"The women from Gades, who danced last night, have arrived. Polyanthus has given them lodgings near the kitchens."
"And who else?"
"A moment ago the stranger from Athens, whom you met this morning at the temple of Aphrodite. I have had him go into the library, and I have forgotten none of the duties of hospitality. He has just come from the bath."
Sónnica smiled, recalling the meeting that morning. She had slept badly. She attributed it to the wakeful night spent with friends on the terrace of the villa, and to the capricious journey to the port before sunrise; but she thought with some confusion of the impression made in her mind by the Athenian's figure, which had reappeared several times in her dreams. Without knowing why she associated Actæon's appearance with that of Zeus when he came to earth in mortal form in search of human love.
In her moments of tedium in Athens, when she used to submit with repugnance to caresses for piles of gold, she experienced the vague desire of being loved by a god. She thought of Leda, of Psyche, even of the effeminate Ganymede beloved of the guests on Olympus, and she was in despair at the impossibility of finding a god who should transport her captive through a mysterious forest, or along some roadway leading to the unknown. She longed to contemplate her image in the depths of eyes animated by the splendor of the infinite; to kiss a mouth which served as a portal to supreme wisdom; to feel herself imprisoned in arms possessed of the immense strength of omnipotence. She had experienced a suggestion of this joy in loving her poet, who was sometimes as majestic and sublime as a divine being; but the simplicity of youth prevented her appreciation of that joy, and now, in her maturity, she only met men like those she had known in Athens, some rude and brutal, others effeminate and captious, lacking the severe and sovereign beauty she admired in statues.
She left her bath breathing with happy, childlike thrills, while her hair scattered a light shower at every step.
Odacis called, and three slaves entered; they were those who assisted at their mistress' toilet, the tractatrices in charge of the massage of the body.
Sónnica allowed herself to be manipulated by the three women who rubbed her vigorously, stretching her limbs to keep them supple and agile. Then she seated herself in a marble chair, resting her pink elbows on the dolphins which formed the arms of the seat, and in this position, erect and motionless, she waited for the slaves to proceed with the toilet.
One who was almost a child, wrapped in a mantle of broad stripes, knelt on the floor holding a great engraved bronze mirror in which Sónnica gazed at herself down to her thighs. Another arranged the toilet articles on the tables, and Odacis began to smooth her mistress' splendid hair with ivory combs. Meanwhile, the other slave approached with a bronze patera filled with a gray ointment. It was the bean-flour used by the Athenians of refinement to preserve the skin firm and elastic. She anointed Sónnica's cheeks with this, and then the prominent breasts, the abdomen, the thighs, and knees, leaving nearly the whole body covered by a lustrous, unctuous coating. Where hair had a tendency to grow, she applied dropax, a depilatory paste, composed of vinegar and earth from Cyprus.
Sónnica passively assisted these toilet preparations, which made her momentarily ugly in order that she might reappear each day more beautiful.