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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Sisters, by Georg Ebers, Complete
+#28 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: The Sisters, Complete
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5466]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 12, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SISTERS, BY EBERS, COMPLETE ***
+
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+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
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+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
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+
+
+                         
+
+
+THE SISTERS, Complete
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+
+Translated from the German by Clara Bell
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION TO HERR EDUARD von HALLBERGER
+
+Allow me, my dear friend, to dedicate these pages to you. I present them
+to you at the close of a period of twenty years during which a warm and
+fast friendship has subsisted between us, unbroken by any disagreement.
+Four of my works have first seen the light under your care and have
+wandered all over the world under the protection of your name.  This, my
+fifth book, I desire to make especially your own; it was partly written
+in your beautiful home at Tutzing, under your hospitable roof, and I
+desire to prove to you by some visible token that I know how to value
+your affection and friendship and the many happy hours we have passed
+together, refreshing and encouraging each other by a full and perfect
+interchange of thought and sentiment.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+By a marvellous combination of circumstances a number of fragments of the
+Royal Archives of Memphis have been preserved from destruction with the
+rest, containing petitions written on papyrus in the Greek language;
+these were composed by a recluse of Macedonian birth, living in the
+Serapeum, in behalf of two sisters, twins, who served the god as "Pourers
+out of the libations."
+
+At a first glance these petitions seem scarcely worthy of serious
+consideration; but a closer study of their contents shows us that we
+possess in them documents of the greatest value in the history of
+manners.  They prove that the great Monastic Idea--which under the
+influence of Christianity grew to be of such vast moral and historical
+significance--first struck root in one of the centres of heathen
+religious practices; besides affording us a quite unexpected insight into
+the internal life of the temple of Serapis, whose ruined walls have, in
+our own day, been recovered from the sand of the desert by the
+indefatigable industry of the French Egyptologist Monsieur Mariette.
+
+I have been so fortunate as to visit this spot and to search through
+every part of it, and the petitions I speak of have been familiar to me
+for years.  When, however, quite recently, one of my pupils undertook to
+study more particularly one of these documents--preserved in the Royal
+Library at Dresden--I myself reinvestigated it also, and this study
+impressed on my fancy a vivid picture of the Serapeum under Ptolemy
+Philometor; the outlines became clear and firm, and acquired color, and
+it is this picture which I have endeavored to set before the reader, so
+far as words admit, in the following pages.
+
+I did not indeed select for my hero the recluse, nor for my heroines the
+twins who are spoken of in the petitions, but others who might have lived
+at a somewhat earlier date under similar conditions; for it is proved by
+the papyrus that it was not once only and by accident that twins were
+engaged in serving in the temple of Serapis, but that, on the contrary,
+pair after pair of sisters succeeded each other in the office of pouring
+out libations.
+
+I have not invested Klea and Irene with this function, but have simply
+placed them as wards of the Serapeum and growing up within its precincts.
+I selected this alternative partly because the existing sources of
+knowledge give us very insufficient information as to the duties that
+might have been required of the twins, partly for other reasons arising
+out of the plan of my narrative.
+
+Klea and Irene are purely imaginary personages, but on the other hand I
+have endeavored, by working from tolerably ample sources, to give a
+faithful picture of the historical physiognomy of the period in which
+they live and move, and portraits of the two hostile brothers Ptolemy
+Philometor and Euergetes II., the latter of whom bore the nickname of
+Physkon: the Stout.  The Eunuch Eulaeus and the Roman Publius Cornelius
+Scipio Nasica, are also historical personages.
+
+I chose the latter from among the many young patricians living at the
+time, partly on account of the strong aristocratic feeling which he
+displayed, particularly in his later life, and partly because his
+nickname of Serapion struck me.  This name I account for in my own way,
+although I am aware that he owed it to his resemblance to a person of
+inferior rank.
+
+For the further enlightenment of the reader who is not familiar with this
+period of Egyptian history I may suggest that Cleopatra, the wife of
+Ptolemy Philometor--whom I propose to introduce to the reader--must not
+be confounded with her famous namesake, the beloved of Julius Caesar and
+Mark Antony.  The name Cleopatra was a very favorite one among the
+Lagides, and of the queens who bore it she who has become famous through
+Shakespeare (and more lately through Makart) was the seventh, the sister
+and wife of Ptolemy XIV.  Her tragical death from the bite of a viper or
+asp did not occur until 134 years later than the date of my narrative,
+which I have placed 164 years B.C.
+
+At that time Egypt had already been for 169 years subject to the rule of
+a Greek (Macedonian) dynasty, which owed its name as that of the
+Ptolemies or Lagides to its founder Ptolemy Soter, the son of Lagus.
+This energetic man, a general under Alexander the Great, when his
+sovereign--333 B.C.--had conquered the whole Nile Valley, was appointed
+governor of the new Satrapy; after Alexander's death in 323 B.C., Ptolemy
+mounted the throne of the Pharaohs, and he and his descendants ruled over
+Egypt until after the death of the last and most famous of the
+Cleopatras, when it was annexed as a province to the Roman Empire.
+
+This is not the place for giving a history of the successive Ptolemies,
+but I may remark that the assimilating faculty exercised by the Greeks
+over other nations was potent in Egypt; particularly as the result of the
+powerful influence of Alexandria, the capital founded by Alexander, which
+developed with wonderful rapidity to be one of the most splendid centres
+of Hellenic culture and of Hellenic art and science.
+
+Long before the united rule of the hostile brothers Ptolemy Philometor
+and Euergetes--whose violent end will be narrated to the reader of this
+story--Greek influence was marked in every event and detail of Egyptian
+life, which had remained almost unaffected by the characteristics of
+former conquerors--the Hyksos, the Assyrians and the Persians; and, under
+the Ptolemies, the most inhospitable and exclusive nation of early
+antiquity threw open her gates to foreigners of every race.
+
+Alexandria was a metropolis even in the modern sense; not merely an
+emporium of commerce, but a focus where the intellectual and religious
+treasures of various countries were concentrated and worked up, and
+transmitted to all the nations that desired them.  I have resisted the
+temptation to lay the scene of my story there, because in Alexandria the
+Egyptian element was too much overlaid by the Greek, and the too splendid
+and important scenery and decorations might easily have distracted the
+reader's attention from the dramatic interest of the persons acting.
+
+At that period of the Hellenic dominion which I have described, the kings
+of Egypt were free to command in all that concerned the internal affairs
+of their kingdom, but the rapidly-growing power of the Roman Empire
+enabled her to check the extension of their dominion, just as she chose.
+
+Philometor himself had heartily promoted the immigration of Israelites
+from Palestine, and under him the important Jewish community in
+Alexandria acquired an influence almost greater than the Greek; and this
+not only in the city but in the kingdom and over their royal protector,
+who allowed them to build a temple to Jehovah on the shores of the Nile,
+and in his own person assisted at the dogmatic discussions of the
+Israelites educated in the Greek schools of the city.  Euergetes II., a
+highly gifted but vicious and violent man, was, on the contrary, just as
+inimical to them; he persecuted them cruelly as soon as his brother's
+death left him sole ruler over Egypt.  His hand fell heavily even on
+the members of the Great Academy--the Museum, as it was called--
+of Alexandria, though he himself had been devoted to the grave labors
+of science, and he compelled them to seek a new home.  The exiled sons
+of learning settled in various cities on the shores of the Mediterranean,
+and thus contributed not a little to the diffusion of the intellectual
+results of the labors in the Museum.
+
+Aristarchus, the greatest of Philometor's learned contemporaries, has
+reported for us a conversation in the king's palace at Memphis.  The
+verses about "the puny child of man," recited by Cleopatra in chapter X.,
+are not genuinely antique; but Friedrich Ritschl--the Aristarchus of our
+own days, now dead--thought very highly of them and gave them to me, some
+years ago, with several variations which had been added by an anonymous
+hand, then still in the land of the living.  I have added to the first
+verse two of these, which, as I learned at the eleventh hour, were
+composed by Herr H. L. von Held, who is now dead, and of whom further
+particulars may be learned from Varnhagen's 'Biographisclaen Denkmalen'.
+Vol. VII.  I think the reader will thank me for directing his attention
+to these charming lines and to the genius displayed in the moral
+application of the main idea.  Verses such as these might very well have
+been written by Callimachus or some other poet of the circle of the early
+members of the Museum of Alexandria.
+
+I was also obliged in this narrative to concentrate, in one limited
+canvas as it were, all the features which were at once the conditions and
+the characteristics of a great epoch of civilization, and to give them
+form and movement by setting the history of some of the men then living
+before the reader, with its complications and its denouement.  All the
+personages of my story grew up in my imagination from a study of the
+times in which they lived, but when once I saw them clearly in outline
+they soon stood before my mind in a more distinct form, like people in a
+dream; I felt the poet's pleasure in creation, and as I painted them
+their blood grew warm, their pulses began to beat and their spirit to
+take wings and stir, each in its appropriate nature.  I gave history her
+due, but the historic figures retired into the background beside the
+human beings as such; the representatives of an epoch became vehicles for
+a Human Ideal, holding good for all time; and thus it is that I venture
+to offer this transcript of a period as really a dramatic romance.
+
+Leipzig November 13, 1879.
+
+GEORG EBERS.
+
+
+
+
+THE SISTERS.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+On the wide, desert plain of the Necropolis of Memphis stands the
+extensive and stately pile of masonry which constitutes the Greek temple
+of Serapis; by its side are the smaller sanctuaries of Asclepios, of
+Anubis and of Astarte, and a row of long, low houses, built of unburnt
+bricks, stretches away behind them as a troop of beggar children might
+follow in the train of some splendidly attired king.
+
+The more dazzlingly brilliant the smooth, yellow sandstone walls of the
+temple appear in the light of the morning sun, the more squalid and mean
+do the dingy houses look as they crouch in the outskirts.  When the winds
+blow round them and the hot sunbeams fall upon them, the dust rises from
+them in clouds as from a dry path swept by the gale.  Even the rooms
+inside are never plastered, and as the bricks are of dried Nile-mud mixed
+with chopped straw, of which the sharp little ends stick out from the
+wall in every direction, the surface is as disagreeable to touch as it is
+unpleasing to look at.  When they were first built on the ground between
+the temple itself and the wall which encloses the precincts, and which,
+on the eastern side, divides the acacia-grove of Serapis in half, they
+were concealed from the votaries visiting the temple by the back wall of
+a colonnade on the eastern side of the great forecourt; but a portion of
+this colonnade has now fallen down, and through the breach, part of these
+modest structures are plainly visible with their doors and windows
+opening towards the sanctuary--or, to speak more accurately, certain
+rudely constructed openings for looking out of or for entering by.  Where
+there is a door there is no window, and where a gap in the wall serves
+for a window, a door is dispensed with; none of the chambers, however, of
+this long row of low one-storied buildings communicate with each other.
+
+A narrow and well-trodden path leads through the breach in the wall; the
+pebbles are thickly strewn with brown dust, and the footway leads past
+quantities of blocks of stone and portions of columns destined for the
+construction of a new building which seems only to have been intermitted
+the night before, for mallets and levers lie on and near the various
+materials.  This path leads directly to the little brick houses, and ends
+at a small closed wooden door so roughly joined and so ill-hung that
+between it and the threshold, which is only raised a few inches above the
+ground, a fine gray cat contrives to squeeze herself through by putting
+down her head and rubbing through the dust.  As soon as she finds herself
+once more erect on her four legs she proceeds to clean and smooth her
+ruffled fur, putting up her back, and glancing with gleaming eyes at the
+house she has just left, behind which at this moment the sun is rising;
+blinded by its bright rays she turns away and goes on with cautious and
+silent tread into the court of the temple.
+
+The hovel out of which pussy has crept is small and barely furnished; it
+would be perfectly dark too, but that the holes in the roof and the rift
+in the door admit light into this most squalid room.  There is nothing
+standing against its rough gray walls but a wooden chest, near this a few
+earthen bowls stand on the ground with a wooden cup and a gracefully
+wrought jug of pure and shining gold, which looks strangely out of place
+among such humble accessories.  Quite in the background lie two mats of
+woven bast, each covered with a sheepskin.  These are the beds of the two
+girls who inhabit the room, one of whom is now sitting on a low stool
+made of palm-branches, and she yawns as she begins to arrange her long
+and shining brown hair.  She is not particularly skilful and even less
+patient over this not very easy task, and presently, when a fresh tangle
+checks the horn comb with which she is dressing it, she tosses the comb
+on to the couch.  She has not pulled it through her hair with any haste
+nor with much force, but she shuts her eyes so tightly and sets her white
+teeth so firmly in her red dewy lip that it might be supposed that she
+had hurt herself very much.
+
+A shuffling step is now audible outside the door; she opens wide her
+tawny-hazel eyes, that have a look of gazing on the world in surprise,
+a smile parts her lips and her whole aspect is as completely changed as
+that of a butterfly which escapes from the shade into the sunshine where
+the bright beams are reflected in the metallic lustre of its wings.
+
+A hasty hand knocks at the ill-hung door, so roughly that it trembles on
+its hinges, and the instant after a wooden trencher is shoved in through
+the wide chink by which the cat made her escape; on it are a thin round
+cake of bread and a shallow earthen saucer containing a little olive-oil;
+there is no more than might perhaps be contained in half an ordinary egg-
+shell, but it looks fresh and sweet, and shines in clear, golden purity.
+The girl goes to the door, pulls in the platter, and, as she measures the
+allowance with a glance, exclaims half in lament and half in reproach:
+
+"So little! and is that for both of us?"
+
+As she speaks her expressive features have changed again and her flashing
+eyes are directed towards the door with a glance of as much dismay as
+though the sun and stars had been suddenly extinguished; and yet her only
+grief is the smallness of the loaf, which certainly is hardly large
+enough to stay the hunger of one young creature--and two must share it;
+what is a mere nothing in one man's life, to another may be of great
+consequence and of terrible significance.
+
+The reproachful complaint is heard by the messenger outside the door, for
+the old woman who shoved in the trencher over the threshold answers
+quickly but not crossly.
+
+"Nothing more to-day, Irene."
+
+"It is disgraceful," cries the girl, her eyes filling with tears, "every
+day the loaf grows smaller, and if we were sparrows we should not have
+enough to satisfy us.  You know what is due to us and I will never cease
+to complain and petition.  Serapion shall draw up a fresh address for us,
+and when the king knows how shamefully we are treated--"
+
+"Aye! when he knows," interrupted the old woman.  But the cry of the poor
+is tossed about by many winds before it reaches the king's ear.  I might
+find a shorter way than that for you and your sister if fasting comes so
+much amiss to you.  Girls with faces like hers and yours, my little
+Irene, need never come to want."
+
+"And pray what is my face like?"  asked the girl, and her pretty features
+once more seemed to catch a gleam of sunshine.
+
+"Why, so handsome that you may always venture to show it beside your
+sister's; and yesterday, in the procession, the great Roman sitting by
+the queen looked as often at her as at Cleopatra herself.  If you had
+been there too he would not have had a glance for the queen, for you are
+a pretty thing, as I can tell you.  And there are many girls would sooner
+hear those words then have a whole loaf--besides you have a mirror I
+suppose, look in that next time you are hungry."
+
+The old woman's shuffling steps retreated again and the girl snatched up
+the golden jar, opened the door a little way to let in the daylight and
+looked at herself in the bright surface; but the curve of the costly vase
+showed her features all distorted, and she gaily breathed on the hideous
+travestie that met her eyes, so that it was all blurred out by the
+moisture.  Then she smilingly put down the jar, and opening the chest
+took from it a small metal mirror into which she looked again and yet
+again, arranging her shining hair first in one way and then in another;
+and she only laid it down when she remembered a certain bunch of violets
+which had attracted her attention when she first woke, and which must
+have been placed in their saucer of water by her sister some time the day
+before.  Without pausing to consider she took up the softly scented
+blossoms, dried their green stems on her dress, took up the mirror again
+and stuck the flowers in her hair.
+
+How bright her eyes were now, and how contentedly she put out her hand
+for the loaf.  And how fair were the visions that rose before her young
+fancy as she broke off one piece after another and hastily eat them after
+slightly moistening them with the fresh oil.  Once, at the festival of
+the New Year, she had had a glimpse into the king's tent, and there she
+had seen men and women feasting as they reclined on purple cushions.  Now
+she dreamed of tables covered with costly vessels, was served in fancy by
+boys crowned with flowers, heard the music of flutes and harps and--for
+she was no more than a child and had such a vigorous young appetite--
+pictured herself as selecting the daintiest and sweetest morsels out of
+dishes of solid gold and eating till she was satisfied, aye so perfectly
+satisfied that the very last mouthful of bread and the very last drop of
+oil had disappeared.
+
+But so soon as her hand found nothing more on the empty trencher the
+bright illusion vanished, and she looked with dismay into the empty oil-
+cup and at the place where just now the bread had been.
+
+"Ah!" she sighed from the bottom of her heart; then she turned the
+platter over as though it might be possible to find some more bread and
+oil on the other side of it, but finally shaking her head she sat looking
+thoughtfully into her lap; only for a few minutes however, for the door
+opened and the slim form of her sister Klea appeared, the sister whose
+meagre rations she had dreamily eaten up, and Klea had been sitting up
+half the night sewing for her, and then had gone out before sunrise to
+fetch water from the Well of the Sun for the morning sacrifice at the
+altar of Serapis.
+
+Klea greeted her sister with a loving glance but without speaking; she
+seemed too exhausted for words and she wiped the drops from her forehead
+with the linen veil that covered the back of her head as she seated
+herself on the lid of the chest.  Irene immediately glanced at the empty
+trencher, considering whether she had best confess her guilt to the
+wearied girl and beg for forgiveness, or divert the scolding she had
+deserved by some jest, as she had often succeeded in doing before.  This
+seemed the easier course and she adopted it at once; she went up to her
+sister quickly, but not quite unconcernedly, and said with mock gravity:
+
+"Look here, Klea, don't you notice anything in me?  I must look like a
+crocodile that has eaten a whole hippopotamus, or one of the sacred
+snakes after it has swallowed a rabbit.  Only think when I had eaten my
+own bread I found yours between my teeth--quite unexpectedly--but now--"
+
+Klea, thus addressed, glanced at the empty platter and interrupted her
+sister with a low-toned exclamation.  "Oh! I was so hungry."
+
+The words expressed no reproof, only utter exhaustion, and as the young
+criminal looked at her sister and saw her sitting there, tired and worn
+out but submitting to the injury that had been done her without a word of
+complaint, her heart, easily touched, was filled with compunction and
+regret.  She burst into tears and threw herself on the ground before her,
+clasping her knees and crying, in a voice broken with sobs:
+
+"Oh Klea! poor, dear Klea, what have I done! but indeed I did not mean
+any harm.  I don't know how it happened.  Whatever I feel prompted to do
+I do, I can't help doing it, and it is not till it is done that I begin
+to know whether it was right or wrong.  You sat up and worried yourself
+for me, and this is how I repay you--I am a bad girl!  But you shall not
+go hungry--no, you shall not."
+
+"Never mind; never mind," said the elder, and she stroked her sister's
+brown hair with a loving hand.
+
+But as she did so she came upon the violets fastened among the shining
+tresses.  Her lips quivered and her weary expression changed as she
+touched the flowers and glanced at the empty saucer in which she had
+carefully placed them the clay before.  Irene at once perceived the
+change in her sister's face, and thinking only that she was surprised at
+her pretty adornment, she said gaily:  "Do you think the flowers becoming
+to me?"
+
+Klea's hand was already extended to take the violets out of the brown
+plaits, for her sister was still kneeling before her, but at this
+question her arm dropped, and she said more positively and distinctly
+than she had yet spoken and in a voice, whose sonorous but musical tones
+were almost masculine and certainly remarkable in a girl:
+
+"The bunch of flowers belongs to me; but keep it till it is faded, by
+mid-day, and then return it to me."
+
+"It belongs to you?"  repeated the younger girl, raising her eyes in
+surprise to her sister, for to this hour what had been Klea's had been
+hers also.  "But I always used to take the flowers you brought home; what
+is there special in these?"
+
+"They are only violets like any other violets," replied Klea coloring
+deeply.  "But the queen has worn them."
+
+"The queen!"  cried her sister springing to her feet and clasping her
+hands in astonishment.  "She gave you the flowers?  And you never told me
+till now?  To be sure when you came home from the procession yesterday
+you only asked me how my foot was and whether my clothes were whole and
+then not another mortal word did you utter.  Did Cleopatra herself give
+you this bunch?"
+
+"How should she?"  retorted Klea.  "One of her escort threw them to me;
+but drop the subject pray!  Give me the water, please, my mouth is
+parched and I can hardly speak for thirst."
+
+The bright color dyed her cheeks again as she spoke, but Irene did not
+observe it, for--delighted to make up for her evil doings by performing
+some little service--she ran to fetch the water-jar; while Klea filled
+and emptied her wooden bowl she said, gracefully lifting a small foot, to
+show to her sister:
+
+"Look, the cut is almost healed and I can wear my sandal again.  Now I
+shall tie it on and go and ask Serapion for some bread for you and
+perhaps he will give us a few dates.  Please loosen the straps for me a
+little, here, round the ankle, my skin is so thin and tender that a
+little thing hurts me which you would hardly feel.  At mid-day I will go
+with you and help fill the jars for the altar, and later in the day I can
+accompany you in the procession which was postponed from yesterday.  If
+only the queen and the great foreigner should come again to look on at
+it!  That would be splendid!  Now, I am going, and before you have drunk
+the last bowl of water you shall have some bread, for I will coax the old
+man so prettily that he can't say 'no.'"
+
+Irene opened the door, and as the broad sunlight fell in it lighted up
+tints of gold in her chestnut hair, and her sister looking after her
+could almost fancy that the sunbeams had got entangled with the waving
+glory round her head.  The bunch of violets was the last thing she took
+note of as Irene went out into the open air; then she was alone and she
+shook her head gently as she said to herself:  "I give up everything to
+her and what I have left she takes from me.  Three times have I met the
+Roman, yesterday he gave me the violets, and I did want to keep those for
+myself--and now--"  As she spoke she clasped the bowl she still held in
+her hand closely to her and her lips trembled pitifully, but only for an
+instant; she drew herself up and said firmly:  "But it is all as it
+should be."
+
+Then she was silent; she set down the water-jar on the chest by her side,
+passed the back of her hand across her forehead as if her head were
+aching, then, as she sat gazing down dreamily into her lap, her weary
+head presently fell on her shoulder and she was asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The low brick building of which the sisters' room formed a part, was
+called the Pastophorium, and it was occupied also by other persons
+attached to the service of the temple, and by numbers of pilgrims.  These
+assembled here from all parts of Egypt, and were glad to pass a night
+under the protection of the sanctuary.
+
+Irene, when she quitted her sister, went past many doors--which had been
+thrown open after sunrise--hastily returning the greetings of many
+strange as well as familiar faces, for all glanced after her kindly as
+though to see her thus early were an omen of happy augury, and she soon
+reached an outbuilding adjoining the northern end of the Pastophorium;
+here there was no door, but at the level of about a man's height from
+the ground there were six unclosed windows opening on the road.  From the
+first of these the pale and much wrinkled face of an old man looked down
+on the girl as she approached.  She shouted up to him in cheerful accents
+the greeting familiar to the Hellenes "Rejoice!"  But he, without moving
+his lips, gravely and significantly signed to her with his lean hand and
+with a glance from his small, fixed and expressionless eyes that she
+should wait, and then handed out to her a wooden trencher on which lay a
+few dates and half a cake of bread.
+
+"For the altar of the god?"  asked the girl.  The old man nodded assent,
+and Irene went on with her small load, with the assurance of a person who
+knows exactly what is required of her; but after going a few steps and
+before she had reached the last of the six windows she paused, for she
+plainly heard voices and steps, and presently, at the end of the
+Pastophorium towards which she was proceeding and which opened into a
+small grove of acacias dedicated to Serapis--which was of much greater
+extent outside the enclosing wall--appeared a little group of men whose
+appearance attracted her attention; but she was afraid to go on towards
+the strangers, so, leaning close up to the wall of the houses, she
+awaited their departure, listening the while to what they were saying.
+
+In front of these early visitors to the temple walked a man with a long
+staff in his right hand speaking to the two gentlemen who followed, with
+the air of a professional guide, who is accustomed to talk as if he were
+reading to his audience out of an invisible book, and whom the hearers
+are unwilling to interrupt with questions, because they know that his
+knowledge scarcely extends beyond exactly what he says.  Of his two
+remarkable-looking hearers one was wrapped in a long and splendid robe
+and wore a rich display of gold chains and rings, while the other wore
+nothing over his short chiton but a Roman toga thrown over his left
+shoulder.
+
+His richly attired companion was an old man with a full and beardless
+face and thin grizzled hair.  Irene gazed at him with admiration and
+astonishment, but when she had feasted her eyes on the stuffs and
+ornaments he wore, she fixed them with much greater interest and
+attention on the tall and youthful figure at his side.
