When  his  household  cares  obliged  the  ministrant  to  leave
her  room,  Nydia  began  to  recollect  her  thoughts.  Arbaces
was  the  accuser  of  Glaucus ;  Arbaces  had  imprisoned  her
here ;  was  not  that  a  proof  that  her  liberty  might  be  service-
able to  Glaucus?  Yes,  she  was  evidently  inveigled  into
some  snare ;  she  was  contributing  to  the  destruction  of  her
beloved?  Oh,  how  she  panted  for  release!  Fortunately,
for  her  sufferings,  all  sense  of  pain  became  merged  in  the
desire  to  escape ;  and  as  she  began  to  resolve  the  possibility
of  deliverance,  she  grew  calm  and  thoughtful.  She  possessed
much  of  the  craft  of  her  sex,  and  it  had  been  increased  in
her  breast  by  her  early  servitude.  What  slave  was  ever  des-
titute of  cunning?  She  resolved  to  practise  upon  her  keeper ;
and,  calling  suddenly  to  mind  his  superstitious  query  as  to
her  ThessaJian  art,  she  hoped  by  that  handle  to  work  out
some  method  of  release.  These  doubts  occupied  her  mind
during  the  rest  of  the  day  and  the  long  hours  of  night;  and,
accordingly,  when  Sosia  visited  her  the  following  morning,
she  hastened  to  divert  his  garrulity  into  that  itihanhel  in
which  it  had  before  evinced  a  natural  disposition  to  flow.
374  THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  POMPEII.
She  was  aware,  however,  that  her  only  chance  of  escapo
was  at  night ;  and  accordingly  she  was  obliged,  with  a  bit-
ter pang  at  the  delay,  to  defer  till  then  her  purposed
attempt.
