In the street he made Artemisia draw her mantle over her pretty face, and pressed through the crowds as fast as he could drag her onward. Quickly as he might he left the noisy Subura behind, and led on toward the Palatine. At length he turned in toward a large house, and by a narrow alley reached a garden gate, and gained admission to the rear. By his confident movements he showed himself familiar with the spot. The dwelling, as a matter of fact, was that of Calatinus.
As Agias pushed open the gate, and led Artemisia into a little garden enclosed with a high stone wall, he surprised a dapper-appearing young slave-lad of about his age, who was lying idly on the tiny grass plot, and indulging in a solitary game of backgammon.[129]
"Hem! Iasus," was Agias's salutation, "can you do an old friend a favour?"
Iasus sprang to his feet, with eyes, nose, and mouth wide open. He turned red, turned white, turned red once more.
"Phy!" cried the other; "you aren't so silly as to take me for a shade from Hades? I've as much strength and muscle as you."
"Agias!" blurted out Iasus, "are you alive? Really alive? They didn't beat you to death! I am so glad! You know—"
"St!" interrupted Agias. "You did, indeed, serve me an awkward trick some time since; but who can blame you for wanting to save your own skin. Pisander and Arsinoë and Semiramis have kept the secret that I'm alive very well, for in some ways it shouldn't come to Valeria's ears. My story later. Where's her most noble ladyship?"
"The domina," replied Iasus, with a sniff, "has just gone out on a visit to a friend who has a country-house near Fidenæ, up the Tiber."
"Praise the gods! Far enough to be abroad for the day, and perhaps over night! This suits my purpose wonderfully. Is Pisander at home, and Arsinoë?"
"I will fetch them," replied Iasus; and in a minute the philosopher and the waiting-maid were in the garden.