+
+"Like Hui, the cook's fat poodle, beside a young lion," thought she to
+herself, as she noted the bustling step of the one and the independent
+and elastic gait of the other.  She felt irresistibly tempted to mimic
+the older man, but this audacious impulse was soon quelled for scarcely
+had the guide explained to the Roman that it was here that those pious
+recluses had their cells who served the god in voluntary captivity, as
+being consecrated to Serapis, and that they received their food through
+those windows--here he pointed upwards with his staff when suddenly a
+shutter, which the cicerone of this ill-matched pair had touched with his
+stick, flew open with as much force and haste as if a violent gust of
+wind had caught it, and flung it back against the wall.--And no less
+suddenly a man's head-of ferocious aspect and surrounded by a shock of
+gray hair like a lion's mane--looked out of the window and shouted to him
+who had knocked, in a deep and somewhat overloud voice.
+
+"If my shutter had been your back, you impudent rascal, your stick would
+have hit the right thing.  Or if I had a cudgel between my teeth instead
+of a tongue, I would exercise it on you till it was as tired as that of a
+preacher who has threshed his empty straw to his congregation for three
+mortal hours.  Scarcely is the sun risen when we are plagued by the
+parasitical and inquisitive mob.  Why! they will rouse us at midnight
+next, and throw stones at our rotten old shutters.  The effects of my
+last greeting lasted you for three weeks--to-day's I hope may act a
+little longer.  You, gentlemen there, listen to me.  Just as the raven
+follows an army to batten on the dead, so that fellow there stalks on in
+front of strangers in order to empty their pockets--and you, who call
+yourself an interpreter, and in learning Greek have forgotten the little
+Egyptian you ever knew, mark this: When you have to guide strangers take
+them to see the Sphinx, or to consult the Apis in the temple of Ptah, or
+lead them to the king's beast-garden at Alexandria, or the taverns at
+Hanopus, but don't bring them here, for we are neither pheasants, nor
+flute-playing women, nor miraculous beasts, who take a pleasure in being
+stared at.  You, gentlemen, ought to choose a better guide than this
+chatter-mag that keeps up its perpetual rattle when once you set it
+going.  As to yourselves I will tell you one thing: Inquisitive eyes are
+intrusive company, and every prudent house holder guards himself against
+them by keeping his door shut."
+
+Irene shrank back and flattened herself against the pilaster which
+concealed her, for the shutter closed again with a slam, the recluse
+pulling it to with a rope attached to its outer edge, and he was hidden
+from the gaze of the strangers; but only for an instant, for the rusty
+hinges on which the shutter was hanging were not strong enough to bear
+such violent treatment, and slowly giving way it was about to fall.  The
+blustering hermit stretched out an arm to support it and save it; but it
+was heavy, and his efforts would not have succeeded had not the young man
+in Roman dress given his assistance and lifted up the shutter with his
+hand and shoulder, without any effort, as if it were made of willow laths
+instead of strong planks.
+
+"A little higher still," shouted the recluse to his assistant.  "Let us
+set the thing on its edge!  so, push away, a little more.  There, I have
+propped up the wretched thing and there it may lie.  If the bats pay me a
+visit to-night I will think of you and give them your best wishes."
+
+"You may save yourself that trouble," replied the young man with cool
+dignity.  "I will send you a carpenter who shall refix the shutter, and
+we offer you our apologies for having been the occasion of the mischief
+that has happened."
+
+The old man did not interrupt the speaker, but, when he had stared at him
+from head to foot, he said: "You are strong and you speak fairly, and I
+might like you well enough if you were in other company.  I don't want
+your carpenter; only send me down a hammer, a wedge, and a few strong
+nails.  Now, you can do nothing more for me, so pack off"
+
+"We are going at once," said the more handsomely dressed visitor in a
+thin and effeminate voice.  "What can a man do when the boys pelt him
+with dirt from a safe hiding-place, but take himself off"
+
+"Be off, be off," said the person thus described, with a laugh.
+"As far off as Samothrace if you like, fat Eulaeus; you can scarcely have
+forgotten the way there since you advised the king to escape thither with
+all his treasure.  But if you cannot trust yourself to find it alone,
+I recommend you your interpreter and guide there to show you the road."
+
+The Eunuch Eulaeus, the favorite councillor of King Ptolemy--called
+Philometor (the lover of his mother)--turned pale at these words, cast a
+sinister glance at the old man and beckoned to the young Roman; he
+however was not inclined to follow, for the scolding old oddity had taken
+his fancy--perhaps because he was conscious that the old man, who
+generally showed no reserve in his dislikes, had a liking for him.
+Besides, he found nothing to object to in his opinion of his companions,
+so he turned to Eulaeus and said courteously:
+
+"Accept my best thanks for your company so far, and do not let me detain
+you any longer from your more important occupations on my account."
+
+Eulaeus bowed and replied, "I know what my duty is.  The king entrusted
+me with your safe conduct; permit me therefore to wait for you under the
+acacias yonder."
+
+When Eulaeus and the guide had reached the green grove, Irene hoped to
+find an opportunity to prefer her petition, but the Roman had stopped in
+front of the old man's cell, and had begun a conversation with him which
+she could not venture to interrupt.  She set down the platter with the
+bread and dates that had been entrusted to her on a projecting stone by
+her side with a little sigh, crossed her arms and feet as she leaned
+against the wall, and pricked up her ears to hear their talk.
+
+"I am not a Greek," said the youth, "and you are quite mistaken in
+thinking that I came to Egypt and to see you out of mere curiosity."
+
+"But those who come only to pray in the temple," interrupted the other,
+"do not--as it seems to me--choose an Eulaeus for a companion, or any
+such couple as those now waiting for you under the acacias, and invoking
+anything rather than blessings on your head; at any rate, for my own
+part, even if I were a thief I would not go stealing in their company.
+What then brought you to Serapis?"
+
+"It is my turn now to accuse you of curiosity!"
+
+"By all means," cried the old man, "I am an honest dealer and quite
+willing to take back the coin I am ready to pay away.  Have you come to
+have a dream interpreted, or to sleep in the temple yonder and have a
+face revealed to you?"
+
+"Do I look so sleepy," said the Roman, "as to want to go to bed again
+now, only an hour after sunrise?"
+
+"It may be," said the recluse, "that you have not yet fairly come to the
+end of yesterday, and that at the fag-end of some revelry it occurred to
+you that you might visit us and sleep away your headache at Serapis."
+
+"A good deal of what goes on outside these walls seems to come to your
+ears," retorted the Roman, "and if I were to meet you in the street
+I should take you for a ship's captain or a master-builder who had to
+manage a number of unruly workmen.  According to what I heard of you and
+those like you in Athens and elsewhere, I expected to find you something
+quite different."
+
+"What did you expect?"  said Serapion laughing.  "I ask you
+notwithstanding the risk of being again considered curious."
+
+"And I am very willing to answer," retorted the other, "but if I were to
+tell you the whole truth I should run into imminent danger of being sent
+off as ignominiously as my unfortunate guide there."
+
+"Speak on," said the old man, "I keep different garments for different
+men, and the worst are not for those who treat me to that rare dish--a
+little truth.  But before you serve me up so bitter a meal tell me, what
+is your name?"
+
+"Shall I call the guide?"  said the Roman with an ironical laugh.  "He
+can describe me completely, and give you the whole history of my family.
+But, joking apart, my name is Publius."
+
+"The name of at least one out of every three of your countrymen."
+
+"I am of the Cornelia gens and of the family of the Scipios," continued
+the youth in a low voice, as though he would rather avoid boasting of his
+illustrious name.
+
+"Indeed, a noble gentleman, a very grand gentleman!"  said the recluse,
+bowing deeply out of his window.  "But I knew that beforehand, for at
+your age and with such slender ankles to his long legs only a nobleman
+could walk as you walk.  Then Publius Cornelius--"
+
+"Nay, call me Scipio, or rather by my first name only, Publius," the
+youth begged him.  "You are called Serapion, and I will tell you what you
+wish to know.  When I was told that in this temple there were people who
+had themselves locked into their little chambers never to quit them,
+taking thought about their dreams and leading a meditative life, I
+thought they must be simpletons or fools or both at once."
+
+"Just so, just so," interrupted Serapion.  "But there is a fourth
+alternative you did not think of.  Suppose now among these men there
+should be some shut up against their will, and what if I were one of
+those prisoners?  I have asked you a great many questions and you have
+not hesitated to answer, and you may know how I got into this miserable
+cage and why I stay in it.  I am the son of a good family, for my father
+was overseer of the granaries of this temple and was of Macedonian
+origin, but my mother was an Egyptian.  I was born in an evil hour, on
+the twenty-seventh day of the month of Paophi, a day which it is said in
+the sacred books that it is an evil day and that the child that is born
+in it must be kept shut up or else it will die of a snake-bite.  In
+consequence of this luckless prediction many of those born on the same
+day as myself were, like me, shut up at an early age in this cage.  My
+father would very willingly have left me at liberty, but my uncle,
+a caster of horoscopes in the temple of Ptah, who was all in all in my
+mother's estimation, and his friends with him, found many other evil
+signs about my body, read misfortune for me in the stars, declared that
+the Hathors had destined me to nothing but evil, and set upon her so
+persistently that at last I was destined to the cloister--we lived here
+at Memphis.  I owe this misery to my dear mother and it was out of pure
+affection that she brought it upon me.  You look enquiringly at me--aye,
+boy! life will teach you too the lesson that the worst hate that can be
+turned against you often entails less harm upon you than blind tenderness
+which knows no reason.  I learned to read and write, and all that is
+usually taught to the priests' sons, but never to accommodate myself to
+my lot, and I never shall.--Well, when my beard grew I succeeded in
+escaping and I lived for a time in the world.  I have been even to Rome,
+to Carthage, and in Syria; but at last I longed to drink Nile-water once
+more and I returned to Egypt.  Why?  Because, fool that I was, I fancied
+that bread and water with captivity tasted better in my own country than
+cakes and wine with freedom in the land of the stranger.
+
+"In my father's house I found only my mother still living, for my father
+had died of grief.  Before my flight she had been a tall, fine woman,
+when I came home I found her faded and dying.  Anxiety for me, a
+miserable wretch, had consumed her, said the physician--that was the
+hardest thing to bear.  When at last the poor, good little woman, who
+could so fondly persuade me--a wild scamp--implored me on her death-bed
+to return to my retreat, I yielded, and swore to her that I would stay in
+my prison patiently to the end, for I am as water is in northern
+countries, a child may turn me with its little hand or else I am as hard
+and as cold as crystal.  My old mother died soon after I had taken this
+oath.  I kept my word as you see--and you have seen too how I endure my
+fate."
+
+"Patiently enough," replied Publius, "I should writhe in my chains far
+more rebelliously than you, and I fancy it must do you good to rage and
+storm sometimes as you did just now."
+
+"As much good as sweet wine from Chios!"  exclaimed the anchorite,
+smacking his lips as if he tasted the noble juice of the grape, and
+stretching his matted head as far as possible out of the window.  Thus it
+happened that he saw Irene, and called out to her in a cheery voice:
+
+"What are you doing there, child?  You are standing as if you were
+waiting to say good-morning to good fortune."
+
+The girl hastily took up the trencher, smoothed down her hair with her
+other hand, and as she approached the men, coloring slightly, Publius
+feasted his eyes on her in surprise and admiration.
+
+But Serapion's words had been heard by another person, who now emerged
+from the acacia-grove and joined the young Roman, exclaiming before he
+came up with them:
+
+"Waiting for good fortune! does the old man say?  And you can hear it
+said, Publius, and not reply that she herself must bring good fortune
+wherever she appears."
+
+The speaker was a young Greek, dressed with extreme care, and he now
+stuck the pomegranate-blossom he carried in his hand behind his ear, so
+as to shake hands with his friend Publius; then he turned his fair,
+saucy, almost girlish face with its finely-cut features up to the
+recluse, wishing to attract his attention to himself by his next speech.
+
+"With Plato's greeting 'to deal fairly and honestly' do I approach you!"
+he cried; and then he went on more quietly: "But indeed you can hardly
+need such a warning, for you belong to those who know how to conquer
+true--that is the inner--freedom; for who can be freer than he who needs
+nothing?  And as none can be nobler than the freest of the free, accept
+the tribute of my respect, and scorn not the greeting of Lysias of
+Corinth, who, like Alexander, would fain exchange lots with you, the
+Diogenes of Egypt, if it were vouchsafed to him always to see out the
+window of your mansion--otherwise not very desirable--the charming form
+of this damsel--"
+
+"That is enough, young man," said Serapion, interrupting the Greek's flow
+of words.  "This young girl belongs to the temple, and any one who is
+tempted to speak to her as if she were a flute-player will have to deal
+with me, her protector.  Yes, with me; and your friend here will bear me
+witness that it may not be altogether to your advantage to have a quarrel
+with such as I.  Now, step back, young gentlemen, and let the girl tell
+me what she needs."
+
+When Irene stood face to face with the anchorite, and had told him
+quickly and in a low voice what she had done, and that her sister Klea
+was even now waiting for her return, Serapion laughed aloud, and then
+said in a low tone, but gaily, as a father teases his daughter:
+
+"She has eaten enough for two, and here she stands, on her tiptoes,
+reaching up to my window, as if it were not an over-fed girl that stood
+in her garments, but some airy sprite.  We may laugh, but Klea, poor
+thing, she must be hungry?"
+
+Irene made no reply, but she stood taller on tiptoe than ever, put her
+face up to Serapion, nodding her pretty head at him again and again, and
+as she looked roguishly and yet imploringly into his eyes Serapion went
+on:
+
+"And so I am to give my breakfast to Klea, that is what you want; but
+unfortunately that breakfast is a thing of the past and beyond recall;
+nothing is left of it but the date-stones.  But there, on the trencher
+in your hand, is a nice little meal."
+
+"That is the offering to Serapis sent by old Phibis," answered the girl.
+
+"Hm, hm--oh! of course!"  muttered the old man.  "So long as it is for a
+god--surely he might do without it better than a poor famishing girl."
+
+Then he went on, gravely and emphatically, as a teacher who has made an
+incautious speech before his pupils endeavors to rectify it by another of
+more solemn import.
+
+"Certainly, things given into our charge should never be touched;
+besides, the gods first and man afterwards.  Now if only I knew what to
+do.  But, by the soul of my father!  Serapis himself sends us what we
+need.  Step close up to me, noble Scipio--or Publius, if I may so call
+you--and look out towards the acacias.  Do you see my favorite, your
+cicerone, and the bread and roast fowls that your slave has brought him
+in that leathern wallet?  And now he is setting a wine-jar on the carpet
+he has spread at the big feet of Eulaeus--they will be calling you to
+share the meal in a minute, but I know of a pretty child who is very
+hungry--for a little white cat stole away her breakfast this morning.
+Bring me half a loaf and the wing of a fowl, and a few pomegranates if
+you like, or one of the peaches Eulaeus is so judiciously fingering.
+Nay--you may bring two of them, I have a use for both."
+
+"Serapion!"  exclaimed Irene in mild reproof and looking down at the
+ground; but the Greek answered with prompt zeal, "More, much more than
+that I can bring you.  I hasten--"
+
+"Stay here," interrupted Publius with decision, holding him back by the
+shoulder.  "Serapion's request was addressed to me, and I prefer to do my
+friend's pleasure in my own person."
+
+"Go then," cried the Greek after Publius as he hurried away.  "You will
+not allow me even thanks from the sweetest lips in Memphis.  Only look,
+Serapion, what a hurry he is in.  And now poor Eulaeus has to get up; a
+hippopotamus might learn from him how to do so with due awkwardness.
+Well! I call that making short work of it--a Roman never asks before he
+takes; he has got all he wants and Eulaeus looks after him like a cow
+whose calf has been stolen from her; to be sure I myself would rather eat
+peaches than see them carried away!  Oh if only the people in the Forum
+could see him now!  Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, own grandson to the
+great Africanus, serving like a slave at a feast with a dish in each
+hand!  Well Publius, what has Rome the all conquering brought home this
+time in token of victory?"
+
+"Sweet peaches and a roast pheasant," said Cornelius laughing, and he
+handed two dishes into the anchorite's window; "there is enough left
+still for the old man."
+
+"Thanks, many thanks!"  cried Serapion, beckoning to Irene, and he gave
+her a golden-yellow cake of wheaten bread, half of the roast bird,
+already divided by Eulaeus, and two peaches, and whispered to her:
+"Klea may come for the rest herself when these men are gone.  Now thank
+this kind gentleman and go."
+
+For an instant the girl stood transfixed, her face crimson with confusion
+and her glistening white teeth set in her nether lip, speechless, face to
+face with the young Roman and avoiding the earnest gaze of his black
+eyes.  Then she collected herself and said:
+
+"You are very kind.  I cannot make any pretty speeches, but I thank you
+most kindly."
+
+"And your very kind thanks," replied Publius, "add to the delights of
+this delightful morning.  I should very much like to possess one of the
+violets out of your hair in remembrance of this day--and of you."
+
+"Take them all," exclaimed Irene, hastily taking the bunch from her hair
+and holding them out to the Roman; but before he could take them she drew
+back her hand and said with an air of importance:
+
+"The queen has had them in her hand.  My sister Klea got them yesterday
+in the procession."
+
+Scipio's face grew grave at these words, and he asked with commanding
+brevity and sharpness:
+
+"Has your sister black hair and is she taller than you are, and did she
+wear a golden fillet in the procession?  Did she give you these flowers?
+Yes--do you say?  Well then, she had the bunch from me, but although she
+accepted them she seems to have taken very little pleasure in them, for
+what we value we do not give away--so there they may go, far enough!"
+
+With these words he flung the flowers over the house and then he went on:
+
+"But you, child, you shall be held guiltless of their loss.  Give me your
+pomegranate-flower, Lysias!"
+
+"Certainly not," replied the Greek.  "You chose to do pleasure to your
+friend Serapion in your own person when you kept me from going to fetch
+the peaches, and now I desire to offer this flower to the fair Irene with
+my own hand."
+
+"Take this flower," said Publius, turning his back abruptly on the girl,
+while Lysias laid the blossom on the trencher in the maiden's hand; she
+felt the rough manners of the young Roman as if she had been touched by a
+hard hand; she bowed silently and timidly and then quickly ran home.
+
+Publius looked thoughtfully after her till Lysias called out to him:
+
+"What has come over me?  Has saucy Eros perchance wandered by mistake
+into the temple of gloomy Serapis this morning?"
+
+"That would not be wise," interrupted the recluse, "for Cerberus, who
+lies at the foot of our God, would soon pluck the fluttering wings of the
+airy youngster," and as he spoke he looked significantly at the Greek.
+
+"Aye! if he let himself be caught by the three-headed monster," laughed
+Lysias.  "But come away now, Publius; Eulaeus has waited long enough."
+
+"You go to him then," answered the Roman, "I will follow soon; but first
+I have a word to say to Serapion."
+
+Since Irene's disappearance, the old man had turned his attention to the
+acacia-grove where Eulaeus was still feasting.  When the Roman addressed
+him he said, shaking his great head with dissatisfaction:
+
+"Your eyes of course are no worse than mine.  Only look at that man
+munching and moving his jaws and smacking his lips.  By Serapis!  you can
+tell the nature of a man by watching him eat.  You know I sit in my cage
+unwillingly enough, but I am thankful for one thing about it, and that is
+that it keeps me far from all that such a creature as Eulaeus calls
+enjoyment--for such enjoyment, I tell you, degrades a man."
+
+"Then you are more of a philosopher than you wish to seem," replied
+Publius.
+
+"I wish to seem nothing," answered the anchorite.
+
+"For it is all the same to me what others think of me.  But if a man who
+has nothing to do and whose quiet is rarely disturbed, and who thinks his
+own thoughts about many things is a philosopher, you may call me one if
+you like.  If at any time you should need advice you may come here again,
+for I like you, and you might be able to do me an important service."
+
+"Only speak," interrupted the Roman, "I should be glad from my heart to
+be of any use to you."
+
+"Not now," said Serapion softly.  "But come again when you have time--
+without your companions there, of course--at any rate without Eulaeus,
+who of all the scoundrels I ever came across is the very worst.  It may
+be as well to tell you at once that what I might require of you would
+concern not myself but the weal or woe of the water-bearers, the two
+maidens you have seen and who much need protection."
+
+"I came here for my parents' sake and for Klea's, and not on your
+account," said Publius frankly.  "There is something in her mien and in
+her eyes which perhaps may repel others but which attracts me.  How came
+so admirable a creature in your temple?"
+
+"When you come again," replied the recluse, "I will tell you the history
+of the sisters and what they owe to Eulaeus.  Now go, and understand me
+when I say the girls are well guarded.  This observation is for the
+benefit of the Greek who is but a heedless fellow; but you, when you
+know who the girls are, will help me to protect them."
+
+"That I would do as it is, with real pleasure," replied Publius; he took
+leave of the recluse and called out to Eulaeus.
+
+"What a delightful morning it has been!"
+
+"It would have been pleasanter for me," replied Eulaeus, "if you had not
+deprived me of your company for such a long time."
+
+"That is to say," answered the Roman, "that I have stayed away longer
+than I ought."
+
+"You behave after the fashion of your race," said the other bowing low.
+"They have kept even kings waiting in their ante-chambers."
+
+"But you do not wear a crown," said Publius evasively.  "And if any one
+should know how to wait it is an old courtier, who--"
+
+"When it is at the command of his sovereign," interrupted Eulaeus, the
+old courtier may submit, even when youngsters choose to treat him with
+contempt."
+
+"That hits us both," said Publius, turning to Lysias.  "Now you may
+answer him, I have heard and said enough."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Irene's foot was not more susceptible to the chafing of a strap than her
+spirit to a rough or an unkind word; the Roman's words and manner had
+hurt her feelings.
+
+She went towards home with a drooping head and almost crying, but before
+she had reached it her eyes fell on the peaches and the roast bird she
+was carrying.  Her thoughts flew to her sister and how much the famishing
+girl would relish so savory a meal; she smiled again, her eyes shone with
+pleasure, and she went on her way with a quickened step.  It never once
+occurred to her that Klea would ask for the violets, or that the young
+Roman could be anything more to her sister than any other stranger.
+
+She had never had any other companion than Klea, and after work, when
+other girls commonly discussed their longings and their agitations and
+the pleasures and the torments of love, these two used to get home so
+utterly wearied that they wanted nothing but peace and sleep.  If they
+had sometimes an hour for idle chat Klea ever and again would tell some
+story of their old home, and Irene, who even within the solemn walls of
+the temple of Serapis sought and found many innocent pleasures, would
+listen to her willingly, and interrupt her with questions and with
+anecdotes of small events or details which she fancied she remembered of
+her early childhood, but which in fact she had first learnt from her
+sister, though the force of a lively imagination had made them seem a
+part and parcel of her own experience.
+
+Klea had not observed Irene's long absence since, as we know, shortly
+after her sister had set out, overpowered by hunger and fatigue she had
+fallen asleep.  Before her nodding head had finally sunk and her drooping
+eyelids had closed, her lips now and then puckered and twitched as if
+with grief; then her features grew tranquil, her lips parted softly and a
+smile gently lighted up her blushing cheeks, as the breath of spring
+softly thaws a frozen blossom.  This sleeper was certainly not born for
+loneliness and privation, but to enjoy and to keep love and happiness.
+
+It was warm and still, very still in the sisters' little room.  The buzz
+of a fly was audible now and again, as it flew round the little oil-cup
+Irene had left empty, and now and again the breathing of the sleeper,
+coming more and more rapidly.  Every trace of fatigue had vanished from
+Klea's countenance, her lips parted and pouted as if for a kiss, her
+cheeks glowed, and at last she raised both hands as if to defend herself
+and stammered out in her dream, "No, no, certainly not--pray, do not! my
+love--"  Then her arm fell again by her side, and dropping on the chest
+on which she was sitting, the blow woke her.  She slowly opened her eyes
+with a happy smile; then she raised her long silken lashes till her eyes
+were open, and she gazed fixedly on vacancy as though something strange
+had met her gaze.  Thus she sat for some time without moving; then she
+started up, pressed her hand on her brow and eyes, and shuddering as if
+she had seen something horrible or were shivering with ague, she murmured
+in gasps, while she clenched her teeth:
+
+"What does this mean?  How come I by such thoughts?  What demons are these
+that make us do and feel things in our dreams which when we are waking we
+should drive far, far from our thoughts?  I could hate myself, despise
+and hate myself for the sake of those dreams since, wretch that I am!
+I let him put his arm round me--and no bitter rage--ah! no--something
+quite different, something exquisitely sweet, thrilled through my soul."
+
+As she spoke, she clenched her fists and pressed them against her
+temples; then again her arms dropped languidly into her lap, and shaking
+her head she went on in an altered and softened voice:
+
+"Still-it was only in a dream and--Oh! ye eternal gods--when we are
+asleep--well! and what then?  Has it come to this; to impure thoughts I
+am adding self-deception!  No, this dream was sent by no demon, it was
+only a distorted reflection of what I felt yesterday and the day before,
+and before that even, when the tall stranger looked straight into my
+eyes--four times he has done so now--and then--how many hours ago, gave
+me the violets.  Did I even turn away my face or punish his boldness with
+an angry look?  Is it not sometimes possible to drive away an enemy with
+a glance?  I have often succeeded when a man has looked after us; but
+yesterday I could not, and I was as wide awake then as I am at this
+moment.  What does the stranger want with me?  What is it he asks with
+his penetrating glance, which for days has followed me wherever I turn,
+and robs me of peace even in my sleep?  Why should I open my eyes--the
+gates of the heart--to him?  And now the poison poured in through them is
+seething there; but I will tear it out, and when Irene comes home I will
+tread the violets into the dust, or leave them with her; she will soon
+pull them to pieces or leave them to wither miserably--for I will remain
+pure-minded, even in my dreams--what have I besides in the world?"
