Part 2 (1/2)
The old man's face darkened. The wine stood untouched a long time before the two who, during the conversation, had become perfectly sober. But their hearts, which the wine had opened, remained unveiled.
”Let me look at the ring more closely,” said Mesembrius in a low tone.
Manlius held out his hand. The stone in the ring was a wonderfully carved cameo--the white bust of a beautiful woman, with Greek features, upon a purplish-yellow ground.
Mesembrius frowned gloomily as he examined the cameo; he averted his head, again gazed fixedly at the ring, and at last with a gesture of loathing, thrust it from him and bowed his gray head despairingly on his breast.
”Why do you look so sad?” asked Manlius. ”Do you know this ring? Do you know its owner!”
”I know her,” replied the old man in a hollow tone.
”Speak, who is it?”
”Who is it?” repeated Mesembrius with flas.h.i.+ng eyes. ”Who is it? A shameless hetaira, a loathsome courtesan, whose breath brings pestilence and contagion to the inhabitants of Rome, whose existence is a blot upon the work of creation; who has been cursed by her father so many times that, if all his execrations were fulfilled, no gra.s.s would grow upon the earth where she sets her foot, and compa.s.sion itself would turn from her in abhorrence.”
The old man's last words were lost in a convulsive sob.
”Who is this woman?” cried Manlius, springing from his chair.
”This woman is my daughter,” gasped Mesembrius.
”Glyceria?”
”_Abraxas!_” The old man fairly shouted the word used to ward off evil, and shuddered with loathing as he heard the name. Manlius drew the ring from his finger and went to the window, beneath which flowed the Tiber. Mesembrius guessed his intention.
”Don't throw it into the water! A fish might swallow it, the fishermen catch it, and it would again see the light of day. It will poison the Tiber, and whoever drinks from it will go mad. Keep it. I have an idea, on account of which you must wear this ring. You said you had done so until now for my sake.”
”I kept it to save you, if need be.”
”I thank you, Sinister. So you love me and my daughter. I thank you again and again; we will be grateful. In return, I will give my age, she her youth. We have always held you dear, always regarded you as one of our family. If you wish to guard us from peril--keep this ring--go with it where you are led--seek her who sent it--and kill her.”
”Mesembrius! She is your daughter.”
”If the basilisk is the child of the bird in whose nest it was hatched.”
”But she desires to s.h.i.+eld you from some unknown danger.”
”For me the world has no danger except she herself! What pestilence, earthquake, tempest, and scaffold mean to the dwellers upon earth, her name embodies to me! If I could approach her I would kill her.”
”She wishes to save you.”
”Do not believe her. Every word that falls from her lips is a lie; she has deceived her father, she deceives the G.o.ds. Her face looks as innocent as a sleeping babe's. When she speaks you are enchanted; if you should let her go on, she would draw the dagger from your hand, bewitch, ensnare you, melt your heart by her accursed magic arts till you were as cowardly as a scourged slave. She does not paint her face like other women, but her soul; now she is luring you to her by the pretext that she wants to save me and Sophronia, and if you go to her and do not thrust your sword into her heart, ere she can speak one word, she will persuade you to kill us.”
”Mesembrius, what has she done to you that you speak of her thus?”
”What has she done? She buried me ere I was dead! She dragged my grey beard in the mire! She poisoned my heart, robbed me of my sight and my blood to paint obscene pictures with them upon the walls of the lenocinium.”
”Fury blinds you, Mesembrius.”