Page:The Song of the Sirens.djvu/92

 not merely for an expedition, but even for a hunt or a ride."

"You would have taken it as a plain message from Jupiter imperatively prohibiting you from your purpose?" Anna inquired, "would you not? You would have left Aeneas undisturbed and Dido in his possession no matter how you raged and fumed?"

"I certainly should," Iarbas admitted, "if such an unthinkable accumulation of bad omens had occurred."

"Suppose," Anna resumed, "that before your first sacrifice Mercury himself had appeared to you, spoken to you as plainly as I am speaking to you and told you from Jupiter to give up your purpose and remain quietly at home, would you have obeyed?"

"I should certainly have obeyed," Iarbas declared fervently, "if such a plain warning had come to me from on high."

"You think yourself a scrupulous man," Anna said, "but Aeneas is far more scrupulous than you. Day before yesterday he left the palace on his rounds punctually as usual, as you know; as you know, he returned from the Hippodrome to the beach, spent most of the day there and re-entered the city by the Cothon gate about mid-afternoon. As he came in by the men's forecourt Dido met him. She had heard that the