+
+At these words she broke off her soliloquy, for she heard Irene's voice,
+a sound that must have had a favorable effect on her spirit, for she
+paused, and the bitter expression her beautiful features had but just now
+worn disappeared as she murmured, drawing a deep breath:
+
+"I am not utterly bereft and wretched so long as I have her, and can hear
+her voice."
+
+Irene, on her road home, had given the modest offerings of the anchorite
+Phibis into the charge of one of the temple-servants to lay before the
+altar of Serapis, and now as she came into the room she hid the platter
+with the Roman's donation behind her, and while still in the doorway,
+called out to her sister:
+
+"Guess now, what have I here?"
+
+"Bread and dates from Serapion," replied Klea.
+
+"Oh, dear no!"  cried the other, holding out the plate to her sister,
+"the very nicest dainties, fit for gods and kings.  Only feel this peach,
+does not it feel as soft as one of little Philo's cheeks?  If I could
+always provide such a substitute you would wish I might eat up your
+breakfast every day.  And now do you know who gave you all this?  No,
+that you will never guess!  The tall Roman gave them me, the same you
+had the violets from yesterday."
+
+Klea's face turned crimson, and she said shortly and decidedly:
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"Because he told me so himself," replied Irene in a very altered tone,
+for her sister's eyes were fixed upon her with an expression of stern
+gravity, such as Irene had never seen in her before.
+
+"And where are the violets?"  asked Klea.
+
+"He took them, and his friend gave me this pomegranate-flower," stammered
+Irene.  "He himself wanted to give it me, but the Greek--a handsome,
+merry man--would not permit it, and laid the flower there on the platter.
+Take it--but do not look at me like that any longer, for I cannot bear
+it!"
+
+"I do not want it," said her sister, but not sharply; then, looking down,
+she asked in a low voice: "Did the Roman keep the violets?"
+
+"He kept--no, Klea--I will not tell you a lie!  He flung them over the
+house, and said such rough things as he did it, that I was frightened and
+turned my back upon him quickly, for I felt the tears coming into my
+eyes.  What have you to do with the Roman?  I feel so anxious, so
+frightened--as I do sometimes when a storm is gathering and I am afraid
+of it.  And how pale your lips are!  that comes of long fasting, no doubt
+--eat now, as much as you can.  But Klea!  why do you look at me so--and
+look so gloomy and terrible?  I cannot bear that look, I cannot bear it!"
+
+Irene sobbed aloud, and her sister went up to her, stroked her soft hair
+from her brow, kissed her kindly, and said:
+
+"I am not angry with you, child, and did not mean to hurt you.  If only
+I could cry as you do when clouds overshadow my heart, the blue sky would
+shine again with me as soon as it does with you.  Now dry your eyes, go
+up to the temple, and enquire at what hour we are to go to the singing-
+practice, and when the procession is to set out."
+
+Irene obeyed; she went out with downcast eyes, but once out she looked up
+again brightly, for she remembered the procession, and it occurred to her
+that she would then see again the Roman's gay acquaintance, and turning
+back into the room she laid her pomegranate-blossom in the little bowl
+out of which she had formerly taken the violets, kissed her sister as
+gaily as ever, and then reflected as to whether she would wear the flower
+in her hair or in her bosom.  Wear it, at any rate, she must, for she
+must show plainly that she knew how to value such a gift.
+
+As soon as Klea was alone she seized the trencher with a vehement
+gesture, gave the roast bird to the gray cat, who had stolen back into
+the room, turning away her head, for the mere smell of the pheasant was
+like an insult.  Then, while the cat bore off her welcome spoils into a
+corner, she clutched a peach and raised her hand to fling it away through
+a gap in the roof of the room; but she did not carry out her purpose, for
+it occurred to her that Irene and little Philo, the son of the gate-
+keeper, might enjoy the luscious fruit; so she laid it back on the dish
+and took up the bread, for she was painfully hungry.
+
+She was on the point of breaking the golden-brown cake, but acting on a
+rapid impulse she tossed it back on the trencher saying to herself: "At
+any rate I will owe him nothing; but I will not throw away the gifts of
+the gods as he threw away my violets, for that would be a sin.  All is
+over between him and me, and if he appears to-day in the procession, and
+if he chooses to look at me again I will compel my eyes to avoid meeting
+his--aye, that I will, and will carry it through.  But, Oh eternal gods!
+and thou above all, great Serapis, whom I heartily serve, there is
+another thing I cannot do without your aid.  Help me, oh! help me to
+forget him, that my very thoughts may remain pure."
+
+With these words she flung herself on her knees before the chest, pressed
+her brow against the hard wood, and strove to pray.
+
+Only for one thing did she entreat the gods; for strength to forget the
+man who had betrayed her into losing her peace of mind.
+
+But just as swift clouds float across the sky, distracting the labors of
+the star-gazer, who is striving to observe some remote planet--as the
+clatter of the street interrupts again and again some sweet song we fain
+would hear, marring it with its harsh discords--so again and again the
+image of the young Roman came across Klea's prayers for release from that
+very thought, and at last it seemed to her that she was like a man who
+strives to raise a block of stone by the exertion of his utmost strength,
+and who weary at last of lifting the stone is crushed to the earth by its
+weight; still she felt that, in spite of all her prayers and efforts, the
+enemy she strove to keep off only came nearer, and instead of flying from
+her, overmastered her soul with a grasp from which she could not escape.
+
+Finally she gave up the unavailing struggle, cooled her burning face with
+cold water, and tightened the straps of her sandals to go to the temple;
+near the god himself she hoped she might in some degree recover the peace
+she could not find here.
+
+Just at the door she met Irene, who told her that the singing-practice
+was put off, on account of the procession which was fixed for four hours
+after noon.  And as Klea went towards the temple her sister called after
+her.
+
+"Do not stay too long though, water will be wanted again directly for the
+libations."
+
+"Then will you go alone to the work?" asked Klea; "there cannot be very
+much wanted, for the temple will soon be empty on account of the
+procession.  A few jars-full will be enough.  There is a cake of bread
+and a peach in there for you; I must keep the other for little Philo."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Klea went quickly on towards the temple, without listening to Irene's
+excuses.  She paid no heed to the worshippers who filled the forecourt,
+praying either with heads bent low or with uplifted arms or, if they were
+of Egyptian extraction, kneeling on the smooth stone pavement, for, even
+as she entered, she had already begun to turn in supplication to the
+divinity.
+
+She crossed the great hall of the sanctuary, which was open only to the
+initiated and to the temple-servants, of whom she was one.  Here all
+around her stood a crowd of slender columns, their shafts crowned with
+gracefully curved flower calyxes, like stems supporting lilies, over her
+head she saw in the ceiling an image of the midnight sky with the bright,
+unresting and ever-restful stars; the planets and fixed stars in their
+golden barks looked down on her silently.  Yes! here were the twilight
+and stillness befitting a personal communion with the divinity.
+
+The pillars appeared to her fancy like a forest of giant growth, and it
+seemed to her that the perfume of the incense emanated from the gorgeous
+floral capitals that crowned them; it penetrated her senses, which were
+rendered more acute by fasting and agitation, with a sort of
+intoxication.  Her eyes were raised to heaven, her arms crossed over her
+bosom as she traversed this vast hall, and with trembling steps
+approached a smaller and lower chamber, where in the furthest and darkest
+background a curtain of heavy and costly material veiled the brazen door
+of the holy of holies.
+
+Even she was forbidden to approach this sacred place; but to-day she was
+so filled with longing for the inspiring assistance of the god, that she
+went on to the holy of holies in spite of the injunction she had never
+yet broken, not to approach it.  Filled with reverent awe she sank down
+close to the door of the sacred chamber, shrinking close into the angle
+formed between a projecting door-post and the wall of the great hall.
+
+The craving desire to seek and find a power outside us as guiding the
+path of our destiny is common to every nation, to every man; it is as
+surely innate in every being gifted with reason--many and various as
+these are--as the impulse to seek a cause when we perceive an effect, to
+see when light visits the earth, or to hear when swelling waves of sound
+fall on our ear.  Like every other gift, no doubt that of religious
+sensibility is bestowed in different degrees on different natures.
+In Klea it had always been strongly developed, and a pious mother had
+cultivated it by precept and example, while her father always had taught
+her one thing only: namely to be true, inexorably true, to others as to
+herself.
+
+Afterwards she had been daily employed in the service of the god whom she
+was accustomed to regard as the greatest and most powerful of all the
+immortals, for often from a distance she had seen the curtain of the
+sanctuary pushed aside, and the statue of Serapis with the Kalathos on
+his head, and a figure of Cerberus at his feet, visible in the half-light
+of the holy of holies; and a ray of light, flashing through the darkness
+as by a miracle, would fall upon his brow and kiss his lips when
+his goodness was sung by the priests in hymns of praise.  At other times
+the tapers by the side of the god would be lighted or extinguished
+spontaneously.
+
+Then, with the other believers, she would glorify the great lord of the
+other world, who caused a new sun to succeed each that was extinguished,
+and made life grow up out of death; who resuscitated the dead, lifting
+them up to be equal with him, if on earth they had reverenced truth and
+were found faithful by the judges of the nether world.
+
+Truth--which her father had taught her to regard as the best possession
+of life--was rewarded by Serapis above all other virtues; hearts were
+weighed before him in a scale against truth, and whenever Klea tried to
+picture the god in human form he wore the grave and mild features of her
+father, and she fancied him speaking in the words and tones of the man to
+whom she owed her being, who had been too early snatched from her, who
+had endured so much for righteousness' sake, and from whose lips she had
+never heard a single word that might not have beseemed the god himself.
+And, as she crouched closely in the dark angle by the holy of holies, she
+felt herself nearer to her father as well as to the god, and accused
+herself pitilessly, in that unmaidenly longings had stirred her heart,
+that she had been insincere to herself and Irene, nay in that if she
+could not succeed in tearing the image of the Roman from her heart she
+would be compelled either to deceive her sister or to sadden the innocent
+and careless nature of the impressionable child, whom she was accustomed
+to succor and cherish as a mother might.  On her, even apparently light
+matters weighed oppressively, while Irene could throw off even grave and
+serious things, blowing them off as it were into the air, like a feather.
+She was like wet clay on which even the light touch of a butterfly leaves
+a mark, her sister like a mirror from which the breath that has dimmed it
+instantly and entirely vanishes.
+
+"Great God!"  she murmured in her prayer, "I feel as if the Roman had
+branded my very soul.  Help thou me to efface the mark; help me to become
+as I was before, so that I may look again in Irene's eyes without
+concealment, pure and true, and that I may be able to say to myself, as I
+was wont, that I had thought and acted in such a way as my father would
+approve if he could know it."
+
+She was still praying thus when the footsteps and voices of two men
+approaching the holy of holies startled her from her devotions; she
+suddenly became fully conscious of the fact that she was in a forbidden
+spot, and would be severely punished if she were discovered.
+
+"Lock that door," cried one of the new-comers to his companion, pointing
+to the door which led from the prosekos into the pillared hall, "none,
+even of the initiated, need see what you are preparing here for us--"
+
+Klea recognized the voice of the high-priest, and thought for a moment of
+stepping forward and confessing her guilt; but, though she did not
+usually lack courage, she did not do this, but shrank still more closely
+into her hiding-place, which was perfectly dark when the brazen door of
+the room; which had no windows, was closed.  She now perceived that the
+curtain and door were opened which closed the inmost sanctuary, she heard
+one of the men twirling the stick which was to produce fire, saw the
+first gleam of light from it streaming out of the holy of holies, and
+then heard the blows of a hammer and the grating sound of a file.
+
+The quiet sanctum was turned into a forge, but noisy as were the
+proceedings within, it seemed to Klea that the beating of her own heart
+was even louder than the brazen clatter of the tools wielded by Krates;
+he was one of the oldest of the priests of Serapis, who was chief in
+charge of the sacred vessels, who was wont never to speak to any one but
+the high-priest, and who was famous even among his Greek fellow-
+countrymen for the skill with which he could repair broken metal-work,
+make the securest locks, and work in silver and gold.
+
+When the sisters first came into the temple five years since, Irene had
+been very much afraid of this man, who was so small as almost to be a
+dwarf, broad shouldered and powerfully knit, while his wrinkled face
+looked like a piece of rough cork-bark, and he was subject to a painful
+complaint in his feet which often prevented his walking; her fears had
+not vexed but only amused the priestly smith, who whenever he met the
+child, then eleven years old, would turn his lips up to his big red nose,
+roll his eyes, and grunt hideously to increase the terror that came over
+her.
+
+He was not ill-natured, but he had neither wife nor child, nor brother,
+nor sister, nor friend, and every human being so keenly desires that
+others should have some feeling about him, that many a one would rather
+be feared than remain unheeded.
+
+After Irene had got over her dread she would often entreat the old man--
+who was regarded as stern and inaccessible by all the other dwellers in
+the temple--in her own engaging and coaxing way to make a face for her,
+and he would do it and laugh when the little one, to his delight and her
+own, was terrified at it and ran away; and just lately when Irene, having
+hurt her foot, was obliged to keep her room for a few days, an unheard of
+thing had occurred: he had asked Klea with the greatest sympathy how her
+sister was getting on, and had given her a cake for her.
+
+While Krates was at his work not a word passed between him and the high-
+priest.  At length he laid down the hammer, and said:
+
+"I do not much like work of this kind, but this, I think, is successful
+at any rate.  Any temple-servant, hidden here behind the altar, can now
+light or extinguish the lamps without the illusion being detected by the
+sharpest.  Go now and stand at the door of the great hall and speak the
+word."
+
+Klea heard the high-priest accede to this request and cry in a
+chanting voice: "Thus he commands the night and it becomes day, and the
+extinguished taper and lo! it flames with brightness.  If indeed thou art
+nigh, Oh Serapis! manifest thyself to us."
+
+At these words a bright stream of light flashed from the holy of holies,
+and again was suddenly extinguished when the high-priest sang: "Thus
+showest thou thyself as light to the children of truth, but dost punish
+with darkness the children of lies."
+
+"Again?"  asked Krates in a voice which conveyed a desire that the answer
+might be 'No.'
+
+"I must trouble you," replied the high-priest.  "Good! the performance
+went much better this time.  I was always well assured of your skill; but
+consider the particular importance of this affair.  The two kings and the
+queen will probably be present at the solemnity, certainly Philometor and
+Cleopatra will, and their eyes are wide open; then the Roman who has
+already assisted four times at the procession will accompany them, and if
+I judge him rightly he, like many of the nobles of his nation, is one of
+those who can trust themselves when it is necessary to be content with
+the old gods of their fathers; and as regards the marvels we are able to
+display to them, they do not take them to heart like the poor in spirit,
+but measure and weigh them with a cool and unbiassed mind.  People of
+that stamp, who are not ashamed to worship, who do not philosophize but
+only think just so much as is necessary for acting rightly, those are the
+worst contemners of every supersensual manifestation."
+
+"And the students of nature in the Museum?"  asked Krates.  "They believe
+nothing to be real that they cannot see and observe."
+
+"And for that very reason," replied the high-priest, "they are often
+singularly easy to deceive by your skill, since, seeing an effect without
+a cause, they are inclined to regard the invisible cause as something
+supersensual.  Now, open the door again and let us get out by the side
+door; do you, this time, undertake the task of cooperating with Serapis
+yourself.  Consider that Philometor will not confirm the donation of the
+land unless he quits the temple deeply penetrated by the greatness of our
+god.  Would it be possible, do you think, to have the new censer ready in
+time for the birthday of King Euergetes, which is to be solemnly kept at
+Memphis?"
+
+"We will see," replied Krates, "I must first put together the lock of the
+great door of the tomb of Apis, for so long as I have it in my workshop
+any one can open it who sticks a nail into the hole above the bar, and
+any one can shut it inside who pushes the iron bolt.  Send to call me
+before the performance with the lights begins; I will come in spite of my
+wretched feet.  As I have undertaken the thing I will carry it out, but
+for no other reason, for it is my opinion that even without such means of
+deception--"
+
+"We use no deception," interrupted the high-priest, sternly rebuking his
+colleague.  "We only present to short-sighted mortals the creative power
+of the divinity in a form perceptible and intelligible to their senses."
+
+With these words the tall priest turned his back on the smith and quitted
+the hall by a side door; Krates opened the brazen door, and as he
+gathered together his tools he said to himself, but loud enough for Klea
+to hear him distinctly in her hiding-place:
+
+"It may be right for me, but deceit is deceit, whether a god deceives
+a king or a child deceives a beggar."
+
+"Deceit is deceit," repeated Klea after the smith when he had left the
+hall and she had emerged from her corner.
+
+She stood still for a moment and looked round her.  For the first time
+she observed the shabby colors on the walls, the damage the pillars had
+sustained in the course of years, and the loose slabs in the pavement.
+
+The sweetness of the incense sickened her, and as she passed by an old
+man who threw up his arms in fervent supplication, she looked at him with
+a glance of compassion.
+
+When she had passed out beyond the pylons enclosing the temple she turned
+round, shaking her head in a puzzled way as she gazed at it; for she knew
+that not a stone had been changed within the last hour, and yet it looked
+as strange in her eyes as some landscape with which we have become
+familiar in all the beauty of spring, and see once more in winter with
+its trees bare of leaves; or like the face of a woman which we thought
+beautiful under the veil which hid it, and which, when the veil is
+raised, we see to be wrinkled and devoid of charm.
+
+When she had heard the smith's words, "Deceit is deceit," she felt her
+heart shrink as from a stab, and could not check the tears which started
+to her eyes, unused as they were to weeping; but as soon as she had
+repeated the stern verdict with her own lips her tears had ceased, and
+now she stood looking at the temple like a traveller who takes leave of a
+dear friend; she was excited, she breathed more freely, drew herself up
+taller, and then turned her back on the sanctuary of Serapis, proudly
+though with a sore heart.
+
+Close to the gate-keeper's lodge a child came tottering towards her with
+his arms stretched up to her.  She lifted him up, kissed him, and then
+asked the mother, who also greeted her, for a piece of bread, for her
+hunger was becoming intolerable.  While she ate the dry morsel the child
+sat on her lap, following with his large eyes the motion of her hand and
+lips.  The boy was about five years old, with legs so feeble that they
+could scarcely support the weight of his body, but he had a particularly
+sweet little face; certainly it was quite without expression, and it was
+only when he saw Klea coming that tiny Philo's eyes had lighted up with
+pleasure.
+
+"Drink this milk," said the child's mother, offering the young girl an
+earthen bowl.  "There is not much and I could not spare it if Philo would
+eat like other children, but it seems as if it hurt him to swallow.  He
+drinks two or three drops and eats a mouthful, and then will take no more
+even if he is beaten."
+
+"You have not been beating him again?"  said Klea reproachfully, and
+drawing the child closer to her.  "My husband--" said the woman, pulling
+at her dress in some confusion.  "The child was born on a good day and in
+a lucky hour, and yet he is so puny and weak and will not learn to speak,
+and that provokes Pianchi."
+
+"He will spoil everything again!"  exclaimed Klea annoyed.  "Where is
+he?"
+
+"He was wanted in the temple."
+
+"And is he not pleased that Philo calls him 'father,' and you 'mother,'
+and me by my name, and that he learns to distinguish many things?"  asked
+the girl.
+
+"Oh, yes of course," said the woman.  "He says you are teaching him to
+speak just as if he were a starling, and we are very much obliged to
+you."
+
+"That is not what I want," interrupted Klea.  "What I wish is that you
+should not punish and scold the boy, and that you should be as glad as I
+am when you see his poor little dormant soul slowly waking up.  If he
+goes on like this, the poor little fellow will be quite sharp and
+intelligent.  What is my name, my little one?"
+
+"Ke-ea," stammered the child, smiling at his friend.  "And now taste this
+that I have in my hand; what is it?--I see you know.  It is called--
+whisper in my ear.  That's right, mil--mil-milk! to be sure, my tiny,
+it is milk.  Now open your little mouth and say it prettily after me--
+once more--and again--say it twelve times quite right and I will give you
+a kiss--Now you have earned a pretty kiss--will you have it here or here?
+Well, and what is this?  your ea-?  Yes, your ear.  And this?--your nose,
+that is right."
+
+The child's eyes brightened more and more under this gentle teaching,
+and neither Klea nor her pupil were weary till, about an hour later,
+the re-echoing sound of a brass gong called her away.  As she turned to
+go the little one ran after her crying; she took him in her arms and
+carried him back to his mother, and then went on to her own room to
+dress herself and her sister for the procession.  On the way to the
+Pastophorium she recalled once more her expedition to the temple and
+her prayer there.
+
+"Even before the sanctuary," said she to herself, "I could not succeed in
+releasing my soul from its burden--it was not till I set to work to
+loosen the tongue of the poor little child.  Every pure spot, it seems to
+me, may be the chosen sanctuary of some divinity, and is not an infant's
+soul purer than the altar where truth is mocked at?"
+
+In their room she found Irene; she had dressed her hair carefully and
+stuck the pomegranate-flower in it, and she asked Klea if she thought she
+looked well.
+
+"You look like Aphrodite herself," replied Klea kissing her forehead.
+Then she arranged the folds of her sister's dress, fastened on the
+ornaments, and proceeded to dress herself.  While she was fastening her
+sandals Irene asked her, "Why do you sigh so bitterly?"  and Klea
+replied, "I feel as if I had lost my parents a second time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The procession was over.
+
+At the great service which had been performed before him in the Greek
+Serapeum, Ptolemy Philometor had endowed the priests not with the whole
+but with a considerable portion of the land concerning which they had
+approached him with many petitions.  After the court had once more
+quitted Memphis and the procession was broken up, the sisters returned to
+their room, Irene with crimson cheeks and a smile on her lips, Klea with
+a gloomy and almost threatening light in her eyes.
+
+As the two were going to their room in silence a temple-servant called to
+Klea, desiring her to go with him to the high-priest, who wished to speak
+to her.  Klea, without speaking, gave her water-jar to Irene and was
+conducted into a chamber of the temple, which was used for keeping the
+sacred vessels in.  There she sat down on a bench to wait.  The two men
+who in the morning had visited the Pastophorium had also followed in the
+procession with the royal family.  At the close of the solemnities
+Publius had parted from his companion without taking leave, and without
+looking to the right or to the left, he had hastened back to the
+Pastophorium and to the cell of Serapion, the recluse.
+
+The old man heard from afar the younger man's footstep, which fell on the
+earth with a firmer and more decided tread than that of the softly-
+stepping priests of Serapis, and he greeted him warmly with signs and
+words.
+
+Publius thanked him coolly and gravely, and said, dryly enough and with
+incisive brevity:
+
+"My time is limited.  I propose shortly to quit Memphis, but I promised
+you to hear your request, and in order to keep my word I have come to see
+you; still--as I have said--only to keep my word.  The water-bearers of
+whom you desired to speak to me do not interest me--I care no more about
+them than about the swallows flying over the house yonder."
+
+"And yet this morning you took a long walk for Klea's sake," returned
+Serapion.
+
+"I have often taken a much longer one to shoot a hare," answered the
+Roman.  "We men do not pursue our game because the possession of it is
+any temptation, but because we love the sport, and there are sporting
+natures even among women.  Instead of spears or arrows they shoot with
+flashing glances, and when they think they have hit their game they turn
+their back upon it.  Your Klea is one of this sort, while the pretty
+little one I saw this morning looks as if she were very ready to be
+hunted, I however, no more wish to be the hunter of a young girl than to
+be her game.  I have still three days to spend in Memphis, and then I
+shall turn my back forever on this stupid country."
+
+"This morning," said Serapion, who began to suspect what the grievance
+might be which had excited the discontent implied in the Roman's speech,
+"This morning you appeared to be in less hurry to set out than now, so to
+me you seem to be in the plight of game trying to escape; however, I know
+Klea better than you do.  Shooting is no sport of hers, nor will she let
+herself be hunted, for she has a characteristic which you, my friend
+Publius Scipio, ought to recognize and value above all others--she is
+proud, very proud; aye, and so she may be, scornful as you look--as if
+you would like to say 'how came a water-carrier of Serapis by her pride,
+a poor creature who is ill-fed and always engaged in service, pride which
+is the prescriptive right only of those, whom privilege raises above the
+common herd around them?--But this girl, you may take my word for it, has
+ample reason to hold her head high, not only because she is the daughter
+of free and noble parents and is distinguished by rare beauty, not
+because while she was still a child she undertook, with the devotion
+and constancy of the best of mothers, the care of another child--her
+own sister, but for a reason which, if I judge you rightly, you will
+understand better than many another young man; because she must uphold
+her pride in order that among the lower servants with whom unfortunately
+she is forced to work, she may never forget that she is a free and noble
+lady.  You can set your pride aside and yet remain what you are, but if
+she were to do so and to learn to feel as a servant, she would presently
+become in fact what by nature she is not and by circumstances is
+compelled to be.  A fine horse made to carry burdens becomes a mere cart-
+horse as soon as it ceases to hold up its head and lift its feet freely.
