“Oh! the shame to call himself a philosopher,” groaned the neglected Pisander to himself.  “If I believed in the old gods, I would invoke the Furies upon him.”

But Valeria was now in the best of spirits.  “By the two Goddesses,"[41] she swore, “what charming sentiments you Greeks can express.  Now I think I look presentable, and can go around and see Papiria, and learn about that dreadful Silanus affair.  Tell Agias to bring in the cinnamon ointment.  I will try that for a change.  It is in the murrhine[42] vase in the other room.”

  [41] Demeter and Persephone, a Greek woman’s oath.

  [42] A costly substance, probably porcelain agate.

Iasus the serving-boy stepped into the next apartment, and gave the order to one of his fellow slaves.  A minute later there was a crash.  Arsinoe, who was without, screamed, and Semiramis, who thrust her head out the door, drew it back with a look of dismay.

“What has happened?” cried Valeria, startled and angry.

Into the room came Arsinoe, Iasus, and a second slave-boy, a well-favoured, intelligent looking young Greek of about seventeen.  His ruddy cheeks had turned very pale, as had those of Iasus.

“What has happened?” thundered Valeria, in a tone that showed that a sorry scene was impending.

The slaves fell on their knees; cowered, in fact, on the rugs at the lady’s feet.

“A!  A!  A! Lady!  Mercy!” they all began in a breath.  “The murrhina vase!  It is broken!”

“Who broke it?” cried their mistress, casting lightning glances from one to another.

Now the truth had been, that while Agias was coming through a door covered with a curtain, carrying the vase, Iasus had carelessly blundered against him and caused the catastrophe.  But there had been no other witnesses to the accident; and when Iasus saw that his mistress’s anger would promptly descend on somebody, he had not the moral courage to take the consequences of his carelessness.  What amounted to a frightful crime was committed in an instant.

“Agias stumbled and dropped the vase,” said Iasus, telling the truth, but not the whole truth.

“Send for Alfidius the lorarius,"[43] raged Valeria, who, with the promptness that characterizes a certain class of women, jumped at a conclusion and remained henceforth obstinate.  “This shall not happen again!  Oh! my vase! my vase!  I shall never get another one like it!  It was one of the spoils of Mithridates, and”—­here her eye fell on Agias, cringing and protesting his innocence in a fearful agony.

  [43] Whipper; many Roman houses had such a functionary, and he does
  not seem to have lacked employment.

“Stand up, boy!  Stop whining!  Of course you broke the vase.  Who else had it?  I will make you a lesson to all the slaves in my house.  They need one badly.  I will get another serving-boy who will be more careful.”