The two preserved a long silence, as if black thoughts were whirling through their minds.
"You will return from this expedition loaded down with riches," said the Greek, "and you will come back to Saguntum to spend them joyously."
"May it be thus!" murmured Alorcus. "But I feel a presentiment that we shall never meet again, Actæon; or, if we meet, it will be to curse the gods that we should ever have known each other. I go ignorant of my destination, and perhaps I must march against what I most love."
They said no more; they feared to give expression to their thoughts.
Greek and Celtiberian embraced tenderly. Then, after a sorrowful farewell, they kissed each other on the eyes in sign of fraternal friendship.
Sónnica feared that she had lost Actæon forever. His sudden departure seemed the caprice of a fickle Athenian--of an eternal wanderer, driven by the fever of seeing new lands. Only the gods could tell where that bird of passage might fly after his visit to Celtiberia! Perhaps he would remain with Alorcus; perhaps he would go to war along with those barbarians; perhaps, captivated by his knowledge and cleverness, they would go so far as to give him a kingdom.
Sónnica doubted that the Athenian would ever return. Her short springtime of love had been like the fugitive joy of the women adored by the gods when they had come down to earth. She who used to be so unfeeling as to mock at affection, now spent the days weeping on her couch, or wandering by night like a shade through the gardens, stopping in the grotto where the Greek had given her his first caress. The slaves wondered at the harsh and capricious temper of their mistress, who one moment groaned like a child, and the next, as if fired with sudden cruelty, ordered punishments for them all; but, without warning, Actæon presented himself before her villa one morning, riding a dusty, sweaty horse. He dismissed the ferocious featured barbarians who had served him as bodyguard, and ran with outstretched arms toward the tremulous Sónnica. The whole of her immense dominions seemed resuscitated; the mistress smiled; the garden bloomed more beautifully; on the terrace shone the plumage of the rare birds with greater splendor; the instruments of the flute players sounded more joyful, and to the slaves, freed now from punishment, the air seemed sweeter and the sky more blue.