+Klea is proud because she must be proud; and if you are just you will not
+contemn the girl, who perhaps has cast a kindly glance at you--since the
+gods have so made you that you cannot fail to please any woman--and yet
+who must repel your approaches because she feels herself above being
+trifled with, even by one of the Cornelia gens, and yet too lowly to dare
+to hope that a man like you should ever stoop from your height to desire
+her for a wife.  She has vexed you, of that there can be no doubt; how,
+I can only guess.  If, however, it has been through her repellent pride,
+that ought not to hurt you, for a woman is like a soldier, who only puts
+on his armor when he is threatened by an opponent whose weapons he
+fears."
+
+The recluse had rather whispered than spoken these words, remembering
+that he had neighbors; and as he ceased the drops stood on his brow, for
+whenever any thing disturbed him he was accustomed to allow his powerful
+voice to be heard pretty loudly, and it cost him no small effort to
+moderate it for so long.
+
+Publius had at first looked him in the face, and then had gazed at the
+ground, and he had heard Serapion to the end without interrupting him;
+but the color had flamed in his cheeks as in those of a schoolboy, and
+yet he was an independent and resolute youth who knew how to conduct
+himself in difficult straits as well as a man in the prime of life.
+In all his proceedings he was wont to know very well, exactly what he
+wanted, and to do without any fuss or comment whatever he thought right
+and fitting.
+
+During the anchorite's speech the question had occurred to him, what did
+he in fact expect or wish of the water-bearer; but the answer was
+wanting, he felt somewhat uncertain of himself, and his uncertainty and
+dissatisfaction with himself increased as all that he heard struck him
+more and more.  He became less and less inclined to let himself be thrown
+over by the young girl who for some days had, much against his will, been
+constantly in his thoughts, whose image he would gladly have dismissed
+from his mind, but who, after the recluse's speech, seemed more desirable
+than ever.  "Perhaps you are right," he replied after a short silence,
+and he too lowered his voice, for a subdued tone generally provokes an
+equally subdued answer.  "You know the maiden better than I, and if you
+describe her correctly it would be as well that I should abide by my
+decision and fly from Egypt, or, at any rate, from your protegees, since
+nothing lies before me but a defeat or a victory, which could bring me
+nothing but repentance.  Klea avoided my eye to-day as if it shed poison
+like a viper's tooth, and I can have nothing more to do with her: still,
+might I be informed how she came into this temple? and if I can be of any
+service to her, I will-for your sake.  Tell me now what you know of her
+and what you wish me to do."
+
+The recluse nodded assent and beckoned Publius to come closer to him, and
+bowing down to speak into the Roman's ear, he said softly: "Are you in
+favor with the queen?"  Publius, having said that he was, Serapion, with
+an exclamation of satisfaction, began his story.
+
+"You learned this morning how I myself came into this cage, and that my
+father was overseer of the temple granaries.  While I was wandering
+abroad he was deposed from his office, and would probably have died in
+prison, if a worthy man had not assisted him to save his honor and his
+liberty.  All this does not concern you, and I may therefore keep it to
+myself; but this man was the father of Klea and Irene, and the enemy by
+whose instrumentality my father suffered innocently was the villain
+Eulaeus.  You know--or perhaps indeed you may not know--that the priests
+have to pay a certain tribute for the king's maintenance; you know?  To
+be sure, you Romans trouble yourselves more about matters of law and
+administration than the culture of the arts or the subtleties of thought.
+Well, it was my father's duty to pay these customs over to Eulaeus, who
+received them; but the beardless effeminate vermin, the glutton--may
+every peach he ever ate or ever is to eat turn to poison!--kept back half
+of what was delivered to him, and when the accountants found nothing but
+empty air in the king's stores where they hoped to find corn and woven
+goods, they raised an alarm, which of course came to the ears of the
+powerful thief at court before it reached those of my poor father.  You
+called Egypt a marvellous country, or something like it; and so in truth
+it is, not merely on account of the great piles there that you call
+Pyramids and such like, but because things happen here which in Rome
+would be as impossible as moonshine at mid-day, or a horse with his tail
+at the end of his nose!  Before a complaint could be laid against Eulaeus
+he had accused my father of the peculation, and before the Epistates and
+the assessor of the district had even looked at the indictment, their
+judgment on the falsely accused man was already recorded, for Eulaeus had
+simply bought their verdict just as a man buys a fish or a cabbage in the
+market.  In olden times the goddess of justice was represented in this
+country with her eyes shut, but now she looks round on the world like a
+squinting woman who winks at the king with one eye, and glances with the
+other at the money in the hand of the accuser or the accused.  My poor
+father was of course condemned and thrown into prison, where he was
+beginning to doubt the justice of the gods, when for his sake the
+greatest wonder happened, ever seen in this land of wonders since first
+the Greeks ruled in Alexandria.  An honorable man undertook without fear
+of persons the lost cause of the poor condemned wretch, and never rested
+till he had restored him to honor and liberty.  But imprisonment,
+disgrace and indignation had consumed the strength of the ill-used man
+as a worm eats into cedar wood, and he fell into a decline and died.  His
+preserver, Klea's father, as the reward of his courageous action fared
+even worse; for here by the Nile virtues are punished in this world, as
+crimes are with you.  Where injustice holds sway frightful things occur,
+for the gods seem to take the side of the wicked.  Those who do not
+hope for a reward in the next world, if they are neither fools nor
+philosophers--which often comes to the same thing--try to guard
+themselves against any change in this.
+
+"Philotas, the father of the two girls, whose parents were natives of
+Syracuse, was an adherent of the doctrines of Zeno--which have many
+supporters among you at Rome too--and he was highly placed as an
+official, for he was president of the Chrematistoi, a college of judges
+which probably has no parallel out of Egypt, and which has been kept up
+better than any other.  It travels about from province to province
+stopping in the chief towns to administer justice.  When an appeal is
+brought against the judgment of the court of justice belonging to any
+place--over which the Epistates of the district presides--the case is
+brought before the Chrematistoi, who are generally strangers alike to
+the accuser and accused; by them it is tried over again, and thus the
+inhabitants of the provinces are spared the journey to Alexandria or--
+since the country has been divided--to Memphis, where, besides, the
+supreme court is overburdened with cases.
+
+"No former president of the Chrematistoi had ever enjoyed a higher
+reputation than Philotas.  Corruption no more dared approach him than a
+sparrow dare go near a falcon, and he was as wise as he was just, for he
+was no less deeply versed in the ancient Egyptian law than in that of the
+Greeks, and many a corrupt judge reconsidered matters as soon as it
+became known that he was travelling with the Chrematistoi, and passed a
+just instead of an unjust sentence.
+
+"Cleopatra, the widow of Epiphanes, while she was living and acting as
+guardian of her sons Philometor and Euergetes--who now reign in Memphis
+and Alexandria--held Philotas in the highest esteem and conferred on him
+the rank of 'relation to the king'; but she was just dead when this
+worthy man took my father's cause in hand, and procured his release from
+prison.
+
+"The scoundrel Eulaeus and his accomplice Lenaeus then stood at the
+height of power, for the young king, who was not yet of age, let himself
+be led by them like a child by his nurse.
+
+"Now as my father was an honest man, no one but Eulaeus could be the
+rascal, and as the Chrematistoi threatened to call him before their
+tribunal the miserable creature stirred up the war in Caelo-Syria against
+Antiochus Epiphanes, the king's uncle.
+
+"You know how disgraceful for us was the course of that enterprise, how
+Philometor was defeated near Pelusium, and by the advice of Eulaeus
+escaped with his treasure to Samothrace, how Philometor's brother
+Euergetes was set up as king in Alexandria, how Antiochus took Memphis,
+and then allowed his elder nephew to continue to reign here as though he
+were his vassal and ward.
+
+"It was during  this  period  of humiliation, that Eulaeus was able to
+evade Philotas, whom he may very well have feared, as though his own
+conscience walked the earth on two legs in the person of the judge, with
+the sword of justice in his hand, and telling all men what a scoundrel he
+was.
+
+"Memphis had opened her gates to Antiochus without offering much
+resistance, and the Syrian king, who was a strange man and was fond of
+mixing among the people as if he himself were a common man, applied to
+Philotas, who was as familiar with Egyptian manners and customs as with
+those of Greece, in order that he might conduct him into the halls of
+justice and into the market-places; and he made him presents as was his
+way, sometimes of mere rubbish and sometimes of princely gifts.
+
+"Then when Philometor was freed by the Romans from the protection of the
+Syrian king, and could govern in Memphis as an independent sovereign,
+Eulaeus accused the father of these two girls of having betrayed Memphis
+into the hands of Antiochus, and never rested till the innocent man was
+deprived of his wealth, which was considerable, and sent with his wife to
+forced labor in the gold mines of Ethiopia.
+
+"When all this occurred I had already returned to my cage here; but I
+heard from my brother Glaucus--who was captain of the watch in the
+palace, and who learned a good many things before other people did--
+what was going on out there, and I succeeded in having the daughters
+of Philotas secretly brought to this temple, and preserved from sharing
+their parents' fate.  That is now five years ago, and now you know how it
+happens, that the daughters of a man of rank carry water for the altar of
+Serapis, and that I would rather an injury should be done to me than to
+them, and that I would rather see Eulaeus eating some poisonous root than
+fragrant peaches."
+
+"And is Philotas still working in the mines?"  asked the Roman, clenching
+his teeth with rage.
+
+"Yes, Publius," replied the anchorite.  "A 'yes' that it is easy to say,
+and it is just as easy too to clench one's fists in indignation--but it
+is hard to imagine the torments that must be endured by a man like
+Philotas; and a noble and innocent woman--as beautiful as Hera and
+Aphrodite in one--when they are driven to hard and unaccustomed labor
+under a burning sun by the lash of the overseer.  Perhaps by this time
+they have been happy enough to die under their sufferings and their
+daughters are already orphans, poor children!  No one here but the high-
+priest knows precisely who they are, for if Eulaeus were to learn the
+truth he would send them after their parents as surely as my name is
+Serapion."
+
+"Let him try it!" cried Publius, raising his right fist threateningly.
+
+"Softly, softly, my friend," said the recluse, "and not now only, but
+about everything which you under take in behalf of the sisters, for a man
+like Eulaeus hears not only with his own ears but with those of thousand
+others, and almost everything that occurs at court has to go through his
+hands as epistolographer.  You say the queen is well-disposed towards
+you.  That is worth a great deal, for her husband is said to be guided by
+her will, and such a thing as Eulaeus cannot seem particularly estimable
+in Cleopatra's eyes if princesses are like other women--and I know them
+well."
+
+"And even if he were," interrupted Publius with glowing cheeks, "I would
+bring him to ruin all the same, for a man like Philotas must not perish,
+and his cause henceforth is my own.  Here is my hand upon it; and if I am
+happy in having descended from a noble race it is above all because the
+word of a son of the Cornelii is as good as the accomplished deed of any
+other man."
+
+The recluse grasped the right hand the young man gave him and nodded to
+him affectionately, his eyes radiant, though moistened with joyful
+emotion.  Then he hastily turned his back on the young man, and soon
+reappeared with a large papyrus-roll in his hand.  "Take this," he said,
+handing it to the Roman, "I have here set forth all that I have told you,
+fully and truly with my own hand in the form of a petition.  Such
+matters, as I very well know, are never regularly conducted to an issue
+at court unless they are set forth in writing.  If the queen seems
+disposed to grant you a wish give her this roll, and entreat her for a
+letter of pardon.  If you can effect this, all is won."
+
+Publius took the roll, and once more gave his hand to the anchorite, who,
+forgetting himself for a moment, shouted out in his loud voice:
+
+"May the gods bless thee, and by thy means work the release of the
+noblest of men from his sufferings!  I had quite ceased to hope, but if
+you come to our aid all is not yet wholly lost."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+"Pardon me if I disturb you."
+
+With these words the anchorite's final speech was interrupted by Eulaeus,
+who had come in to the Pastophorium softly and unobserved, and who now
+bowed respectfully to Publius.
+
+"May I be permitted to enquire on what compact one of the noblest of the
+sons of Rome is joining hands with this singular personage?"
+
+"You are free to ask," replied Publius shortly and drily, "but every one
+is not disposed to answer, and on the present occasion I am not.  I will
+bid you farewell, Serapion, but not for long I believe."
+
+"Am I permitted to accompany you?"  asked Eulaeus.
+
+"You have followed me without any permission on my part."
+
+"I did so by order of the king, and am only fulfilling his commands in
+offering you my escort now."
+
+"I shall go on, and I cannot prevent your following me."
+
+"But I beg of you," said Eulaeus, "to consider that it would ill-become
+me to walk behind you like a servant."
+
+"I respect the wishes of my host, the king, who commanded you to follow
+me," answered the Roman.  "At the door of the temple however you can get
+into your chariot, and I into mine; an old courtier must be ready to
+carry out the orders of his superior."
+
+"And does carry them out," answered Eulaeus with deference, but his eyes
+twinkled--as the forked tongue of a serpent is rapidly put out and still
+more rapidly withdrawn--with a flash first of threatening hatred, and
+then another of deep suspicion cast at the roll the Roman held in his
+hand.
+
+Publius heeded not this glance, but walked quickly towards the acacia-
+grove; the recluse looked after the ill-matched pair, and as he watched
+the burly Eulaeus following the young man, he put both his hands on his
+hips, puffed out his fat cheeks, and burst into loud laughter as soon as
+the couple had vanished behind the acacias.
+
+When once Serapion's midriff was fairly tickled it was hard to reduce it
+to calm again, and he was still laughing when Klea appeared in front of
+his cell some few minutes after the departure of the Roman.  He was about
+to receive his young friend with a cheerful greeting, but, glancing at
+her face, he cried anxiously;
+
+"You look as if you had met with a ghost; your lips are pale instead of
+red, and there are dark shades round your eyes.  What has happened to
+you, child?  Irene went with you to the procession, that I know.  Have
+you had bad news of your parents?  You shake your head.  Come, child,
+perhaps you are thinking of some one more than you ought; how the color
+rises in your cheeks!  Certainly handsome Publius, the Roman, must have
+looked into your eyes--a splendid youth is he--a fine young man--
+a capital good fellow--"
+
+"Say no more on that subject," Klea exclaimed, interrupting her friend
+and protector, and waving her hand in the air as if to cut off the other
+half of Serapion's speech.  "I can hear nothing more about him."
+
+"Has he addressed you unbecomingly?"  asked the recluse.
+
+"Yes!" said Klea, turning crimson, and with a vehemence quite foreign
+to her usual gentle demeanor, "yes, he persecutes me incessantly with
+challenging looks."
+
+"Only with looks?"  said the anchorite.  "But we may look even at the
+glorious sun and at the lovely flowers as much as we please, and they are
+not offended."
+
+"The sun is too high and the soulless flowers too humble for a man to
+hurt them," replied Klea.  "But the Roman is neither higher nor lower
+than I, the eye speaks as plain a language as the tongue, and what his
+eyes demand of me brings the blood to my cheeks and stirs my indignation
+even now when I only think of it."
+
+"And that is why you avoid his gaze so carefully?"
+
+"Who told you that?"
+
+"Publius himself; and because he is wounded by your hard-heartedness he
+meant to quit Egypt; but I have persuaded him to remain, for if there is
+a mortal living from whom I expect any good for you and yours--"
+
+"It is certainly not he," said Klea positively.  "You are a man, and
+perhaps you now think that so long as you were young and free to wander
+about the world you would not have acted differently from him--it is a
+man's privilege; but if you could look into my soul or feel with the
+heart of a woman, you would think differently.  Like the sand of the
+desert which is blown over the meadows and turns all the fresh verdure to
+a hideous brown-like a storm that transforms the blue mirror of the sea
+into a crisped chaos of black whirl pools and foaming ferment, this man's
+imperious audacity has cruelly troubled my peace of heart.  Four times
+his eyes pursued me in the processions; yesterday I still did not
+recognize my danger, but to-day--I must tell you, for you are like a
+father to me, and who else in the world can I confide in?--to-day I was
+able to avoid his gaze, and yet all through long endless hours of the
+festival I felt his eyes constantly seeking mine.  I should have been
+certain I was under no delusion, even if Publius Scipio--but what
+business has his name on my lips?--even if the Roman had not boasted to
+you of his attacks on a defenceless girl.  And to think that you, you of
+all others, should have become his ally!  But you would not, no indeed
+you would not, if you knew how I felt at the procession while I was
+looking down at the ground, and knew that his very look desecrated me
+like the rain that washed all the blossoms off the young vine-shoots last
+year.  It was just as if he were drawing a net round my heart--but, oh!
+what a net!  It was as if the flax on a distaff had been set on fire, and
+the flames spun out into thin threads, and the meshes knotted of the
+fiery yarn.  I felt every thread and knot burning into my soul, and could
+not cast it off nor even defend myself.  Aye! you may look grieved and
+shake your head, but so it was, and the scars hurt me still with a pain
+I cannot utter."
+
+"But Klea," interrupted Serapion, "you are quite beside yourself--like
+one possessed.  Go to the temple and pray, or, if that is of no avail,
+go to Asclepios or Anubis and have the demon cast out."
+
+"I need none of your gods!"  answered the girl in great agitation.
+"Oh!  I wish you had left me to my fate, and that we had shared the lot
+of our parents, for what threatens us here is more frightful than having
+to sift gold-dust in the scorching sun, or to crush quartz in mortars.
+I did not come to you to speak about the Roman, but to tell you what the
+high-priest had just disclosed to me since the procession ended."
+
+"Well?"  asked Serapion eager and almost frightened, stretching out his
+neck to put his head near to the girl's, and opening his eyes so wide
+that the loose skin below them almost disappeared.
+
+"First he told me," replied Klea, "how meagrely the revenues of the
+temple are supplied--"
+
+"That is quite true," interrupted the anchorite, "for Antiochus carried
+off the best part of its treasure; and the crown, which always used to
+have money to spare for the sanctuaries of Egypt, now loads our estates
+with heavy tribute; but you, as it seems to me, were kept scantily
+enough, worse than meanly, for, as I know--since it passed through my
+hands--a sum was paid to the temple for your maintenance which would have
+sufficed to keep ten hungry sailors, not speak of two little pecking
+birds like you, and besides that you do hard service without any pay.
+Indeed it would be a more profitable speculation to steal a beggar's rags
+than to rob you!  Well, what did the high-priest want?"
+
+"He says that we have been fed and protected by the priesthood for five
+years, that now some danger threatens the temple on our account, and that
+we must either quit the sanctuary or else make up our minds to take the
+place of the twin-sisters Arsinoe and Doris who have hitherto been
+employed in singing the hymns of lamentation, as Isis and Nephthys, by
+the bier of the deceased god on the occasion of the festivals of the
+dead, and in pouring out the libations with wailing and outcries when the
+bodies were brought into the temple to be blessed.  These maidens,
+Asclepiodorus says, are now too old and ugly for these duties, but the
+temple is bound to maintain them all their lives.  The funds of the
+temple are insufficient to support two more serving maidens besides them
+and us, and so Arsinoe and Doris are only to pour out the libations for
+the future, and we are to sing the laments, and do the wailing."
+
+"But you are not twins!"  cried Serapion.  "And none but twins--so say
+the ordinances--may mourn for Osiris as Isis and Neplithys."
+
+"They will make twins of us!"  said Klea with a scornful turn of her lip.
+"Irene's hair is to be dyed black like mine, and the soles of her sandals
+are to be made thicker to make her as tall as I am."
+
+"They would hardly succeed in making you smaller than you are, and it is
+easier to make light hair dark than dark hair light," said Serapion with
+hardly suppressed rage.  "And what answer did you give to these
+exceedingly original proposals?"
+
+"The only one I could very well give.  I said no--but I declared myself
+ready, not from fear, but because we owe much to the temple, to perform
+any other service with Irene, only not this one."
+
+"And Asclepiodorus?"
+
+"He said nothing unkind to me, and preserved his calm and polite demeanor
+when I contradicted him, though he fixed his eyes on me several times in
+astonishment as if he had discovered in me something quite new and
+strange.  At last he went on to remind me how much trouble the temple
+singing-master had taken with us, how well my low voice went with Irene's
+high one, how much applause we might gain by a fine performance of the
+hymns of lamentation, and how he would be willing, if we undertook the
+duties of the twin-sisters, to give us a better dwelling and more
+abundant food.  I believe he has been trying to make us amenable by
+supplying us badly with food, just as falcons are trained by hunger.
+Perhaps I am doing him an injustice, but I feel only too much disposed
+to-day to think the worst of him and of the other fathers.  Be that as it
+may; at any rate he made me no further answer when I persisted in my
+refusal, but dismissed me with an injunction to present myself before him
+again in three days' time, and then to inform him definitively whether
+I would conform to his wishes, or if I proposed to leave the temple.
+I bowed and went towards the door, and was already on the threshold when
+he called me back once more, and said: 'Remember your parents and their
+fate!'  He spoke solemnly, almost threateningly, but he said no more and
+hastily turned his back on me.  What could he mean to convey by this
+warning?  Every day and every hour I think of my father and mother,
+and keep Irene in mind of them."
+
+The recluse at these words sat muttering thoughtfully to himself for a
+few minutes with a discontented air; then he said gravely:
+
+"Asclepiodorus meant more by his speech than you think.  Every sentence
+with which he dismisses a refractory subordinate is a nut of which the
+shell must be cracked in order to get at the kernel.  When he tells you
+to remember your parents and their sad fate, such words from his lips,
+and under the present circumstances, can hardly mean anything else than
+this: that you should not forget how easily your father's fate might
+overtake you also, if once you withdrew yourselves from the protection of
+the temple.  It was not for nothing that Asclepiodorus--as you yourself
+told me quite lately, not more than a week ago I am sure--reminded you
+how often those condemned to forced labor in the mines had their
+relations sent after them.  Ah!  child, the words of Asclepiodorus have a
+sinister meaning.  The calmness and pride, with which you look at me make
+me fear for you, and yet, as you know, I am not one of the timid and
+tremulous.  Certainly what they propose to you is repulsive enough, but
+submit to it; it is to be hoped it will not be for long.  Do it for my
+sake and for that of poor Irene, for though you might know how to assert
+your dignity and take care of yourself outside these walls in the rough
+and greedy world, little Irene never could.  And besides, Klea, my
+sweetheart, we have now found some one, who makes your concerns his, and
+who is great and powerful--but oh! what are three clays?  To think of
+seeing you turned out--and then that you may be driven with a dissolute
+herd in a filthy boat down to the burning south, and dragged to work
+which kills first the soul and then the body!  No, it is not possible!
+You will never let this happen to me--and to yourself and Irene; no, my
+darling, no, my pet, my sweetheart, you cannot, you will not do so.  Are
+you not my children, my daughters, my only joy?  and you, would you go
+away, and leave me alone in my cage, all because you are so proud!"
+
+The strong man's voice failed him, and heavy drops fell from his eyes one
+after another down his beard, and on to Klea's arm, which he had grasped
+with both hands.
+
+The girl's eyes too were dim with a mist of warm tears when she saw her
+rough friend weeping, but she remained firm and said, as she tried to
+free her hand from his:
+
+"You know very well, father Serapion, that there is much to tie me to
+this temple; my sister, and you, and the door-keeper's child, little
+Philo.  It would be cruel, dreadful to have to leave you; but I would
+rather endure that and every other grief than allow Irene to take the
+place of Arsinoe or the black Doris as wailing woman.  Think of that
+bright child, painted and kneeling at the foot of a bier and groaning
+and wailing in mock sorrow!  She would become a living lie in human form,
+an object of loathing to herself, and to me--who stand in the place of a
+mother to her--from morning till night a martyrizing reproach!  But what
+do I care about myself--I would disguise myself as the goddess without
+even making a wry face, and be led to the bier, and wail and groan so
+that every hearer would be cut to the heart, for my soul is already
+possessed by sorrow; it is like the eyes of a man, who has gone blind
+from the constant flow of salt tears.  Perhaps singing the hymns of
+lamentation might relieve my soul, which is as full of sorrow as an
+overbrimming cup; but I would rather that a cloud should for ever darken
+the sun, that mists should hide every star from my eyes, and the air I
+breathe be poisoned by black smoke than disguise her identity, and darken
+her soul, or let her clear laugh be turned to shrieks of lamentation, and
+her fresh and childlike spirit be buried in gloomy mourning.  Sooner will
+I go way with her and leave even you, to perish with my parents in misery
+and anguish than see that happen, or suffer it for a moment."
+
+As she spoke Serapion covered his face with his hands, and Klea, hastily
+turning away from him, with a deep sigh returned to her room.
+
+Irene was accustomed when she heard her step to hasten to meet her, but
+to-day no one came to welcome her, and in their room, which was beginning
+to be dark as twilight fell, she did not immediately catch sight of her
+sister, for she was sitting all in a heap in a corner of the room, her
+face hidden, in her hands and weeping quietly.
+
+"What is the matter?"  asked Klea, going tenderly up to the weeping
+child, over whom she bent, endeavoring to raise her.
