Serapis | Page 5

lives are no longer our own, a borrowed purse with
damaged copper coins. The hard-hearted creditor has already bent his
knuckles, and when he knocks the time is up. Once more let us have
one hour of pure and perfect enjoyment, and then we will pay up
capital and interest when we must."
"It cannot and will not be yet," said Herse resolutely, but she wiped her
eyes with her band. "If Agne sings even, so long as she does it without
coercion and of her own free-will no Bishop can punish us."
"He cannot, he dare not!" cried the old man. "There are still laws and
judges."
"And Gorgo's family is influential as well as rich. Porphyrius has
power to protect us, and you do not yet know what a fancy he has taken
to us. Ask mother."
"It is like a story," Herse put in. "Before we left, the old lady--she must
be eighty or more--took me aside and asked me where we were lodging.
I told her at the Widow Mary's and when she heard it she struck her
crutch on the floor. 'Do you like the place?' she asked. I told her not at
all, and said we could not possibly stop here."

"Quite right!" cried Karnis. "The monks in the court-yard will kill us as
dead as rats if they hear us learning heathen hymns."
"That is what I told her; but the old lady did not allow me to finish; she
drew me close to her and whispered, 'only do as my granddaughter
wishes and you shall be safely housed and take this for the
present'--and she put her hand into the purse at her girdle, gave the gold
into my hand, and added loud enough for the others to hear: 'Fifty gold
pieces out of my own pocket if Gorgo tells me that she is satisfied with
your performance.'"
"Fifty gold pieces!" cried Karnis clasping his hands. "That brightens up
the dull grey of existence. Fifty, then, are certain. If we sing six times
that makes a talent--[estimated in 1880 at $1100]--and that will buy
back our old vineyard at Leontium. I will repair the old Odeum--they
have made a cowhouse of it--and when we sing there the monks may
come and listen! You laugh? But you are simpletons--I should like to
see who will forbid my singing on my own land and in my own country.
A talent of gold!
"It is quite enough to pay on account, and I will not agree to any
bargain that will not give me the field-slaves and cattle. Castles in the
air, do you say? But just listen to me: We are sure you see of a hundred
gold pieces at least. . ." He had raised his voice in his eagerness and
while he spoke the curtains had been softly opened, and the dull
glimmer of the lamp which stood in front of Orpheus fell on a head
which was charming in spite of its disorder. A quantity of loose fair
hair curled in papers stuck up all over the round head and fell over the
forehead, the eyes were tired and still half shut, but the little mouth was
wide awake and laughing with the frank amusement of light-hearted
youth.
Karnis, without noticing the listener, had gone on with his visionary
hopes of regaining his estates by his next earnings, but at this point the
young girl, holding the curtain in her right hand, stretched out her
plump left arm and begged in a humble whine:
"Good father Karnis, give me a little of your wealth; five poor little

drachmae!"
The old man started; but he instantly recovered himself and answered
good-naturedly enough:
"Go back to bed, you little hussy. You ought to be asleep instead of
listening there!"
"Asleep?" said the girl. "While you are shouting like an orator against
the wind! Five drachmae, father. I stick to that. A new ribband for me
will cost one, and the same for Agne, two. Two I will spend on wine
for us all, and that makes the five."
"That makes four--you are a great arithmetician to be sure!"
"Four?" said Dada, as much amazed as though the moon had fallen. "If
only I had a counting-frame. No, father, five I tell you--it is five."
"No, child, four; and you shall have four," replied her father. "Plutus is
at the door and to-morrow morning you shall both have garlands."
"Yes, of violets, ivy and roses," added Dame Herse. "Is Agne asleep?"
"As sound as the dead. She always sleeps soundly unless she lies wide
awake all the night through. But we were both so tired--and I am still. It
is a comfort to yawn. Do you see how I am sitting?"
"On the clothes-chest?" said Herse.