She wore a gown of a yellow almost as intense as the garb of
the priests of Cybele in the Gardens of Verus. Its insistent yellow was
intensified and set off by a girdle of black silk cords, braided into a
complicated pattern, and by shoulder-knots of black silk, with dangling
fringes, and by black silk lacings along her smocked sleeves.
Her companion was tall and slender and melancholy faced, her hair a dull
reddish-gold or golden-red, her face without color and a bit freckled, her
gown of pale blue.
The black-haired girl called:
"You've had a long ride and you deserve recreation and refreshment. Come
in. We don't know you two, but we have entertained couriers before this.
This is the place for you."
"Ah, my dear," Agathemer replied, "we not only have had a long ride but we
may have to set out on a longer tomorrow, and you know the proverb:
"'Light lovers are seldom long lopers.'"
"If you were too much disinclined to being light lovers," the girl
retorted, "you'd never be strolling down this street. Come in!"
"My dear," said Agathemer, "we'd love to come in. But remember the
proverb:
"'Gay girls are not good for great gallopers.'"
"Oh, hang your proverbs," the girl laughed down at us. "I don't know what
you are up to, but I like you.
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