+
+"Leave me," said Irene sobbing; she turned away from her sister with an
+impatient gesture, repelling her caress like a perverse child; and then,
+when Klea tried to soothe her by affectionately stroking her hair, she
+sprang up passionately exclaiming through her tears:
+
+"I could not help crying--and, from this hour, I must always have to cry.
+The Corinthian Lysias spoke to me so kindly after the procession, and
+you--you don't care about me at all and leave me alone all this time in
+this nasty dusty hole!  I declare I will not endure it any longer, and if
+you try to keep me shut up, I will run away from this temple, for outside
+it is all bright and pleasant, and here it is dingy and horrid!"
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A mere nothing in one man's life, to another may be great
+A subdued tone generally provokes an equally subdued answer
+Air of a professional guide
+Before you serve me up so bitter a meal (the truth)
+Blind tenderness which knows no reason
+By nature she is not and by circumstances is compelled to be
+Deceit is deceit
+Desire to seek and find a power outside us
+Inquisitive eyes are intrusive company
+Many a one would rather be feared than remain unheeded
+Not yet fairly come to the end of yesterday
+The altar where truth is mocked at
+Virtues are punished in this world
+Who can be freer than he who needs nothing
+Who only puts on his armor when he is threatened
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SISTERS
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 2.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+In the very midst of the white wall with its bastions and ramparts, which
+formed the fortifications of Memphis, stood the old palace of the kings,
+a stately structure built of bricks, recently plastered, and with courts,
+corridors, chambers and halls without number, and veranda-like out-
+buildings of gayly-painted wood, and a magnificent pillared banqueting-
+hall in the Greek style.  It was surrounded by verdurous gardens, and a
+whole host of laborers tended the flower-beds and shady alleys, the
+shrubs and the trees; kept the tanks clean and fed the fish in them;
+guarded the beast-garden, in which quadrupeds of every kind, from the
+heavy-treading elephant to the light-footed antelope, were to be seen,
+associated with birds innumerable of every country and climate.
+
+A light white vapor rose from the splendidly fitted bath-house, loud
+barkings resounded from the dog-kennels, and from the long array of open
+stables came the neighing of horses with the clatter and stamp of hoofs,
+and the rattle of harness and chains.  A semicircular building of new
+construction adjoining the old palace was the theatre, and many large
+tents for the bodyguard, for ambassadors and scribes, as well as others,
+serving as banqueting-halls for the various court-officials, stood both
+within the garden and outside its enclosing walls.  A large space leading
+from the city itself to the royal citadel was given up to the soldiers,
+and there, by the side of the shady court-yards, were the houses of the
+police-guard and the prisons.  Other soldiers were quartered in tents
+close to the walls of the palace itself.  The clatter of their arms and
+the words of command, given in Greek, by their captain, sounded out at
+this particular instant, and up into the part of the buildings occupied
+by the queen; and her apartments were high up, for in summer time
+Cleopatra preferred to live in airy tents, which stood among the broad-
+leaved trees of the south and whole groves of flowering shrubs, on the
+level roof of the palace, which was also lavishly decorated with marble
+statues.  There was only one way of access to this retreat, which was
+fitted up with regal splendor; day and night it was fanned by currents of
+soft air, and no one could penetrate uninvited to disturb the queen's
+retirement, for veteran guards watched at the foot of the broad stair
+that led to the roof, chosen from the Macedonian "Garde noble," and owing
+as implicit obedience to Cleopatra as to the king himself.  This select
+corps was now, at sunset, relieving guard, and the queen could hear the
+words spoken by the officers in command and the clatter of the shields
+against the swords as they rattled on the pavement, for she had come out
+of her tent into the open air, and stood gazing towards the west, where
+the glorious hues of the sinking sun flooded the bare, yellow limestone
+range of the Libyan hills, with their innumerable tombs and the separate
+groups of pyramids; while the wonderful coloring gradually tinged with
+rose-color the light silvery clouds that hovered in the clear sky over
+the valley of Memphis, and edged them as with a rile of living gold.
+
+The queen stepped out of her tent, accompanied by a young Greek girl--the
+fair Zoe, daughter of her master of the hunt Zenodotus, and Cleopatra's
+favorite lady-in-waiting--but though she looked towards the west, she
+stood unmoved by the magic of the glorious scene before her; she screened
+her eyes with her hand to shade them from the blinding rays, and said:
+
+"Where can Cornelius be staying!  When we mounted our chariots before the
+temple he had vanished, and as far as I can see the road in the quarters
+of Sokari and Serapis I cannot discover his vehicle, nor that of Eulaeus
+who was to accompany him.  It is not very polite of him to go off in this
+way without taking leave; nay, I could call it ungrateful, since I had
+proposed to tell him on our way home all about my brother Euergetes, who
+has arrived to-day with his friends.  They are not yet acquainted, for
+Euergetes was living in Cyrene when Publius Cornelius Scipio landed in
+Alexandria.  Stay! do you see a black shadow out there by the vineyard at
+Kakem; That is very likely he; but no--you are right, it is only some
+birds, flying in a close mass above the road.  Can you see nothing more?
+No!--and yet we both have sharp young eyes.  I am very curious to know
+whether Publius Scipio will like Euergetes.  There can hardly be two
+beings more unlike, and yet they have some very essential points in
+common."
+
+"They are both men," interrupted Zoe, looking at the queen as if she
+expected cordial assent to this proposition.
+
+"So they are," said Cleopatra proudly.  "My brother is still so young
+that, if he were not a king's son, he would hardly have outgrown the
+stage of boyhood, and would be a lad among other Epheboi,--[Youths above
+18 were so called]--and yet among the oldest there is hardly a man who is
+his superior in strength of will and determined energy.  Already, before
+I married Philometor, he had clutched Alexandria and Cyrene, which by
+right should belong to my husband, who is the eldest of us three, and
+that was not very brotherly conduct--and indeed we had other grounds for
+being angry with him; but when I saw him again for the first time after
+nine months of separation I was obliged to forget them all, and welcome
+him as though he had done nothing but good to me and his brother--who is
+my husband, as is the custom of the families of Pharaohs and the usage of
+our race.  He is a young Titan, and no one would be astonished if he one
+day succeeded in piling Pelion upon Ossa.  I know well enough how wild he
+can often be, how unbridled and recalcitrant beyond all bounds; but I can
+easily pardon him, for the same bold blood flows in my own veins, and at
+the root of all his excesses lies power, genuine and vigorous power.  And
+this innate pith and power are just the very thing we most admire in men,
+for it is the one gift which the gods have dealt out to us with a less
+liberal hand than to men.  Life indeed generally dams its overflowing
+current, but I doubt whether this will be the case with the stormy
+torrent of his energy; at any rate men such as he is rush swiftly
+onwards, and are strong to the end, which sooner or later is sure to
+overtake them; and I infinitely prefer such a wild torrent to a shallow
+brook flowing over a plain, which hurts no one, and which in order to
+prolong its life loses itself in a misty bog.  He, if any one, may be
+forgiven for his tumultuous career; for when he pleases my brother's
+great qualities charm old and young alike, and are as conspicuous and as
+remarkable as his faults--nay, I will frankly say his crimes.  And who in
+Greece or Egypt surpasses him in grasp and elevation of mind?"
+
+You may well be proud of him," replied Zoe.  Not even Publius Scipio
+himself can soar to the height reached by Euergetes."
+
+"But, on the other hand, Euergetes is not gifted with the steady, calm
+self-reliance of Cornelius.  The man who should unite in one person the
+good qualities of those two, need yield the palm, as it seems to me, not
+even to a god!"
+
+"Among us imperfect mortals he would indeed be the only perfect one,"
+replied Zoe.  "But the gods could not endure the existence of a perfect
+man, for then they would have to undertake the undignified task of
+competing with one of their own creatures."
+
+"Here, however, comes one whom no one can accuse!"  cried the young
+queen, as she hastened to meet a richly dressed woman, older than
+herself, who came towards her leading her son, a pale child of two years
+old.  She bent down to the little one, tenderly but with impetuous
+eagerness, and was about to clasp him in her arms, but the fragile child,
+which at first had smiled at her, was startled; he turned away from her
+and tried to hide his little face in the dress of his nurse--a lady of
+rank-to whom he clung with both hands.  The queen threw herself on her
+knees before him, took hold of his shoulder, and partly by coaxing and
+partly by insistence strove to induce him to quit the sheltering gown and
+to turn to her; but although the lady, his wet-nurse, seconded her with
+kind words of encouragement, the terrified child began to cry, and
+resisted his mother's caresses with more and more vehemence the more
+passionately she tried to attract and conciliate him.  At last the nurse
+lifted him up, and was about to hand him to his mother, but the wilful
+little boy cried more than before, and throwing his arms convulsively
+round his nurse's neck he broke into loud cries.
+
+In the midst of this rather unbecoming struggle of the mother against the
+child's obstinacy, the clatter of wheels and of horses' hoofs rang
+through the court-yard of the palace, and hardly had the sound reached
+the queen's ears than she turned away from the screaming child, hurried
+to the parapet of the roof, and called out to Zoe:
+
+"Publius Scipio is here; it is high time that I should dress for the
+banquet.  Will that naughty child not listen to me at all?  Take him
+away, Praxinoa, and understand distinctly that I am much dissatisfied
+with you.  You estrange my own child from me to curry favor with the
+future king.  That is base, or else it proves that you have no tact, and
+are incompetent for the office entrusted to you.  The office of wet-nurse
+you duly fulfilled, but I shall now look out for another attendant for
+the boy.  Do not answer me! no tears!  I have had enough of that with the
+child's screaming."  With these words, spoken loudly and passionately,
+she turned her back on Praxinoa--the wife of a distinguished Macedonian
+noble, who stood as if petrified--and retired into her tent, where
+branched lamps had just been placed on little tables of elegant
+workmanship.  Like all the other furniture in the queen's dressing-tent
+these were made of gleaming ivory, standing out in fine relief from the
+tent-cloth which was sky-blue woven with silver lilies and ears of corn,
+and from the tiger-skins which covered all the cushions, while white
+woollen carpets, bordered with a waving scroll in blue, were spread on
+the ground.
+
+The queen threw herself on a seat in front of her dressing-table, and sat
+staring at herself in a mirror, as if she now saw her face and her
+abundant, reddish-fair hair for the first time; then she said, half
+turning to Zoe and half to her favorite Athenian waiting-maid, who stood
+behind her with her other women:
+
+"It was folly to dye my dark hair light; but now it may remain so, for
+Publius Scipio, who has no suspicion of our arts, thought this color
+pretty and uncommon, and never will know its origin.  That Egyptian
+headdress with the vulture's head which the king likes best to see me in,
+the young Greek Lysias and the Roman too, call barbaric, and so every one
+must call it who is not interested in the Egyptians.  But to-night we are
+only ourselves, so I will wear the chaplet of golden corn with sapphire
+grapes.  Do you think, Zoe, that with that I could wear the dress of
+transparent bombyx silk that came yesterday from Cos?  But no, I will not
+wear that, for it is too slight a tissue, it hides nothing and I am now
+too thin for it to become me.  All the lines in my throat show, and my
+elbows are quite sharp--altogether I am much thinner.  That comes of
+incessant worry, annoyance, and anxiety.  How angry I was yesterday at
+the council, because my husband will always give way and agree and try to
+be pleasant; whenever a refusal is necessary I have to interfere,
+unwilling as I am to do it, and odious as it is to me always to have to
+stir up discontent, disappointment, and disaffection, to take things on
+myself and to be regarded as hard and heartless in order that my husband
+may preserve undiminished the doubtful glory of being the gentlest and
+kindest of men and princes.  My son's having a will of his own leads to
+agitating scenes, but even that is better than that Philopator should
+rush into everybody's arms.  The first thing in bringing up a boy should
+be to teach him to say 'no.'  I often say 'yes' myself when I should not,
+but I am a woman, and yielding becomes us better than refusal--and what
+is there of greater importance to a woman than to do what becomes her
+best, and to seem beautiful?
+
+"I will decide on this pale dress, and put over it the net-work of gold
+thread with sapphire knots; that will go well with the head-dress.  Take
+care with your comb, Thais, you are hurting me!  Now--I must not chatter
+any more.  Zoe, give me the roll yonder; I must collect my thoughts a
+little before I go down to talk among men at the banquet.  When we have
+just come from visiting the realm of death and of Serapis, and have been
+reminded of the immortality of the soul and of our lot in the next world,
+we are glad to read through what the most estimable of human thinkers has
+said concerning such things.  Begin here, Zoe."
+
+Cleopatra's companion, thus addressed, signed to the unoccupied waiting-
+women to withdraw, seated herself on a low cushion opposite the queen,
+and began to read with an intelligent and practised intonation; the
+reading went on for some time uninterrupted by any sound but the clink of
+metal ornaments, the rustle of rich stuffs, the trickle of oils or
+perfumes as they were dropped into the crystal bowls, the short and
+whispered questions of the women who were attiring the queen, or
+Cleopatra's no less low and rapid answers.
+
+All the waiting-women not immediately occupied about the queen's person--
+perhaps twenty in all, young and old-ranged themselves along the sides of
+the great tent, either standing or sitting on the ground or on cushions,
+and awaiting the moment when it should be their turn to perform some
+service, as motionless as though spellbound by the mystical words of a
+magician.  They only made signs to each other with their eyes and
+fingers, for they knew that the queen did not choose to be disturbed
+when she was being read to, and that she never hesitated to cast aside
+anything or anybody that crossed her wishes or inclinations, like a tight
+shoe or a broken lutestring.
+
+Her features were irregular and sharp, her cheekbones too strongly
+developed, and the lips, behind which her teeth gleamed pearly white-
+though too widely set--were too full; still, so long as she exerted her
+great powers of concentration, and listened with flashing eyes, like
+those of a prophetess, and parted lips to the words of Plato, her face
+had worn an indescribable glow of feeling, which seemed to have come upon
+her from a higher and better world, and she had looked far more beautiful
+than now when she was fully dressed, and when her women crowded round
+leer--Zoe having laid aside the Plato--with loud and unmeasured flattery.
+
+Cleopatra delighted in being thus feted, and, in order to enjoy the
+adulation of a throng, she would always when dressing have a great number
+of women to attend her toilet; mirrors were held up to her on every side,
+a fold set right, and the jewelled straps of her sandals adjusted.
+
+One praised the abundance of her hair, another the slenderness of her
+form, the slimness of her ankles, and the smallness of her tiny hands
+and feet.  One maiden remarked to another--but loud enough to be heard--
+on the brightness of her eyes which were clearer than the sapphires on
+her brow, while the Athenian waiting-woman, Thais, declared that
+Cleopatra had grown fatter, for her golden belt was less easy to clasp
+than it had been ten days previously.
+
+The queen presently signed to Zoe, who threw a little silver ball into a
+bowl of the same metal, elaborately wrought and decorated, and in a few
+minutes the tramp of the body-guard was audible outside the door of the
+tent.
+
+Cleopatra went out, casting a rapid glance over the roof--now brightly
+illuminated with cressets and torches--and the white marble statues that
+gleamed out in relief against the dark clumps of shrubs; and then,
+without even looking at the tent where her children were asleep, she
+approached the litter, which had been brought up to the roof for her by
+the young Macedonian nobles.  Zoe and Thais assisted her to mount into
+it, and her ladies, waiting-women, and others who had hurried out of the
+other tents, formed a row on each side of the way, and hailed their
+mistress with loud cries of admiration and delight as she passed by,
+lifted high above them all on the shoulders of her bearers.  The diamonds
+in the handle of her feather-fan sparkled brightly as Cleopatra waved a
+gracious adieu to her women, an adieu which did not fail to remind them
+how infinitely beneath her were those she greeted.  Every movement of her
+hand was full of regal pride, and her eyes, unveiled and untempered, were
+radiant with a young woman's pleasure in a perfect toilet, with
+satisfaction in her own person, and with the anticipation of the festive
+hours before her.
+
+The litter disappeared behind the door of the broad steps that led up to
+the roof, and Thais, sighing softly, said to herself, "If only for once I
+could ride through the air in just such a pretty shell of colored and
+shining mother-of-pearl, like a goddess! carried aloft by young men, and
+hailed and admired by all around me!  High up there the growing Selene
+floats calmly and silently by the tiny stars, and just so did she ride
+past in her purple robe with her torch-bearers and flames and lights-past
+us humble creatures, and between the tents to the banquet--and to what a
+banquet, and what guests!  Everything up here greets her with rejoicing,
+and I could almost fancy that among those still marble statues even the
+stern face of Zeno had parted its lips, and spoken flattering words to
+her.  And yet poor little Zoe, and the fair-haired Lysippa, and the
+black-haired daughter of Demetrius, and even I, poor wretch, should be
+handsomer, far handsomer than she, if we could dress ourselves with fine
+clothes and jewels for which kings would sell their kingdoms; if we could
+play Aphrodite as she does, and ride off in a shell borne aloft on
+emerald-green glass to look as if it were floating on the waves; if
+dolphins set with pearls and turquoises served us for a footstool, and
+white ostrich-plumes floated over our heads, like the silvery clouds that
+float over Athens in the sky of a fine spring day.  The transparent
+tissue that she dared not put on would well become me!  If only that were
+true which Zoe was reading yesterday, that the souls of men were destined
+to visit the earth again and again in new forms!  Then perhaps mine might
+some day come into the world in that of a king's child.  I should not
+care to be a prince, so much is expected of him, but a princess indeed!
+That would be lovely!"
+
+These and such like were Thais' dreams, while Zoe stood outside the tent
+of the royal children with her cousin, the chief-attendant of prince
+Philopator, carrying on an eager conversation in a low tone.  The child's
+nurse from time to time dried her eyes and sobbed bitterly as she said:
+"My own baby, my other children, my husband and our beautiful house in
+Alexandria--I left them all to suckle and rear a prince.  I have
+sacrificed happiness, freedom, and my nights'-sleep for the sake of the
+queen and of this child, and how am I repaid for all this?  As if I were
+a lowborn wench instead of the daughter and wife of noble men; this
+woman, half a child still, scarcely yet nineteen, dismisses me from her
+service before you and all her ladies every ten days!  And why?  Because
+the ungoverned blood of her race flows in her son's veins, and because he
+does not rush into the arms of a mother who for days does not ask for him
+at all, and never troubles herself about him but in some idle moment when
+she has gratified every other whim.  Princes distribute favor or disgrace
+with justice only so long as they are children.  The little one
+understands very well what I am to him, and sees what Cleopatra is.
+If I could find it in my heart to ill-use him in secret, this mother--who
+is not fit to be a mother--would soon have her way.  Hard as it would be
+to me so soon to leave the poor feeble little child, who has grown as
+dear to my soul as my own--aye and closer, even closer, as I may well
+say--this time I will do it, even at the risk of Cleopatra's plunging us
+into ruin, my husband and me, as she has done to so many who have dared
+to contravene her will."
+
+The wet-nurse wept aloud, but Zoe laid her hand on the distressed woman's
+shoulder, and said soothingly: "I know you have more to submit to from
+Cleopatra's humors than any of us all, but do not be overhasty.  Tomorrow
+she will send you a handsome present, as she so often has done after
+being unkind; and though she vexes and hurts you again and again, she
+will try to make up for it again and again till, when this year is over,
+your attendance on the prince will be at an end, and you can go home
+again to your own family.  We all have to practise patience; we live like
+people dwelling in a ruinous house with to-day a stone and to-morrow a
+beam threatening to fall upon our heads.  If we each take calmly whatever
+befalls us our masters try to heal our wounds, but if we resist may the
+gods have mercy on us! for Cleopatra is like a strung bow, which sets the
+arrow flying as soon as a child, a mouse, a breath of air even touches
+it--like an over-full cup which brims over if a leaf, another drop, a
+single tear falls into it.  We should, any one of us, soon be worn out by
+such a life, but she needs excitement, turmoil and amusement at every
+hour.  She comes home late from a feast, spends barely six hours in
+disturbed slumber, and has hardly rested so long as it takes a pebble to
+fall to the ground from a crane's claw before we have to dress her again
+for another meal.  From the council-board she goes to hear some learned
+discourse, from her books in the temple to sacrifice and prayer, from the
+sanctuary to the workshops of artists, from pictures and statues to the
+audience-chamber, from a reception of her subjects and of foreigners to
+her writing-room, from answering letters to a procession and worship once
+more, from the sacred services back again to her dressing-tent, and
+there, while she is being attired she listens to me while I read the most
+profound works--and how she listens! not a word escapes her, and her
+memory retains whole sentences.  Amid all this hurry and scurry her
+spirit must need be like a limb that is sore from violent exertion, and
+that is painfully tender to every rough touch.  We are to her neither
+more nor less than the wretched flies which we hit at when they trouble
+us, and may the gods be merciful to those on whom this queen's hand may
+fall!  Euergetes cleaves with the sword all that comes in his way.
+Cleopatra stabs with the dagger, and her hand wields the united power of
+her own might and of her yielding husband's.  Do not provoke her.  Submit
+to what you cannot avert; just as I never complain when, if I make a
+mistake in reading, she snatches the book from my hand, or flings it at
+my feet.  But I, of course, have only myself to fear for, and you have
+your husband and children as well."
+
+Praxinoa bowed her head at these words in sad assent, and said:
+
+"Thank you for those words!  I always think only from my heart, and you
+mostly from your head.  You are right, this time again there is nothing
+for me to do but to be patient; but when I have fulfilled the duties
+here, which I undertook, and am at home again, I will offer a great
+sacrifice to Asclepias and Hygiea, like a person recovered from a severe
+illness; and one thing I know: that I would rather be a poor girl,
+grinding at a mill, than change with this rich and adored queen who, in
+order to enjoy her life to the utmost, carelessly and restlessly hurries
+past all that our mortal lot has best to offer.  Terrible, hideous to me
+seems such an existence with no rest in it! and the heart of a mother
+which is so much occupied with other things that she cannot win the love
+of her child, which blossoms for every hired nurse, must be as waste as
+the desert!  Rather would I endure anything--everything--with patience
+than be such a queen!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+"What!  No one to come to meet me?"  asked the queen, as she reached the
+foot of the last flight of porphyry steps that led into the ante-chamber
+to the banqueting-hall, and, looking round, with an ominous glance, at
+the chamberlains who had accompanied her, she clinched her small fist.
+"I arrive and find no one here!"
+
+The "No one" certainly was a figure of speech, since more than a hundred
+body-guards-Macedonians in rich array of arms-and an equal number of
+distinguished court-officials were standing on the marble flags of the
+vast hall, which was surrounded by colonnades, while the star-spangled
+night-sky was all its roof; and the court-attendants were all men of
+rank, dignified by the titles of fathers, brothers, relatives, friends
+and chief-friends of the king.
+
+These all received the queen with a many-voiced "Hail!" but not one of
+them seemed worthy of Cleopatra's notice.  This crowd was less to her
+than the air we breathe in order to live--a mere obnoxious vapor, a whirl
+of dust which the traveller would gladly avoid, but which he must
+nevertheless encounter in order to proceed on his way.
+
+The queen had expected that the few guests, invited by her selection and
+that of her brother Euergetes to the evening's feast, would have welcomed
+her here at the steps; she thought they would have seen her--as she felt
+herself--like a goddess borne aloft in her shell, and that she might have
+exulted in the admiring astonishment of the Roman and of Lysias, the
+Corinthian: and now the most critical instant in the part she meant to
+play that evening had proved a failure, and it suggested itself to her
+mind that she might be borne back to her roof-tent, and be floated down
+once more when she was sure of the presence of the company.  But there
+was one thing she dreaded more even than pain and remorse, and that was
+any appearance of the ridiculous; so she only commanded the bearers to
+stand still, and while the master of the ceremonies, waiving his dignity,
+hurried off to announce to her husband that she was approaching, she
+signed to the nobles highest in rank to approach, that she might address
+a few gracious words to them, with distant amiability.  Only a few
+however, for the doors of thyia wood leading into the banqueting hall
+itself, presently opened, and the king with his friends came forward to
+meet Cleopatra.
+
+"How were we to expect you so early?"  cried Philometor to his wife.
+
+"Is it really still early?"  asked the queen, "or have I only taken you
+by surprise, because you had forgotten to expect me?"
+
+"How unjust you are!"  replied the king.  "Must you now be told that,
+come as early as you will, you always come too late for my desires."
+
+"But for ours," cried Lysias, "neither too early nor too late, but at the
+very right time--like returning health and happiness, or the victor's
+crown."
+
+"Health as taking the place of sickness?"  asked Cleopatra, and her eyes
+sparkled keenly and merrily.  "I perfectly understand Lysias," said
+Publius, intercepting the Greek.  "Once, on the field of Mars, I was
+flung from my horse, and had to lie for weeks on my couch, and I know
+that there is no more delightful sensation than that of feeling our
+departed strength returning as we recover.  He means to say that in your
+presence we must feel exceptionally well."
+
+"Nay rather," interrupted Lysias, "our queen seems to come to us like
+returning health, since so long as she was not in our midst we felt
+suffering and sick for longing.  Thy presence, Cleopatra, is the most
+effectual remedy, and restores us to our lost health."
