She knew his vainglory over pretty women, and his conceit; so when he came to her, infatuated with her beauty, and set about courting her, she received him with mockery, saying:
"You are used to having women love you. Do you know, then, what is required of you in return for the love of a woman who does not
love you?
"Three things — will you procure them for me?..."
He sensed that she was about to ask the impossible, and he looked at her with a look of anxiety and fear; but she smiled and turned to say gently:
"I want a mirror of silver, in which my eyes may see their own magic."
He said: "Be it as you wish. What else?"
She said: "I want a comb of ivory, to bury in the tresses of my hair, like a net cast upon the face of the water."
He said: "As you please. What else?"
She went on: "And I want a necklace of pearls, to hang upon my breast when I dance for you in my chamber, on my wedding day, the dance of my country."
He raised his eyebrows: "Is that all you ask?"
She said: "Are you the giver of this necklace I have asked for?"
He said: "Whatever necklace you wish is yours."
Then she grew tender, saying coquettishly:
"That is what I wanted to hear from you. Are you truly the granter of the gifts I love and choose?"
He answered: "Without doubt." She said: "Will you swear?" He said: "I swear."
She turned and said: "Swear, then, by the goddess Aphrodite whose statue you made."
He said: "I swear that I will do it — but why this precaution?"
And he began to grow irritated, and went on:
"I do not ask you to love me — I have wearied of love and grown to hate being loved. But I am ready to give you all the gold in this world, for all of it is mine in Egypt, and subject to my will."
She said mockingly: "And I too have it — in my hair and my braids. I am weary of gold; I neither want it nor ask for it. But what I want—"
She answered: "I was uneasy; now my mind is at rest. Did you think I would accept a silver mirror that you could buy from some merchant of Smyrna, or from any beauty in Alexandria? Then you are deluded. I want the silver mirror owned by my friend Bacchis, who snatched
one of my lovers from me last week and has taken to speaking of me with mockery and disdain in the gatherings of lovers and beauties — because of that historic mirror she is proud and boastful, and would not part with it though she were given all the treasures of the earth. And I know where you will find it: one night she got drunk, and the drink loosened her tongue, and she told me that she is in the habit of hiding it under a stone in her shrine every evening, just before she leaves her house. Go at that hour and do not be afraid, for she takes her slave girls and her slaves with her whenever she goes out of the house."
Demetrios cried out: "This is madness!... Do you expect me to steal the mirror for you?"
She burst out laughing: "Do you not love me? Did you not swear that you would do what I want?" And Demetrios understood that she was asking the impossible of him; but he yielded and submitted, as she wished, and said: "Be it as you will..."
She went on: "I was certain of it — though you hesitated at first... And do you suppose I am asking for an ordinary ivory comb, whose like you might buy in the city market? You are deluded. I ask for nothing but the ivory comb thrust into the braids of the wife of the High Priest; it came down to her from one of the queens of Egypt, and stamped upon it is the figure of a girl amid clusters of lotus blossoms, tripping over the water on the tips of her toes so as not to be wetted. I shall be the happiest of women if you bring it to me.
"And if you wish to know the secret of my choosing it, know that I bear a grudge against the priest's wife. Not long ago I brought her an