It was clear that she looked on the lashes as a substitute for her removal from the house, and that now she might stay there.

Petronius, who understood this, wondered at the passionate resistance of the girl; but he was too deeply versed in human nature not to know that love alone could call forth such resistance.
"Dost thou love some one in this house ?" asked he.
She raised her blue, tearful eyes to him, and answered, in a voice so low that it was hardly possible to hear her,--"Yes, lord." And with those eyes, with that golden hair thrown back, with fear and hope in her face, she was so beautiful, she looked at him so entreatingly, that Petronius, who, as a philosopher, had proclaimed the might of love, and who, as a man of aesthetic nature, had given homage to all beauty, felt for her a certain species of compassion.
"Whom of those dost thou love ?" inquired he, indicating the servants with his head.
There was no answer to that question.

Eunice inclined her head to his feet and remained motionless.
Petronius looked at the slaves, among whom were beautiful and stately youths.

He could read nothing on any face; on the contrary, all had certain strange smiles.

He looked then for a while on Eunice lying at his feet, and went in silence to the triclinium.
After he had eaten, he gave command to bear him to the palace, and then to Chrysothemis, with whom he remained till late at night.