+
+Cleopatra politely lowered her fan, as if in thanks, thus rapidly turning
+the stick of it in her hand, so as to make the diamonds that were set in
+it sparkle and flash.  Then she turned to the friends, and said:
+
+"Your words are most amiable, and your different ways of expressing your
+meaning remind me of two gems set in a jewel, one of which sparkles
+because it is skilfully cut, and reflects every light from its mirrorlike
+facets, while the other shines by its genuine and intrinsic fire.  The
+genuine and the true are one, and the Egyptians have but one word for
+both, and your kind speech, my Scipio--but I may surely venture to call
+you Publius--your kind speech, my Publius seems to me to be truer than
+that of your accomplished friend, which is better adapted to vainer ears
+than mine.  Pray, give me your hand."
+
+The shell in which she was sitting was gently lowered, and, supported by
+Publius and her husband, the queen alighted and entered the banqueting-
+hall, accompanied by her guests.
+
+As soon as the curtains were closed, and when Cleopatra had exchanged a
+few whispered words with her husband, she turned again to the Roman, who
+had just been joined by Eulaeus, and said:
+
+"You have come from Athens, Publius, but you do not seem to have followed
+very closely the courses of logic there, else how could it be that you,
+who regard health as the highest good--that you, who declared that you
+never felt so well as in my presence--should have quitted me so promptly
+after the procession, and in spite of our appointment?  May I be allowed
+to ask what business--"
+
+"Our noble friend," answered Eulaeus, bowing low, but not allowing the
+queen to finish her speech, "would seem to have found some particular
+charm in the bearded recluses of Serapis, and to be seeking among them
+the key-stone of his studies at Athens."
+
+"In that he is very right," said the queen.  "For from them he can learn
+to direct his attention to that third division of our existence,
+concerning which least is taught in Athens--I mean the future--"
+
+"That is in the hands of the gods," replied the Roman.  "It will come
+soon enough, and I did not discuss it with the anchorite.  Eulaeus may be
+informed that, on the contrary, everything I learned from that singular
+man in the Serapeum bore reference to the things of the past."
+
+"But how can it be possible," said Eulaeus, "that any one to whom
+Cleopatra had offered her society should think so long of anything else
+than the beautiful present?"
+
+"You indeed have good reason," retorted Publius quickly, "to enter the
+lists in behalf of the present, and never willingly to recall the past."
+
+"It was full of anxiety and care," replied Eulaeus with perfect self-
+possession.  "That my sovereign lady must know from her illustrious
+mother, and from her own experience; and she will also protect me from
+the undeserved hatred with which certain powerful enemies seem minded to
+pursue me.  Permit me, your majesty, not to make my appearance at the
+banquet until later.  This noble gentleman kept me waiting for hours in
+the Serapeum, and the proposals concerning the new building in the temple
+of Isis at Philae must be drawn up and engrossed to-day, in order that
+they may be brought to-morrow before your royal husband in council and
+your illustrious brother Euergetes--"
+
+"You have leave, interrupted Cleopatra."
+
+As soon as Eulaeus had disappeared, the queen went closer up to Publius,
+and said:
+
+"You are annoyed with this man--well, he is not pleasant, but at any rate
+he is useful and worthy.  May I ask whether you only feel his personality
+repugnant to you, or whether actual circumstances have given rise to your
+aversion--nay, if I have judged rightly, to a very bitterly hostile
+feeling against him?"
+
+"Both," replied Publius.  "In this unmanly man, from the very first,
+I expected to find nothing good, and I now know that, if I erred at all,
+it was in his favor.  To-morrow I will ask you to spare me an hour when
+I can communicate to your majesty something concerning him, but which is
+too repulsive and sad to be suitable for telling in an evening devoted to
+enjoyment.  You need not be inquisitive, for they are matters that belong
+to the past, and which concern neither you nor me."
+
+The high-steward and the cup-bearer here interrupted this conversation by
+calling them to table, and the royal pair were soon reclining with their
+guests at the festal board.
+
+Oriental splendor and Greek elegance were combined in the decorations of
+the saloon of moderate size, in which Ptolemy Philometor was wont to
+prefer to hold high-festival with a few chosen friends.  Like the great
+reception-hall and the men's hall-with its twenty doors and lofty
+porphyry columns--in which the king's guests assembled, it was lighted
+from above, since it was only at the sides that the walls--which had no
+windows--and a row of graceful alabaster columns with Corinthian
+acanthus-capitals supported a narrow roof; the centre of the hall was
+quite uncovered.  At this hour, when it was blazing with hundreds of
+lights, the large opening, which by day admitted the bright sunshine, was
+closed over by a gold net-work, decorated with stars and a crescent moon
+of rock-crystal, and the meshes were close enough to exclude the bats and
+moths which at night always fly to the light.  But the illumination of
+the king's banqueting-hall made it almost as light as day, consisting of
+numerous lamps with many branches held up by lovely little figures of
+children in bronze and marble.  Every joint was plainly visible in the
+mosaic of the pavement, which represented the reception of Heracles into
+Olympus, the feast of the gods, and the astonishment of the amazed hero
+at the splendor of the celestial banquet; and hundreds of torches were
+reflected in the walls of polished yellow marble, brought from Hippo
+Regius; these were inlaid by skilled artists with costly stones, such as
+lapis lazuli and malachite, crystals, blood-stone, jasper, agates and
+chalcedony, to represent fruit-pieces and magnificent groups of game or
+of musical instruments; while the pilasters were decorated with masks of
+the tragic and comic Muses, torches, thyrsi wreathed with ivy and vine,
+and pan-pipes.  These were wrought in silver and gold, and set with
+costly marbles, and they stood out from the marble background like metal
+work on a leather shield, or the rich ornamentation on a sword-sheath.
+The figures of a Dionysiac procession, forming the frieze, looked down
+upon the feasters--a fine relievo that had been designed and modelled for
+Ptolemy Soter by the sculptor Bryaxis, and then executed in ivory and
+gold.
+
+Everything that met the eye in this hall was splendid, costly, and above
+all of a genial aspect, even before Cleopatra had come to the throne; and
+she--here as in her own apartments--had added the busts of the greatest
+Greek philosophers and poets, from Thales of Miletus down to Strato, who
+raised chance to fill the throne of God, and from Hesiod to Callimachus;
+she too had placed the tragic mask side by side with the comic, for at
+her table--she was wont to say--she desired to see no one who could not
+enjoy grave and wise discourse more than eating, drinking, and laughter.
+
+Instead of assisting at the banquet, as other ladies used, seated on a
+chair or at the foot of her husband's couch, she reclined on a couch of
+her own, behind which stood busts of Sappho the poetess, and Aspasia the
+friend of Pericles.
+
+Though she made no pretensions to be regarded as a philosopher nor even
+as a poetess, she asserted her right to be considered a finished
+connoisseur in the arts of poetry and music; and if she preferred
+reclining to sitting how should she have done otherwise, since she was
+fully aware how well it became her to extend herself in a picturesque
+attitude on her cushions, and to support her head on her arm as it rested
+on the back of her couch; for that arm, though not strictly speaking
+beautiful, always displayed the finest specimens of Alexandrian
+workmanship in gem-cutting and goldsmiths' work.
+
+But, in fact, she selected a reclining posture particularly for the sake
+of showing her feet; not a woman in Egypt or Greece had a smaller or more
+finely formed foot than she.  For this reason her sandals were so made
+that when she stood or walked they protected only the soles of her feet,
+and her slender white toes with the roseate nails and their polished
+white half-moons were left uncovered.
+
+At the banquet she put off her shoes altogether, as the men did; hiding
+her feet at first however, and not displaying them till she thought the
+marks left on her tender skin by the straps of the sandals had completely
+disappeared.
+
+Eulaeus was the greatest admirer of these feet; not, as he averred, on
+account of their beauty, but because the play of the queen's toes showed
+him exactly what was passing in her mind, when he was quite unable to
+detect what was agitating her soul in the expression of her mouth and
+eyes, well practised in the arts of dissimulation.
+
+Nine couches, arranged three and three in a horseshoe, invited the guests
+to repose, with their arms of ebony and cushions of dull olive-green
+brocade, on which a delicate pattern of gold and silver seemed just to
+have been breathed.
+
+The queen, shrugging her shoulders, and, as it would seem, by no means
+agreeably surprised at something, whispered to the chamberlain, who then
+indicated to each guest the place he was to occupy.  To the right of the
+central group reclined the queen, and her husband took his place to the
+left; the couch between the royal pair, destined for their brother
+Euergetes, remained unoccupied.
+
+On one of the three couches which formed the right-hand angle with those
+of the royal family, Publius found a place next to Cleopatra; opposite to
+him, and next the king, was Lysias the Corinthian.  Two places next to
+him remained vacant, while on the side by the Roman reclined the brave
+and prudent Hierax, the friend of Ptolemy Euergetes and his most faithful
+follower.
+
+While the servants strewed the couches with rose leaves, sprinkled
+perfumed waters, and placed by the couch of each guest a small table-made
+of silver and of a slab of fine, reddish-brown porphyry, veined with
+white-the king addressed a pleasant greeting to each guest, apologizing
+for the smallness of the number.
+
+"Eulaeus," he said, "has been forced to leave us on business, and our
+royal brother is still sitting over his books with Aristarchus, who came
+with him from Alexandria; but he promised certainly to come."
+
+"The fewer we are," replied Lysias, bowing low, "the more honorable is
+the distinction of belonging to so limited a number of your majesty's
+most select associates."
+
+"I certainly think we have chosen the best from among the good," said the
+queen.  "But even the small number of friends I had invited must have
+seemed too large to my brother Euergetes, for he--who is accustomed to
+command in other folks' houses as he does in his own--forbid the
+chamberlain to invite our learned friends--among whom Agatharchides, my
+brothers' and my own most worthy tutor, is known to you--as well as our
+Jewish friends who were present yesterday at our table, and whom I had
+set down on my list.  I am very well satisfied however, for I like the
+number of the Muses; and perhaps he desired to do you, Publius,
+particular honor, since we are assembled here in the Roman fashion.  It
+is in your honor, and not in his, that we have no music this evening; you
+said that you did not particularly like it at a banquet.  Euergetes
+himself plays the harp admirably.  However, it is well that he is late in
+coming as usual, for the day after tomorrow is his birthday, and he is to
+spend it here with us and not in Alexandria; the priestly delegates
+assembled in the Bruchion are to come from thence to Memphis to wish him
+joy, and we must endeavor to get up some brilliant festival.  You have no
+love for Eulaeus, Publius, but he is extremely skilled in such matters,
+and I hope he will presently return to give us his advice."
+
+"For the morning we will have a grand procession," cried the king.
+"Euergetes delights in a splendid spectacle, and I should be glad to show
+him how much pleasure his visit has given us."
+
+The king's fine features wore a most winning expression as he spoke these
+words with heart-felt warmth, but his consort said thoughtfully: "Aye!
+if only we were in Alexandria--but here, among all the Egyptian people--"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A loud laugh re-echoing from the marble walls of the state-room
+interrupted the queen's speech; at first she started, but then smiled
+with pleasure as she recognized her brother Euergetes, who, pushing aside
+the chamberlains, approached the company with an elderly Greek, who
+walked by his side.
+
+"By all the dwellers on Olympus!  By the whole rabble of gods and beasts
+that live in the temples by the Nile!"  cried the new-comer, again
+laughing so heartily that not only his fat cheeks but his whole immensely
+stout young frame swayed and shook.  "By your pretty little feet,
+Cleopatra, which could so easily be hidden, and yet are always to be
+seen--by all your gentle virtues, Philometor, I believe you are trying to
+outdo the great Philadelphus or our Syrian uncle Antiochus, and to get up
+a most unique procession; and in my honor!  Just so!  I myself will take
+a part in the wonderful affair, and my sturdy person shall represent Eros
+with his quiver and bow.  Some Ethiopian dame must play the part of my
+mother Aphrodite; she will look the part to perfection, rising from the
+white sea-foam with her black skin.  And what do you think of a Pallas
+with short woolly hair; of the Charities with broad, flat Ethiopian feet;
+and an Egyptian, with his shaven head mirroring the sun, as Phoebus
+Apollo?"
+
+With these words the young giant of twenty years threw himself on the
+vacant couch between his brother and sister, and, after bowing, not
+without dignity, to the Roman, whom his brother named to him, he called
+one of the young Macedonians of noble birth who served at the feast as
+cup-bearers, had his cup filled once and again and yet a third time,
+drinking it off quickly and without setting it down; then he said in a
+loud tone, while he pushed his hands through his tossed, light brown
+hair, till it stood straight up in the air from his broad temples and
+high brow:
+
+"I must make up for what you have had before I came.--Another cup-full
+Diocleides."
+
+"Wild boy!"  said Cleopatra, holding up her finger at him half in jest
+and half in grave warning.  "How strange you look!"
+
+"Like Silenus without the goat's hoofs," answered Euergetes.  "Hand me a
+mirror here, Diocleides; follow the eyes of her majesty the queen, and
+you will be sure to find one.  There is the thing!  And in fact the
+picture it shows me does not displease me.  I see there a head on which
+besides the two crowns of Egypt a third might well find room, and in
+which there is so much brains that they might suffice to fill the skulls
+of four kings to the brim.  I see two vulture's eyes which are always
+keen of sight even when their owner is drunk, and that are in danger of
+no peril save from the flesh of these jolly cheeks, which, if they
+continue to increase so fast, must presently exclude the light, as the
+growth of the wood encloses a piece of money stuck into a rift in a tree-
+or as a shutter, when it is pushed to, closes up a window.  With these
+hands and arms the fellow I see in the mirror there could, at need, choke
+a hippopotamus; the chain that is to deck this neck must be twice as long
+as that worn by a well-fed Egyptian priest.  In this mirror I see a man,
+who is moulded out of a sturdy clay, baked out of more unctuous and solid
+stuff than other folks; and if the fine creature there on the bright
+surface wears a transparent robe, what have you to say against it,
+Cleopatra?  The Ptolemaic princes must protect the import trade of
+Alexandria, that fact was patent even to the great son of Lagus; and what
+would become of our commerce with Cos if I did not purchase the finest
+bombyx stuffs, since those who sell it make no profits out of you, the
+queen--and you cover yourself, like a vestal virgin, in garments of
+tapestry.  Give me a wreath for my head--aye and another to that, and new
+wine in the cup!  To the glory of Rome and to your health, Publius
+Cornelius Scipio, and to our last critical conjecture, my Aristarchus--
+to subtle thinking and deep drinking!"
+
+"To deep thinking and subtle drinking!"  retorted the person thus
+addressed, while he raised the cup, looked into the wine with his
+twinkling eyes and lifted it slowly to his nose--a long, well-formed and
+slightly aquiline nose--and to his thin lips.
+
+"Oh! Aristarchus," exclaimed Euergetes, and he frowned.  "You please me
+better when you clear up the meaning of your poets and historians than
+when you criticise the drinking-maxims of a king.  Subtle drinking is
+mere sipping, and sipping I leave to the bitterns and other birds that
+live content among the reeds.  Do you understand me?  Among reeds, I say-
+-whether cut for writing, or no."
+
+"By subtle drinking," replied the great critic with perfect indifference,
+as he pushed the thin, gray hair from his high brow with his slender
+hand.  "By subtle drinking I mean the drinking of choice wine, and did
+you ever taste anything more delicate than this juice of the vines of
+Anthylla that your illustrious brother has set before us?  Your
+paradoxical axiom commends you at once as a powerful thinker and
+as the benevolent giver of the best of drinks."
+
+"Happily turned," exclaimed Cleopatra, clapping her hands, "you here see,
+Publius, a proof of the promptness of an Alexandrian tongue."
+
+"Yes!"  said Euergetes, "if men could go forth to battle with words
+instead of spears the masters of the Museum in Alexander's city, with
+Aristarchus at their head, they might rout the united armies of Rome and
+Carthage in a couple of hours."
+
+"But we are not now in the battle-field but at a peaceful meal," said the
+king, with suave amiability.  "You did in fact overhear our secret
+Euergetes, and mocked at my faithful Egyptians, in whose place I would
+gladly set fair Greeks if only Alexandria still belonged to me instead of
+to you.--However, a splendid procession shall not be wanting at your
+birthday festival."
+
+"And do you really still take pleasure in these eternal goose-step
+performances?"  asked Euergetes, stretching himself out on his couch,
+and folding his hands to support the back of his head.  "Sooner could I
+accustom myself to the delicate drinking of Aristarchus than sit for
+hours watching these empty pageants.  On two conditions only can I
+declare myself ready and willing to remain quiet, and patiently to dawdle
+through almost half a day, like an ape in a cage: First, if it will give
+our Roman friend Publius Cornelius Scipio any pleasure to witness such a
+performance--though, since our uncle Antiochus pillaged our wealth, and
+since we brothers shared Egypt between us, our processions are not to be
+even remotely compared to the triumphs of Roman victors--or, secondly, if
+I am allowed to take an active part in the affair."
+
+"On my account, Sire," replied Publius, "no procession need be arranged,
+particularly not such a one as I should here be obliged to look on at."
+
+"Well!  I still enjoy such things," said Cleopatra's husband.  "Well-
+arranged groups, and the populace pleased and excited are a sight I am
+never tired of."
+
+"As for me," cried Cleopatra, "I often turn hot and cold, and the tears
+even spring to my eyes, when the shouting is loudest.  A great mass of
+men all uniting in a common emotion always has a great effect.  A drop,
+a grain of sand, a block of stone are insignificant objects, but millions
+of them together, forming the sea, the desert or the pyramids, constitute
+a sublime whole.  One man alone, shouting for joy, is like a madman
+escaped from an asylum, but when thousands of men rejoice together it
+must have a powerful effect on the coldest heart.  How is it that you,
+Publius Scipio, in whom a strong will seems to me to have found a
+peculiarly happy development, can remain unmoved by a scene in which the
+great collective will of a people finds its utterance?"
+
+"Is there then any expression of will, think you," said the Roman, "in
+this popular rejoicing?  It is just in such circumstances that each man
+becomes the involuntary mimic and duplicate of his neighbor; while I love
+to make my own way, and to be independent of everything but the laws and
+duties laid upon me by the state to which I belong."
+
+"And I," said Euergetes, "from my childhood have always looked on at
+processions from the very best places, and so it is that fortune punishes
+me now with indifference to them and to everything of the kind; while the
+poor miserable devil who can never catch sight of anything more than the
+nose or the tip of a hair or the broad back of those who take part in
+them, always longs for fresh pageants.  As you hear, I need have no
+consideration for Publius Scipio in this, willing as I should be to do
+so.  Now what would you say, Cleopatra, if I myself took a part in my
+procession--I say mine, since it is to be in my honor; that really would
+be for once something new and amusing."
+
+"More new and amusing than creditable, I think," replied Cleopatra dryly.
+
+"And yet even that ought to please you," laughed Euergetes.  "Since,
+besides being your brother, I am your rival, and we would sooner see our
+rivals lower themselves than rise."
+
+"Do not try to justify yourself by such words," interrupted the king
+evasively, and with a tone of regret in his soft voice.  "We love you
+truly; we are ready to yield you your dominion side by side with ours,
+and I beg you to avoid such speeches even in jest, so that bygones may be
+bygones."
+
+"And," added Cleopatra, "not to detract from your dignity as a king and
+your fame as a sage by any such fool's pranks."
+
+"Madam teacher, do you know then what I had in my mind?  I would appear
+as Alcibiades, followed by a train of flute-playing women, with
+Aristarchus to play the part of Socrates.  I have often been told that he
+and I resemble each other--in many points, say the more sincere; in every
+point, say the more polite of my friends."
+
+At these words Publius measured with his eye the frame of the royal young
+libertine, enveloped in transparent robes; and recalling to himself, as
+he gazed, a glorious statue of that favorite of the Athenians, which he
+had seen in the Ilissus, an ironical smile passed over his lips.  It was
+not unobserved by Euergetes and it offended him, for there was nothing he
+liked better than to be compared to the nephew of Pericles; but he
+suppressed his annoyance, for Publius Cornelius Scipio was the nearest
+relative of the most influential men of Rome, and, though he himself
+wielded royal power, Rome exercised over him the sovereign will of a
+divinity.
+
+Cleopatra noticed what was passing in her brother's mind, and in order to
+interrupt his further speech and to divert his mind to fresh thoughts,
+she said cheerfully:
+
+"Let us then give up the procession, and think of some other mode of
+celebrating your birthday.  You, Lysias, must be experienced in such
+matters, for Publius tells me that you were the leader in all the games
+of Corinth.  What can we devise to entertain Euergetes and ourselves?"
+
+The Corinthian looked for a moment into his cup, moving it slowly about
+on the marble slab of the little table at his side, between an oyster
+pasty and a dish of fresh asparagus; and then he said, glancing round to
+win the suffrages of the company:
+
+"At the great procession which took place under Ptolemy Philadelphus--
+Agatharchides gave me the description of it, written by the eye-witness
+Kallixenus, to read only yesterday--all kinds of scenes from the lives of
+the gods were represented before the people.  Suppose we were to remain
+in this magnificent palace, and to represent ourselves the beautiful
+groups which the great artists of the past have produced in painting or
+sculpture; but let us choose those only that are least known."
+
+"Splendid," cried Cleopatra in great excitement, who can be more like
+Heracles than my mighty brother there--the very son of Alcmene, as
+Lysippus has conceived and represented him?  Let us then represent the
+life of Heracles from grand models, and in every case assign to Euergetes
+the part of the hero."
+
+"Oh! I will undertake it," said the young king, feeling the mighty
+muscles of his breast and arms, "and you may give me great credit for
+assuming the part, for the demi-god who strangled the snakes was lacking
+in the most important point, and it was not without due consideration
+that Lysippus represented him with a small head on his mighty body; but I
+shall not have to say anything."
+
+"If I play Omphale will you sit at my feet?"  asked Cleopatra.
+
+"Who would not be willing to sit at those feet?"  answered Euergetes.
+"Let us at once make further choice among the abundance of subjects
+offered to us, but, like Lysias, I would warn you against those that are
+too well-known."
+
+"There are no doubt things commonplace to the eye as well as to the ear,"
+said Cleopatra.  "But what is recognized as good is commonly regarded as
+most beautiful."
+
+"Permit me," said Lysias, "to direct your attention to a piece of
+sculpture in marble of the noblest workmanship, which is both old and
+beautiful, and yet which may be known to few among you.  It exists on the
+cistern of my father's house at Corinth, and was executed many centuries
+since by a great artist of the Peloponnesus.  Publius was delighted with
+the work, and it is in fact beautiful beyond description.  It is an
+exquisite representation of the marriage of Heracles and Hebe--of the
+hero, raised to divinity, with sempiternal youth.  Will Your Majesty
+allow yourself to be led by Pallas Athene and your mother Alcmene to your
+nuptials with Hebe?"
+
+"Why not?"  said Euergetes.  "Only the Hebe must be beautiful.  But one
+thing must be considered; how are we to get the cistern from your
+father's house at Corinth to this place by to-morrow or next day?  Such a
+group cannot be posed from memory without the original to guide us; and
+though the story runs that the statue of Serapis flew from Sinope to
+Alexandria, and though there are magicians still at Memphis--"
+
+"We shall not need them," interrupted Publius, "while I was staying as a
+guest in the house of my friend's parents--which is altogether more
+magnificent than the old castle of King Gyges at Sardis--I had some gems
+engraved after this lovely group, as a wedding-present for my sister.
+They are extremely successful, and I have them with me in my tent."
+
+"Have you a sister?"  asked the queen, leaning over towards the Roman.
+"You must tell me all about her."
+
+"She is a girl like all other girls," replied Publius, looking down at
+the ground, for it was most repugnant to his feelings to speak of his
+sister in the presence of Euergetes.
+
+"And you are unjust like all other brothers," said Cleopatra smiling,
+"and I must hear more about her, for"--and she whispered the words and
+looked meaningly at Publius--"all that concerns you must interest me."
+
+During this dialogue the royal brothers had addressed themselves to
+Lysias with questions as to the marriage of Heracles and Hebe, and all
+the company were attentive to the Greek as he went on: "This fine work
+does not represent the marriage properly speaking, but the moment when
+the bridegroom is led to the bride.  The hero, with his club on his
+shoulder, and wearing the lion's skin, is led by Pallas Athene, who, in
+performing this office of peace, has dropped her spear and carries her
+helmet in her hand; they are accompanied by his mother Alcmene, and are
+advancing towards the bride's train.  This is headed by no less a
+personage than Apollo himself, singing the praises of Hymenaeus to a
+lute.  With him walks his sister Artemis and behind them the mother of
+Hebe, accompanied by Hermes, the messenger of the gods, as the envoy of
+Zeus.  Then follows the principal group, which is one of the most lovely
+works of Greek art that I am acquainted with.  Hebe comes forward to meet
+her bridegroom, gently led on by Aphrodite, the queen of love.  Peitho,
+the goddess of persuasion, lays her hand on the bride's arm,
+imperceptibly urging her forward and turning away her face; for what she
+had to say has been said, and she smiles to herself, for Hebe has not
+turned a deaf ear to her voice, and he who has once listened to Peitho
+must do what she desires."
+
+"And Hebe?"  asked Cleopatra.
