taken it?”
The child shrugged her shoulders:
“How do I know?”
“You passed the night there. You must know. It is not possible. Who entered her house? You have certainly been told. Try to collect yourself, Theano.”
Thirty women crowded round the flute-girl.
“What do I know about it? There were more than twenty of them in the banqueting room.
“They had hired me to play the flute, but they prevented me from playing because they do not like music. They asked me to mimic the figure of Danaë and they threw gold coins at me, and Bacchis took them all away from me . . . It was a band of madmen. They made me drink head downwards out of a bowl overflowing with wine. They had poured seven tankards in it because there were seven wines upon the table. My face was all dripping. Even my hair was soaked, and my roses.”