“A greeting, divine Thersites! How are the lumps which Ulysses gave thee at Troy, and what is he doing himself in the Elysian Fields?”
“Noble lord,” answered Chilo Chilonides, “Ulysses, the wisest of the dead, sends a greeting through me to Petronius, the wisest of the living, and the request to cover my lumps with a new mantle.”
“By Hecate Triformis!” exclaimed Petronius, “the answer deserves a new mantle.”
But further conversation was interrupted by the impatient Vinicius, who inquired directly,—“Dost thou know clearly what thou art undertaking?”
“When two households in two lordly mansions speak of naught else, and when half Rome is repeating the news, it is not difficult to know,” answered Chilo. “The night before last a maiden named Lygia, but specially Callina, and reared in the h