+
+"She casts down her eyes, but lifts up the arm on which the hand of
+Peitho rests with a warning movement of her fingers, in which she holds
+an unopened rose, as though she would say; 'Ah! let me be--I tremble at
+the man'--or ask: 'Would it not be better that I should remain as I am
+and not yield to your temptations and to Aphrodite's power?'  Oh! Hebe is
+exquisite, and you, O Queen!  must represent her!"
+
+"I!"  exclaimed Cleopatra.  "But you said her eyes were cast down."
+
+"That is from modesty and timidity, and her gait must also be bashful and
+maidenly.  Her long robe falls to her feet in simple folds, while Peitho
+holds hers up saucily, between her forefinger and thumb, as if stealthily
+dancing with triumph over her recent victory.  Indeed the figure of
+Peitho would become you admirably."
+
+"I think I will represent Peitho," said the queen interrupting the
+Corinthian.  "Hebe is but a bud, an unopened blossom, while I am a
+mother, and I flatter myself I am something of a philosopher--"
+
+"And can with justice assure yourself," interrupted Aristarchus, "that
+with every charm of youth you also possess the characters attributed to
+Peitho, the goddess, who can work her spells not only on the heart but on
+the intellect also.  The maiden bud is as sweet to look upon as the rose,
+but he who loves not merely color but perfume too--I mean refreshment,
+emotion and edification of spirit--must turn to the full-blown flower; as
+the rose--growers of lake Moeris twine only the buds of their favorite
+flower into wreaths and bunches, but cannot use them for extracting the
+oil of imperishable fragrance; for that they need the expanded blossom.
+Represent Peitho, my Queen! the goddess herself might be proud of such a
+representative."
+
+"And if she were so indeed," cried Cleopatra, "how happy am I to hear
+such words from the lips of Aristarchus.  It is settled--I play Peitho.
+My companion Zoe may take the part of Artemis, and her grave sister that
+of Pallas Athene.  For the mother's part we have several matrons to
+choose from; the eldest daughter of Epitropes appears to me fitted for
+the part of Aphrodite; she is wonderfully lovely."
+
+"Is she stupid too?"  asked Euergetes.  "That is also an attribute of the
+ever-smiling Cypria."
+
+"Enough so, I think, for our purpose," laughed Cleopatra.  "But where are
+we to find such a Hebe as you have described, Lysias?  The daughter of
+Alimes the Arabarch is a charming child."
+
+"But she is brown, as brown as this excellent wine, and too thoroughly
+Egyptian," said the high-steward, who superintended the young Macedonian
+cup-bearers; he bowed deeply as he spoke, and modestly drew the queen's
+attention to his own daughter, a maiden of sixteen.  But Cleopatra
+objected, that she was much taller than herself, and that she would have
+to stand by the Hebe, and lay her hand on her arm.
+
+Other maidens were rejected on various grounds, and Euergetes had already
+proposed to send off a carrier-pigeon to Alexandria to command that some
+fair Greek girl should be sent by an express quadriga to Memphis--where
+the dark Egyptian gods and men flourish, and are more numerous than the
+fair race of Greeks--when Lysias exclaimed:
+
+"I saw to-day the very girl we want, a Hebe that might have stepped out
+from the marble group at my father's, and have been endued with life and
+warmth and color by some god.  Young, modest, rose and white, and just
+about as tall as Your Majesty.  If you will allow me, I will not tell you
+who she is, till after I have been to our tent to fetch the gems with the
+copies of the marble."
+
+"You will find them in an ivory casket at the bottom of my clothes-
+chest," said Publius; "here is the key."
+
+"Make haste," cried the queen, "for we are all curious to hear where in
+Memphis you discovered your modest, rose and white Hebe."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+An hour had slipped by with the royal party, since Lysias had quitted the
+company; the wine-cups had been filled and emptied many times; Eulaeus
+had rejoined the feasters, and the conversation had taken quite another
+turn, since the whole of the company were not now equally interested in
+the same subject; on the contrary, the two kings were discussing with
+Aristarchus the manuscripts of former poets and of the works of the
+sages, scattered throughout Greece, and the ways and means of obtaining
+them or of acquiring exact transcripts of them for the library of the
+Museum.  Hierax was telling Eulaeus of the last Dionysiac festival, and
+of the representation of the newest comedy in Alexandria, and Eulaeus
+assumed the appearance--not unsuccessfully--of listening with both ears,
+interrupting him several times with intelligent questions, bearing
+directly on what he had said, while in fact his attention was exclusively
+directed to the queen, who had taken entire possession of the Roman
+Publius, telling him in a low tone of her life--which was consuming her
+strength--of her unsatisfied affections, and her enthusiasm for Rome and
+for manly vigor.  As she spoke her cheeks glowed and her eyes sparkled,
+for the more exclusively she kept the conversation in her own hands the
+better she thought she was being entertained; and Publius, who was
+nothing less than talkative, seldom interrupted her, only insinuating a
+flattering word now and then when it seemed appropriate; for he
+remembered the advice given him by the anchorite, and was desirous of
+winning the good graces of Cleopatra.
+
+In spite of his sharp ears Eulaeus could understand but little of their
+whispered discourse, for King Euergetes' powerful voice sounded loud
+above the rest of the conversation; but Eulaeus was able swiftly to
+supply the links between the disjointed sentences, and to grasp the
+general sense, at any rate, of what she was saying.  The queen avoided
+wine, but she had the power of intoxicating herself, so to speak, with
+her own words, and now just as her brothers and Aristarchus were at the
+height of their excited and eager question and answer--she raised her
+cup, touched it with her lips and handed it to Publius, while at the same
+time she took hold of his.
+
+The young Roman knew well enough all the significance of this hasty
+action; it was thus that in his own country a woman when in love was wont
+to exchange her cup with her lover, or an apple already bitten by her
+white teeth.
+
+Publius was seized with a cold shudder--like a wanderer who carelessly
+pursues his way gazing up at the moon and stars, and suddenly perceives
+an abyss yawning; at his feet.  Recollections of his mother and of her
+warnings against the seductive wiles of the Egyptian women, and
+particularly of this very woman, flashed through his mind like lightning;
+she was looking at him--not royally by any means, but with anxious and
+languishing gaze, and he would gladly have kept his eyes fixed on the
+ground, and have left the cup untouched; but her eye held his fast as
+though fettering it with ties and bonds; and to put aside the cup seemed
+to the most fearless son of an unconquered nation a deed too bold to be
+attempted.  Besides, how could he possibly repay this highest favor with
+an affront that no woman could ever forgive--least of all a Cleopatra?
+
+Aye, many a life's happiness is tossed away and many a sin committed,
+because the favor of women is a grace that does honor to every man, and
+that flatters him even when it is bestowed by the unloved and unworthy.
+For flattery is a key to the heart, and when the heart stands half open
+the voice of the tempter is never wanting to whisper: "You will hurt her
+feelings if you refuse."
+
+These were the deliberations which passed rapidly and confusedly through
+the young Roman's agitated brain, as he took the queen's cup and set his
+lips to the same spot that hers had touched.  Then, while he emptied the
+cup in long draughts, he felt suddenly seized by a deep aversion to the
+over-talkative, overdressed and capricious woman before him, who thus
+forced upon him favors for which he had not sued; and suddenly there rose
+before his soul the image, almost tangibly distinct, of the humble water-
+bearer; he saw Klea standing before him and looking far more queenly as,
+proud and repellent, she avoided his gaze, than the sovereign by his side
+could ever have done, though crowned with a diadem.
+
+Cleopatra rejoiced to mark his long slow draught, for she thought the
+Roman meant to imply by it that he could not cease to esteem himself
+happy in the favor she had shown him.  She did not take her eyes off him,
+and observed with pleasure that his color changed to red and white; nor
+did she notice that Eulaeus was watching, with a twinkle in his eyes, all
+that was going on between her and Publius.  At last the Roman set down
+the cup, and tried with some confusion to reply to her question as to how
+he had liked the flavor of the wine.
+
+"Very fine--excellent--" at last he stammered out, but he was no longer
+looking at Cleopatra but at Euergetes, who just then cried out loudly:
+
+"I have thought over that passage for hours, I have given you all my
+reasons and have let you speak, Aristarchus, but I maintain my opinion,
+and whoever denies it does Homer an injustice; in this place 'siu' must
+be read instead of 'iu'."
+
+Euergetes spoke so vehemently that his voice outshouted all the other
+guests; Publius however snatched at his words, to escape the necessity
+for feigning sentiments he could not feel; so he said, addressing himself
+half to the speaker and half to Cleopatra:
+
+"Of what use can it be to decide whether it is one or the other--'iu' or
+'siu'.  I find many things justifiable in other men that are foreign to
+my own nature, but I never could understand how an energetic and vigorous
+man, a prudent sovereign and stalwart drinker--like you, Euergetes--can
+sit for hours over flimsy papyrus-rolls, and rack his brains to decide
+whether this or that in Homer should be read in one way or another."
+
+"You exercise yourself in other things," replied Euergetes.  "I consider
+that part of me which lies within this golden fillet as the best that I
+have, and I exercise my wits on the minutest and subtlest questions just
+as I would try the strength of my arms against the sturdiest athletes.
+I flung five into the sand the last time I did so, and they quake now
+when they see me enter the gymnasium of Timagetes.  There would be no
+strength in the world if there were no obstacles, and no man would know
+that he was strong if he could meet with no resistance to overcome.  I
+for my part seek such exercises as suit my idiosyncrasy, and if they are
+not to your taste I cannot help it.  If you were to set these excellently
+dressed crayfish before a fine horse he would disdain them, and could not
+understand how foolish men could find anything palatable that tasted so
+salt.  Salt, in fact, is not suited to all creatures!  Men born far from
+the sea do not relish oysters, while I, being a gourmand, even prefer to
+open them myself so that they may be perfectly fresh, and mix their
+liquor with my wine."
+
+"I do not like any very salt dish, and am glad to leave the opening of
+all marine produce to my servants," answered Publius.  "Thereby I save
+both time and unnecessary trouble."
+
+"Oh! I know!"  cried Euergetes.  "You keep Greek slaves, who must even
+read and write for you.  Pray is there a market where I may purchase men,
+who, after a night of carousing, will bear our headache for us?  By the
+shores of the Tiber you love many things better than learning."
+
+"And thereby," added Aristarchus, "deprive yourselves of the noblest and
+subtlest of pleasures, for the purest enjoyment is ever that which we
+earn at the cost of some pains and effort."
+
+"But all that you earn by this kind of labor," returned Publius, "is
+petty and unimportant.  It puts me in mind of a man who removes a block
+of stone in the sweat of his brow only to lay it on a sparrow's feather
+in order that it may not be carried away by the wind."
+
+"And what is great--and what is small?"  asked Aristarchus.  "Very
+opposite opinions on that subject may be equally true, since it depends
+solely on us and our feelings how things appear to us--whether cold or
+warm; lovely or repulsive--and when Protagoras says that 'man is the
+measure of all things,' that is the most acceptable of all the maxims of
+the Sophists; moreover the smallest matter--as you will fully appreciate
+--acquires an importance all the greater in proportion as the thing is
+perfect, of which it forms a part.  If you slit the ear of a cart-horse,
+what does it signify?  but suppose the same thing were to happen to a
+thoroughbred horse, a charger that you ride on to battle!
+
+"A wrinkle or a tooth more or less in the face of a peasant woman matters
+little, or not at all, but it is quite different in a celebrated beauty.
+If you scrawl all over the face with which the coarse finger of the
+potter has decorated a water-jar, the injury to the wretched pot is but
+small, but if you scratch, only with a needle's point, that gem with the
+portraits of Ptolemy and Arsinoe, which clasps Cleopatra's robe round her
+fair throat, the richest queen will grieve as though she had suffered
+some serious loss.
+
+"Now, what is there more perfect or more worthy to be treasured than the
+noblest works of great thinkers and great poets.
+
+"To preserve them from injury, to purge them from the errors which, in
+the course of time, may have spotted their immaculate purity, this is our
+task; and if we do indeed raise blocks of stone it is not to weight a
+sparrow's feather that it may not be blown away, but to seal the door
+which guards a precious possession, and to preserve a gem from injury.
+
+"The chatter of girls at a fountain is worth nothing but to be wafted
+away on the winds, and to be remembered by none; but can a son ever deem
+that one single word is unimportant which his dying father has bequeathed
+to him as a clue to his path in life?  If you yourself were such a son,
+and your ear had not perfectly caught the parting counsels of the dying-
+how many talents of silver would you not pay to be able to supply the
+missing words?  And what are immortal works of the great poets and
+thinkers but such sacred words of warning addressed, not to a single
+individual, but to all that are not barbarians, however many they maybe.
+They will elevate, instruct, and delight our descendants a thousand years
+hence as they do us at this day, and they, if they are not degenerate and
+ungrateful will be thankful to those who have devoted the best powers of
+their life to completing and restoring all that our mighty forefathers
+have said, as it must have originally stood before it was mutilated, and
+spoiled by carelessness and folly.
+
+"He who, like King Euergetes, puts one syllable in Homer right, in place
+of a wrong one, in my opinion has done a service to succeeding
+generations--aye and a great service."
+
+"What you say," replied Publius, "sounds convincing, but it is still not
+perfectly clear to me; no doubt because I learned at an early age to
+prefer deeds to words.  I find it more easy to reconcile my mind to your
+painful and minute labors when I reflect that to you is entrusted the
+restoration of the literal tenor of laws, whose full meaning might be
+lost by a verbal error; or that wrong information might be laid before me
+as to one single transaction in the life of a friend or of a blood-
+relation, and it might lie with me to clear him of mistakes and
+misinterpretation."
+
+"And what are the works of the great singers of the deeds of the heroes-
+of the writers of past history, but the lives of our fathers related
+either with veracious exactness or with poetic adornments?"  cried
+Aristarchus.  "It is to these that my king and companion in study devotes
+himself with particular zeal."
+
+"When he is neither drinking, nor raving, nor governing, nor wasting his
+time in sacrificing and processions," interpolated Euergetes.  "If I had
+not been a king perhaps I might have been an Aristarchus; as it is I am
+but half a king--since half of my kingdom belongs to you, Philometor--and
+but half a student; for when am I to find perfect quiet for thinking and
+writing?  Everything, everything in me is by halves, for I, if the scale
+were to turn in my favor"--and here he struck his chest and his forehead,
+"I should be twice the man I am.  I am my whole real self nowhere but at
+high festivals, when the wine sparkles in the cup, and bright eyes flash
+from beneath the brows of the flute-players of Alexandria or Cyrene--
+sometimes too perhaps in council when the risk is great, or when there is
+something vast and portentous to be done from which my brother and you
+others, all of you, would shrink--nay perhaps even the Roman.  Aye!  so
+it is--and you will learn to know it."
+
+Euergetes had roared rather than spoken the last words; his cheeks were
+flushed, his eyes rolled, while he took from his head both the garland of
+flowers and the golden fillet, and once more pushed his fingers through
+his hair.
+
+His sister covered her ears with her hands, and said: "You positively
+hurt me!  As no one is contradicting you, and you, as a man of culture,
+are not accustomed to add force to your assertions, like the Scythians,
+by speaking in a loud tone, you would do well to save your metallic voice
+for the further speech with which it is to be hoped you will presently
+favor us.  We have had to bow more than once already to the strength of
+which you boast--but now, at a merry feast, we will not think of that,
+but rather continue the conversation which entertained us, and which had
+begun so well.  This eager defence of the interests which most delight
+the best of the Hellenes in Alexandria may perhaps result in infusing
+into the mind of our friend Publius Scipio--and through him into that of
+many young Romans--a proper esteem for a line of intellectual effort
+which he could not have condemned had he not failed to understand it
+perfectly.
+
+"Very often some striking poetical turn given to a subject makes it,
+all at once, clear to our comprehension, even when long and learned
+disquisitions have failed; and I am acquainted with such an one, written
+by an anonymous author, and which may please you--and you too,
+Aristarchus.  It epitomizes very happily the subject of our discussion.
+The lines run as follows:
+
+                   "Behold, the puny Child of Man
+                    Sits by Time's boundless sea,
+                    And gathers in his feeble hand
+                    Drops of Eternity.
+
+                    "He overhears some broken words
+                    Of whispered mystery
+                    He writes them in a tiny book
+                    And calls it 'History!'
+
+"We owe these verses to an accomplished friend; another has amplified the
+idea by adding the two that follow:
+
+                   "If indeed the puny Child of Man
+                    Had not gathered drops from that wide sea,
+                    Those small deeds that fill his little span
+                    Had been lost in dumb Eternity.
+
+                    "Feeble is his hand, and yet it dare
+                    Seize some drops of that perennial stream;
+                    As they fall they catch a transient gleam--
+                    Lo!  Eternity is mirrored there!
+
+"What are we all but puny children?  And those of us who gather up the
+drops surely deserve our esteem no less than those who spend their lives
+on the shore of that great ocean in mere play and strife--"
+
+"And love," threw in Eulaeus in a low voice, as he glanced towards
+Publius.
+
+"Your poet's verses are pretty and appropriate," Aristarchus now said,
+"and I am very happy to find myself compared to the children who catch
+the falling drops.  There was a time--which came to an end, alas! with
+the great Aristotle--when there were men among the Greeks, who fed the
+ocean of which you speak with new tributaries; for the gods had bestowed
+on them the power of opening new sources, like the magician Moses, of
+whom Onias, the Jew, was lately telling us, and whose history I have read
+in the sacred books of the Hebrews.  He, it is true--Moses I mean--only
+struck water from the rock for the use of the body, while to our
+philosophers and poets we owe inexhaustible springs to refresh the mind
+and soul.  The time is now past which gave birth to such divine and
+creative spirits; as your majesties' forefathers recognized full well
+when they founded the Museum of Alexandria and the Library, of which I am
+one of the guardians, and which I may boast of having completed with your
+gracious assistance.  When Ptolemy Soter first created the Museum in
+Alexandria the works of the greatest period could receive no additions in
+the form of modern writings of the highest class; but he set us--children
+of man, gathering the drops--the task of collecting and of sifting them,
+of eliminating errors in them--and I think we have proved ourselves equal
+to this task.
+
+"It has been said that it is no less difficult to keep a fortune than to
+deserve it; and so perhaps we, who are merely 'keepers' may nevertheless
+make some credit--all the more because we have been able to arrange the
+wealth we found under hand, to work it profitably, to apply it well, to
+elucidate it, and to make it available.  When anything new is created by
+one of our circle we always link it on to the old; and in many
+departments we have indeed even succeeded in soaring above the ancients,
+particularly in that of the experimental sciences.  The sublime
+intelligence of our forefathers commanded a broad horizon--our narrower
+vision sees more clearly the objects that lie close to us.  We have
+discovered the sure path for all intellectual labor, the true scientific
+method; and an observant study of things as they are, succeeds better
+with us than it did with our predecessors.  Hence it follows that in the
+provinces of the natural sciences, in mathematics, astronomy, mechanics
+and geography the sages of our college have produced works of unsurpassed
+merit.  Indeed the industry of my associates--"
+
+"Is very great," cried Euergetes.  "But they stir up such a dust that all
+free-thought is choked, and because they value quantity above all things
+in the results they obtain, they neglect to sift what is great from what
+is small; and so Publius Scipio and others like him, who shrug their
+shoulders over the labors of the learned, find cause enough to laugh in
+their faces.  Out of every four of you I should dearly like to set three
+to some handicraft, and I shall do it too, one of these days--I shall do
+it, and turn them and all their miserable paraphernalia out of the
+Museum, and out of my capital.  They may take refuge with you,
+Philometor, you who marvel at everything you cannot do yourself, who are
+always delighted to possess what I reject, and to make much of those whom
+I condemn--and Cleopatra I dare say will play the harp, in honor of their
+entering Memphis."
+
+"I dare say!"  answered the queen, laughing bitterly.  "Still, it is to
+be expected that your wrath may fall even on worthy men.  Until then I
+will practise my music, and study the treatise on harmony that you have
+begun writing.  You are giving us proof to-day of how far you have
+succeeded in attaining unison in your own soul."
+
+"I like you in this mood!"  cried Euergetes.  "I love you, sister, when
+you are like this!  It ill becomes the eagle's brood to coo like the
+dove, and you have sharp talons though you hide them never so well under
+your soft feathers.  It is true that I am writing a treatise on harmony,
+and I am doing it with delight; still it is one of those phenomena which,
+though accessible to our perception, are imperishable, for no god even
+could discover it entire and unmixed in the world of realities.  Where is
+harmony to be found in the struggles and rapacious strife of the life of
+the Cosmos?  And our human existence is but the diminished reflection of
+that process of birth and decease, of evolution and annihilation, which
+is going on in all that is perceptible to our senses; now gradually and
+invisibly, now violently and convulsively, but never harmonyously.
+
+"Harmony is at home only in the ideal world--harmony which is unknown
+even among the gods harmony, whom I may know, and yet may never
+comprehend--whom I love, and may never possess--whom I long for, and who
+flies from me.
+
+"I am as one that thirsteth, and harmony as the remote, unattainable
+well--I am as one swimming in a wide sea, and she is the land which
+recedes as I deem myself near to it.
+
+"Who will tell me the name of the country where she rules as queen,
+undisturbed and untroubled?  And which is most in earnest in his pursuit
+of the fair one: He who lies sleeping in her arms, or he who is consumed
+by his passion for her?
+
+"I am seeking what you deem that you possess.--Possess--!
+
+"Look round you on the world and on life--look round, as I do, on this
+hall of which you are so proud!  It was built by a Greek; but, because
+the simple melody of beautiful forms in perfect concord no longer
+satisfies you, and your taste requires the eastern magnificence in which
+you were born, because this flatters your vanity and reminds you, each
+time you gaze upon it, that you are wealthy and powerful--you commanded
+your architect to set aside simple grandeur, and to build this gaudy
+monstrosity, which is no more like the banqueting-hall of a Pericles than
+I or you, Cleopatra, in all our finery, are like the simply clad gods and
+goddesses of Phidias.  I mean not to offend you, Cleopatra, but I must
+say this; I am writing now on the subject of harmony, and perhaps I shall
+afterwards treat of justice, truth, virtue; although I know full well
+that they are pure abstractions which occur neither in nature nor in
+human life, and which in my dealings I wholly set aside; nevertheless
+they seem to me worthy of investigation, like any other delusion, if by
+resolving it we may arrive at conditional truth.  It is because one man
+is afraid of another that these restraints--justice, truth, and what else
+you will--have received these high-sounding names, have been stamped as
+characteristics of the gods, and placed under the protection of the
+immortals; nay, our anxious care has gone so far that it has been taught
+as a doctrine that it is beautiful and good to cloud our free enjoyment
+of existence for the sake of these illusions.  Think of Antisthenes and
+his disciples, the dog-like Cynics--think of the fools shut up in the
+temple of Serapis!  Nothing is beautiful but what is free, and he only is
+not free who is forever striving to check his inclinations--for the most
+part in vain--in order to live, as feeble cowards deem virtuously, justly
+and truthfully.
+
+"One animal eats another when he has succeeded in capturing it, either in
+open fight or by cunning and treachery; the climbing plant strangles the
+tree, the desert-sand chokes the meadows, stars fall from heaven, and
+earthquakes swallow up cities.  You believe in the gods--and so do I
+after my own fashion--and if they have so ordered the course of this life
+in every class of existence that the strong triumph over the weak,
+why should not I use my strength, why let it be fettered by those much-
+belauded soporifics which our prudent ancestors concocted to cool the hot
+blood of such men as I, and to paralyze our sinewy fists.
+
+"Euergetes--the well-doer--I was named at my birth; but if men choose to
+call me Kakergetes--the evil-doer--I do not mind it, since what you call
+good I call narrow and petty, and what you call evil is the free and
+unbridled exercise of power.  I would be anything rather than lazy and
+idle, for everything in nature is active and busy; and as, with
+Aristippus, I hold pleasure to be the highest good, I would fain earn the
+name of having enjoyed more than all other men; in the first place in my
+mind, but no less in my body which I admire and cherish."
+
+During this speech many signs of disagreement had found expression, and
+Publius, who for the first time in his life heard such vicious sentiments
+spoken, followed the words of the headstrong youth with consternation and
+surprise.  He felt himself no match for this overbearing spirit, trained
+too in all the arts of argument and eloquence; but he could not leave all
+he had heard uncontroverted, and so, as Euergetes paused in order to
+empty his refilled cup, he began:
+
+"If we were all to act on your principles, in a few centuries, it seems
+to me, there would be no one left to subscribe to them; for the earth
+would be depopulated; and the manuscripts, in which you are so careful to
+substitute 'siu' for 'iu', would be used by strong-handed mothers, if any
+were left, to boil the pot for their children--in this country of yours
+where there is no wood to burn.  Just now you were boasting of your
+resemblance to Alcibiades, but that very gift which distinguished him,
+and made him dear to the Athenians--I mean his beauty--is hardly possible
+in connection with your doctrines, which would turn men into ravening
+beasts.  He who would be beautiful must before all things be able to
+control himself and to be moderate--as I learnt in Rome before I ever saw
+Athens, and have remembered well.  A Titan may perhaps have thought and
+talked as you do, but an Alcibiades--hardly!"
