“I think she has seen nothing. It is a whim of old Cheres, the ship-owner on the quay. He wanted to buy the girl for ten minæ. Bacchis refused. Twenty minæ; she refused again.”
“She must be crazy.”
“Why, pray? It was her ambition to have a freed-woman. Besides, she was quite right to bargain. Cheres will give thirty-five minæ, and at that price the girl becomes a freed-woman.”
“Thirty-five minæ? Three thousand five hundred drachmæ? Three thousand five hundred drachmæ for a negress?”
“She is a white man’s daughter.”
“But her mother is black.”
“Bacchis declared that she would not part with her for less, and old Cheres is so amorous that he consented.”
“I hope he is invited at any rate.”
“No! Aphrodisia is to be served up at the banquet as the last dish, after the fruit. Everybody will taste of it at pleasure, and it is only on the morrow that she is to be handed over to Cheres; but I am much afraid she will be tired . . .”
“Don’t pity her. With him she will have time to recover. I know him, Seso. I have watched him sleep.”