+
+At these words the blood flew to Euergetes' face; but he suppressed the
+keen and insulting reply that rose to his lips, and this little victory
+over his wrathful impulse was made the more easy as Lysias, at this
+moment, rejoined the feasters; he excused himself for his long absence,
+and then laid before Cleopatra and her husband the gems belonging to
+Publius.
+
+They were warmly admired; even Euergetes was not grudging of his praise,
+and each of the company admitted that he had rarely seen anything more
+beautiful and graceful than the bashful Hebe with downcast eyes, and the
+goddess of persuasion with her hand resting on the bride's arm.
+
+"Yes, I will take the part of Peitho," said Cleopatra with decision.
+
+"And I that of Heracles," cried Euergetes.
+
+"But who is the fair one," asked King Philometor of Lysias, whom you have
+in your eye, as fulfilling this incomparably lovely conception of Hebe?
+While you were away I recalled to memory the aspect of every woman and
+girl who frequents our festivals, but only to reject them all, one after
+the other."
+
+"The fair girl whom I mean," replied Lysias, "has never entered this or
+any other palace; indeed I am almost afraid of being too bold in
+suggesting to our illustrious queen so humble a child as fit to stand
+beside her, though only in sport."
+
+"I shall even have to touch her arm with my hand!"  said the queen
+anxiously, and she drew up her fingers as if she had to touch some
+unclean thing.  If you mean a flower-seller or a flute-player or
+something of that kind--"
+
+"How could I dare to suggest anything so improper?"  Lysias hastily
+interposed.  "The girl of whom I speak may be sixteen years old; she is
+innocence itself incarnate, and she looks like a bud ready to open
+perhaps in the morning dew that may succeed this very night, but which as
+yet is still enfolded in its cup.  She is of Greek race, about as tall as
+you are, Cleopatra; she has wonderful gazelle-like eyes, her little head
+is covered by a mass of abundant brown hair, when she smiles she has
+delicious dimples in her cheeks--and she will be sure to smile when such
+a Peitho speaks to her!"
+
+"You are rousing our curiosity," cried Philometor.  "In what garden,
+pray, does this blossom grow?"
+
+"And how is it," added Cleopatra, "that my husband has not discovered it
+long since, and transplanted it to our palace."
+
+"Probably," answered Lysias, "because he who possesses Cleopatra, the
+fairest rose of Egypt, regards the violets by the roadside as too
+insignificant to be worth glancing at.  Besides, the hedge that fences
+round my bud grows in a gloomy spot; it is difficult of access and
+suspiciously watched.  To be brief: our Hebe is a water-bearer in the
+temple of Serapis, and her name is Irene."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Lysias was one of those men from whose lips nothing ever sounds as if it
+were meant seriously.  His statement that he regarded a serving girl from
+the temple of Serapis as fit to personate Hebe, was spoken as naturally
+and simply as if he were telling a tale for children; but his words
+produced an effect on his hearers like the sound of waters rushing into a
+leaky ship.
+
+Publius had turned perfectly white, and it was not till his friend had
+uttered the name of Irene that he in some degree recovered his composure;
+Philometor had struck his cup on the table, and called out in much
+excitement:
+
+"A water-bearer of Serapis to play Hebe in a gay festal performance!  Do
+you conceive it possible, Cleopatra?"
+
+"Impossible--it is absolutely out of the question," replied the queen,
+decidedly.  Euergetes, who also had opened his eyes wide at the
+Corinthian's proposition, sat for a long time gazing into his cup in
+silence; while his brother and sister continued to express their surprise
+and disapprobation and to speak of the respect and consideration which
+even kings must pay to the priests and servants of Serapis.
+
+At length, once more lifting his wreath and crown, he raised his curls
+with both hands, and said, quite calmly and decisively;
+
+"We must have a Hebe, and must take her where we find her.  If you
+hesitate to allow the girl to be fetched it shall be done by my orders.
+The priests of Serapis are for the most part Greeks, and the high-priest
+is a Hellene.  He will not trouble himself much about a half-grown-up
+girl if he can thereby oblige you or me.  He knows as well as the rest of
+us that one hand washes the other!  The only question now is--for I would
+rather avoid all woman's outcries--whether the girl will come willingly
+or unwillingly if we send for her.  What do you think, Lysias?"
+
+"I believe she would sooner get out of prison to-day than to-morrow,"
+replied Lysias.  "Irene is a lighthearted creature, and laughs as clearly
+and merrily as a child at play--and besides that they starve her in her
+cage."
+
+"Then I will have her fetched to-morrow!"  said Euergetes.
+
+"But," interrupted Cleopatra, "Asclepiodorus must obey us and not you;
+and we, my husband and I--"
+
+"You cannot spoil sport with the priests," laughed Euergetes.  "If they
+were Egyptians, then indeed!  They are not to be taken in their nests
+without getting pecked; but here, as I have said, we have to deal with
+Greeks.  What have you to fear from them?  For aught I care you may leave
+our Hebe where she is, but I was once much pleased with these
+representations, and to-morrow morning, as soon as I have slept, I shall
+return to Alexandria, if you do not carry them into effect, and so
+deprive me, Heracles, of the bride chosen for me by the gods.  I have
+said what I have said, and I am not given to changing my mind.  Besides,
+it is time that we should show ourselves to our friends feasting here in
+the next room.  They are already merry, and it must be getting late."
+
+With these words Euergetes rose from his couch, and beckoned to Hierax
+and a chamberlain, who arranged the folds of his transparent robe, while
+Philometor and Cleopatra whispered together, shrugging their shoulders
+and shaking their heads; and Publius, pressing his hand on the
+Corinthian's wrist, said in his ear: "You will not give them any help if
+you value our friendship; we will leave as soon as we can do so with
+propriety."
+
+Euergetes did not like to be kept waiting.  He was already going towards
+the door, when Cleopatra called him back, and said pleasantly, but with
+gentle reproachfulness:
+
+"You know that we are willing to follow the Egyptian custom of carrying
+out as far as possible the wishes of a friend and brother for his
+birthday festival; but for that very reason it is not right in you to try
+to force us into a proceeding which we refuse with difficulty, and yet
+cannot carry out without exposing ourselves to the most unpleasant
+consequences.  We beg you to make some other demand on us, and we will
+certainly grant it if it lies in our power."
+
+The young colossus responded to his sister's appeal with a loud shout of
+laughter, waved his arm with a flourish of his hand expressive of haughty
+indifference; and then he exclaimed:
+
+"The only thing I really had a fancy for out of all your possessions you
+are not willing to concede, and so I must abide by my word--or I go on my
+way."
+
+Again Cleopatra and her husband exchanged a few muttered words and rapid
+glances, Euergetes watching them the while; his legs straddled apart, his
+huge body bent forward, and his hands resting on his hips.  His attitude
+expressed so much arrogance and puerile, defiant, unruly audacity, that
+Cleopatra found it difficult to suppress an exclamation of disgust before
+she spoke.
+
+"We are indeed brethren," she said, "and so, for the sake of the peace
+which has been restored and preserved with so much difficulty, we give
+in.  The best way will be to request Asclepiodorus--"
+
+But here Euergetes interrupted the queen, clapping his hands loudly and
+laughing:
+
+"That is right, sister! only find me my Hebe!  How you do it is your
+affair, and is all the same to me.  To-morrow evening we will have a
+rehearsal, and the day after we will give a representation of which our
+grandchildren shall repeat the fame.  Nor shall a brilliant audience be
+lacking, for my complimentary visitors with their priestly splendor and
+array of arms will, it is to be hoped, arrive punctually.  Come, my
+lords, we will go, and see what there is good to drink or to listen
+to at the table in the next room."
+
+The doors were opened; music, loud talking, the jingle of cups, and the
+noise of laughter sounded through them into the room where the princes
+had been supping, and all the king's guests followed Euergetes, with the
+exception of Eulaeus.  Cleopatra allowed them to depart without speaking
+a word; only to Publius she said: "Till we meet again!"  but she detained
+the Corinthian, saying:
+
+"You, Lysias, are the cause of this provoking business.  Try now to
+repair the mischief by bringing the girl to us.  Do not hesitate!  I will
+guard her, protect her with the greatest care, rely upon me."
+
+"She is a modest maiden," replied Lysias, "and will not accompany me
+willingly, I am sure.  When I proposed her for the part of Hebe I
+certainly supposed that a word from you, the king and queen, would
+suffice to induce the head of the temple to entrust her to you for a few
+hours of harmless amusement.  Pardon me if I too quit you now; I have the
+key of my friend's chest still in my possession, and must restore it to
+him."
+
+"Shall we have her carried off secretly?"  asked Cleopatra of her
+husband, when the Corinthian had followed the other guests.
+
+"Only let us have no scandal, no violence," cried Philometor anxiously.
+"The best way would be for me to write to Asclepiodorus, and beg him in a
+friendly manner to entrust this girl--Ismene or Irene, or whatever the
+ill-starred child's name is--for a few days to you, Cleopatra, for your
+pleasure.  I can offer him a prospect of an addition to the gift of land
+I made today, and which fell far short of his demands."
+
+"Let me entreat your majesty," interposed Eulaeus, who was now alone with
+the royal couple, "let me entreat you not to make any great promises on
+this occasion, for the moment you do so Asclepiodorus will attribute an
+importance to your desire--"
+
+"Which it is far from having, and must not seem to have," interrupted the
+queen.  "It is preposterous to waste so many words about a miserable
+creature, a water-carrying girl, and to go through so much disturbance--
+but how are we to put an end to it all?  What is your advice, Eulaeus?"
+
+"I thank you for that enquiry, noble princess," replied Eulaeus.  "My
+lord, the king, in my opinion, should have the girl carried off, but not
+with any violence, nor by a man--whom she would hardly follow so
+immediately as is necessary--but by a woman.
+
+"I am thinking of the old Egyptian tale of 'The Two Brothers,' which you
+are acquainted with.  The Pharaoh desired to possess himself of the wife
+of the younger one, who lived on the Mount of Cedars, and he sent armed
+men to fetch her away; but only one of them came back to him, for Batau
+had slain all the others.  Then a woman was sent with splendid ornaments,
+such as women love, and the fair one followed her unresistingly to the
+palace.
+
+"We may spare the ambassadors, and send only the woman; your lady in
+waiting, Zoe, will execute this commission admirably.  Who can blame us
+in any way if a girl, who loves finery, runs away from her keepers?"
+
+"But all the world will see her as Hebe," sighed Philometor, "and
+proclaim us--the sovereign protectors of the worship of Serapis--as
+violators of the temple, if Asclepiodorus leads the cry.  No, no, the
+high-priest must first be courteously applied to.  In the case of his
+raising any difficulties, but not otherwise, shall Zoe make the attempt."
+
+"So be it then," said the queen, as if it were her part to express her
+confirmation of her husband's proposition.
+
+"Let your lady accompany me," begged Eulaeus, "and prefer your request to
+Asclepiodorus.  While I am speaking with the high-priest, Zoe can at any
+rate win over the girl, and whatever we do must be done to-morrow, or the
+Roman will be beforehand with us.  I know that he has cast an eye on
+Irene, who is in fact most lovely.  He gives her flowers, feeds his pet
+bird with pheasants and peaches and other sweetmeats, lets himself be
+lured into the Serapeum by his lady-love as often as possible, stays
+there whole hours, and piously follows the processions, in order to
+present the violets with which you graciously honored him by giving them
+to his fair one--who no doubt would rather wear royal flowers than any
+others--"
+
+"Liar!"  cried the queen, interrupting the courtier in such violent
+excitement and such ungoverned rage, so completely beside herself, that
+her husband drew back startled.
+
+"You are a slanderer! a base calumniator!  The Roman attacks you with
+naked weapons, but you slink in the dark, like a scorpion, and try to
+sting your enemy in the heel.  Apelles, the painter, warns us--the
+grandchildren of Lagus--against folks of your kidney in the picture he
+painted against Antiphilus; as I look at you I am reminded of his Demon
+of Calumny.  The same spite and malice gleam in your eyes as in hers, and
+the same fury and greed for some victim, fire your flushed face!  How you
+would rejoice if the youth whom Apelles has represented Calumny as
+clutching by the hair, could but be Publius!  and if only the lean and
+hollow-eyed form of Envy, and the loathsome female figures of Cunning and
+Treachery would come to your did as they have to hers!  But I remember
+too the steadfast and truthful glance of the boy she has flung to the
+ground, his arms thrown up to heaven, appealing for protection to the
+goddess and the king--and though Publius Scipio is man enough to guard
+himself against open attack, I will protect him against being surprised
+from an ambush!  Leave this room!  Go, I say, and you shall see how we
+punish slanderers!"
+
+At these words Eulaeus flung himself at the queen's feet, but she,
+breathing hurriedly and with quivering nostrils, looked away over his
+head as if she did not even see him, till her husband came towards her,
+and said in a voice of most winning gentleness:
+
+"Do not condemn him unheard, and raise him from his abasement.  At least
+give him the opportunity of softening your indignation by bringing the
+water-bearer here without angering Asclepiodorus.  Carry out this affair
+well, Eulaeus, and you will find in me an advocate with Cleopatra."
+
+The king pointed to the door, and Eulaeus retired, bowing deeply and
+finding his way out backwards.  Philometer, now alone with his wife, said
+with mild reproach:
+
+"How could you abandon yourself to such unmeasured anger?  So faithful
+and prudent a servant--and one of the few still living of those to whom
+our mother was attached--cannot be sent away like a mere clumsy
+attendant.  Besides, what is the great crime he has committed?  Is it a
+slander which need rouse you to such fury when a cautious old man says in
+all innocence of a young one--a man belonging to a world which knows
+nothing of the mysterious sanctity of Serapis--that he has taken a fancy
+to a girl, who is admired by all who see her, that he seeks her out, and
+gives her flowers--"
+
+"Gives her flowers?"  exclaimed Cleopatra, breaking out afresh.  "No, he
+is accused of persecuting a maiden attached to Serapis--to Serapis I say.
+But it is simply false, and you would be as angry as I am if you were
+ever capable of feeling manly indignation, and if you did not want to
+make use of Eulaeus for many things, some of which I know, and others
+which you choose to conceal from me.  Only let him fetch the girl; and
+when once we have her here, and if I find that the Roman's indictment
+against Eulaeus--which I will hear to-morrow morning--is well founded,
+you shall see that I have manly vigor enough for both of us.  Come away
+now; they are waiting for us in the other room."
+
+The queen gave a call, and chamberlains and servants hurried in; her
+shell-shaped litter was brought, and in a few minutes, with her husband
+by her side, she was borne into the great peristyle where the grandees of
+the court, the commanders of the troops, the most prominent of the
+officials of the Egyptian provinces, many artists and savants, and the
+ambassadors from foreign powers, were reclining on long rows of couches,
+and talking over their wine, the feast itself being ended.
+
+The Greeks and the dark-hued Egyptians were about equally represented in
+this motley assembly; but among them, and particularly among the learned
+and the fighting men, there were also several Israelites and Syrians.
+
+The royal pair were received by the company with acclamations and marks
+of respect; Cleopatra smiled as sweetly as ever, and waved her fan
+graciously as she descended from her litter; still she vouchsafed not
+the slightest attention to any one present, for she was seeking Publius,
+at first among those who were nearest to the couch prepared for her,
+and then among the other Hellenes, the Egyptians, the Jews, the
+ambassadors--still she found him not, and when at last she enquired for
+the Roman of the chief chamberlain at her side, the official was sent for
+who had charge of the foreign envoys.  This was an officer of very high
+rank, whose duty it was to provide for the representatives of foreign
+powers, and he was now near at hand, for he had long been waiting for an
+opportunity to offer to the queen a message of leave-taking from Publius
+Cornelius Scipio, and to tell her from him, that he had retired to his
+tent because a letter had come to him from Rome.
+
+"Is that true?"  asked the queen letting her feather fan droop, and
+looking her interlocutor severely in the face.
+
+"The trireme Proteus, coming from Brundisium, entered the harbor of
+Eunostus only yesterday," he replied; "and an hour ago a mounted
+messenger brought the letter.  Nor was it an ordinary letter but a
+despatch from the Senate--I know the form and seal."
+
+"And Lysias, the Corinthian?"
+
+"He accompanied the Roman."
+
+"Has the Senate written to him too?"  asked the queen annoyed, and
+ironically.  She turned her back on the officer without any kind of
+courtesy, and turning again to the chamberlain she went on, in incisive
+tones, as if she were presiding at a trial:
+
+"King Euergetes sits there among the Egyptians near the envoys from the
+temples of the Upper Country.  He looks as it he were giving them a
+discourse, and they hang on his lips.  What is he saying, and what does
+all this mean?"
+
+"Before you came in, he was sitting with the Syrians and Jews, and
+telling them what the merchants and scribes, whom he sent to the South,
+have reported of the lands lying near the lakes through which the Nile is
+said to flow.  He thinks that new sources of wealth have revealed
+themselves not far from the head of the sacred river which can hardly
+flow in from the ocean, as the ancients supposed."
+
+"And now?"  asked Cleopatra.  "What information is he giving to the
+Egyptians?"
+
+The chamberlain hastened towards Euergetes' couch, and soon returned to
+the queen--who meanwhile had exchanged a few friendly words with Onias,
+the Hebrew commander--and informed her in a low tone that the king was
+interpreting a passage from the Timaeus of Plato, in which Solon
+celebrates the lofty wisdom of the priests of Sais; he was speaking with
+much spirit, and the Egyptians received it with loud applause.
+
+Cleopatra's countenance darkened more and more, but she concealed it
+behind her fan, signed to Philometor to approach, and whispered to him:
+
+"Keep near Euergetes; he has a great deal too much to say to the
+Egyptians.  He is extremely anxious to stand well with them, and those
+whom he really desires to please are completely entrapped by his
+portentous amiability.  He has spoiled my evening, and I shall leave you
+to yourselves."
+
+"Till to-morrow, then."
+
+"I shall hear the Roman's complaint up on my roof-terrace; there is
+always a fresh air up there.  If you wish to be present I will send for
+you, but first I would speak to him alone, for he has received letters
+from the Senate which may contain something of importance.  So, till
+to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+And what is great--and what is small
+Behold, the puny Child of Man
+Evolution and annihilation
+Flattery is a key to the heart
+Hold pleasure to be the highest good
+Man is the measure of all things
+Museum of Alexandria and the Library
+One hand washes the other
+Prefer deeds to words
+What are we all but puny children?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SISTERS
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 3.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+While, in the vast peristyle, many a cup was still being emptied, and the
+carousers were growing merrier and noisier--while Cleopatra was abusing
+the maids and ladies who were undressing her for their clumsiness and
+unreadiness, because every touch hurt her, and every pin taken out of her
+dress pricked her--the Roman and his friend Lysias walked up and down in
+their tent in violent agitation.
+
+"Speak lower," said the Greek, "for the very griffins woven into the
+tissue of these thin walls seem to me to be lying in wait, and listening.
+
+"I certainly was not mistaken.  When I came to fetch the gems I saw a
+light gleaming in the doorway as I approached it; but the intruder must
+have been warned, for just as I got up to the lantern in front of the
+servants' tent, it disappeared, and the torch which usually burns outside
+our tent had not been lighted at all; but a beam of light fell on the
+road, and a man's figure slipped across in a black robe sprinkled with
+gold ornaments which I saw glitter as the pale light of the lantern fell
+upon them--just as a slimy, black newt glides through a pool.  I have
+good eyes as you know, and I will give one of them at this moment, if I
+am mistaken, and if the cat that stole into our tent was not Eulaeus."
+
+"And why did you not have him caught?"  asked Publius, provoked.
+
+"Because our tent was pitch-dark," replied Lysias, and that stout villain
+is as slippery as a badger with the dogs at his heels, Owls, bats and
+such vermin which seek their prey by night are all hideous to me, and
+this Eulaeus, who grins like a hyaena when he laughs--"
+
+"This Eulaeus," said Publius, interrupting his friend, "shall learn to
+know me, and know too by experience that a man comes to no good, who
+picks a quarrel with my father's son."
+
+"But, in the first instance, you treated him with disdain and
+discourtesy," said Lysias, "and that was not wise."
+
+"Wise, and wise, and wise!"  the Roman broke out.  "He is a scoundrel.
+It makes no difference to me so long as he keeps out of my way; but when,
+as has been the case for several days now, he constantly sticks close to
+me to spy upon me, and treats me as if he were my equal, I will show him
+that he is mistaken.  He has no reason to complain of my want of
+frankness; he knows my opinion of him, and that I am quite inclined to
+give him a thrashing.  If I wanted to meet his cunning with cunning I
+should get the worst of it, for he is far superior to me in intrigue.  I
+shall fare better with him by my own unconcealed mode of fighting, which
+is new to him and puzzles him; besides it is better suited to my own
+nature, and more consonant to me than any other.  He is not only sly, but
+is keen-witted, and he has at once connected the complaint which I have
+threatened to bring against him with the manuscript which Serapion, the
+recluse, gave me in his presence.  There it lies--only look.
+
+"Now, being not merely crafty, but a daring rascal too--two qualities
+which generally contradict each other, for no one who is really prudent
+lives in disobedience to the laws--he has secretly untied the strings
+which fastened it.  But, you see, he had not time enough to tie the roll
+up again!  He has read it all or in part, and I wish him joy of the
+picture of himself he will have found painted there.  The anchorite
+wields a powerful pen, and paints with a firm outline and strongly marked
+coloring.  If he has read the roll to the end it will spare me the
+trouble of explaining to him what I purpose to charge him with; if you
+disturbed him too soon I shall have to be more explicit in my accusation.
+Be that as it may, it is all the same to me."
+
+"Nay, certainly not," cried Lysias, "for in the first case Eulaeus will
+have time to meditate his lies, and bribe witnesses for his defence.  If
+any one entrusted me with such important papers--and if it had not been
+you who neglected to do it--I would carefully seal or lock them up.
+Where have you put the despatch from the Senate which the messenger
+brought you just now?"
+
+"That is locked up in this casket," replied Publius, moving his hand to
+press it more closely over his robe, under which he had carefully hidden
+it.
+
+"May I not know what it contain?"  asked the Corinthian.
+
+"No, there is not time for that now, for we must first, and at once,
+consider what can be done to repair the last mischief which you have
+done.  Is it not a disgraceful thing that you should betray the sweet
+creature whose childlike embarrassment charmed us this morning--of whom
+you yourself said, as we came home, that she reminded you of your lovely
+sister--that you should betray her, I say, into the power of the wildest
+of all the profligates I ever met--to this monster, whose pleasures are
+the unspeakable, whose boast is vice?  What has Euergetes--"
+
+"By great Poseidon!"  cried Lysias, eagerly interrupting his friend.
+"I never once thought of this second Alcibiades when I mentioned her.
+What can the manager of a performance do, but all in his power to secure
+the applause of the audience? and, by my honor! it was for my own sake
+that I wanted to bring Irene into the palace--I am mad with love for her
+--she has undone me."
+
+"Aye! like Callista, and Phryne, and the flute-player Stephanion,"
+interrupted the Roman, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"How should it be different?" asked the Corinthian, looking at his friend
+in astonishment.  "Eros has many arrows in his quiver; one strikes
+deeply, another less deeply; and I believe that the wound I have received
+to-day will ache for many a week if I have to give up this child, who is
+even more charming than the much-admired Hebe on our cistern."
+
+"I advise you however to accustom yourself to the idea, and the sooner
+the better," said Publius gravely, as he set himself with his arms
+crossed, directly in front of the Greek.  "What would you feel inclined
+to do to me if I took a fancy to lure your pretty sister--whom Irene, I
+repeat it, is said to resemble--to tempt her with base cunning from your
+parents' house?"
+
+"I protest against any such comparison," cried the Corinthian very
+positively, and more genuinely exasperated than the Roman had ever seen
+him.
+
+"You are angry without cause," replied Publius calmly and gravely.  "Your
+sister is a charming girl, the ornament of your illustrious house, and
+yet I dare compare the humble Irene--"
+
+"With her! do you mean to say?"  Lysias shouted again.  "That is a poor
+return for the hospitality which was shown to you by my parents and of
+which you formally sang the praises.  I am a good-natured fellow and will
+submit to more from you than from any other man--I know not why, myself;
+--but in a matter like this I do not understand a joke!  My sister is the
+only daughter of the noblest and richest house in Corinth and has many
+suitors.  She is in no respect inferior to the child of your own parents,
+and I should like to know what you would say if I made so bold as to
+compare the proud Lucretia with this poor little thing, who carries water
+like a serving-maid."
+
+"Do so, by all means!"  interrupted Publius coolly, "I do not take your
+rage amiss, for you do not know who these two sisters are, in the temple
+of Serapis.  Besides, they do not fill their jars for men but in the
+service of a god.  Here--take this roll and read it through while I
+answer the despatch from Rome.  Here! Spartacus, come and light a few
+more lamps."
+
+In a few minutes the two young men were sitting opposite each other at
+the table which stood in the middle of their tent.  Publius wrote busily,
+and only looked up when his friend, who was reading the anchorite's
+document, struck his hand on the table in disgust or sprang from his seat
+ejaculating bitter words of indignation.  Both had finished at the same
+moment, and when Publius had folded and sealed his letter, and Lysias had
+flung the roll on to the table, the Roman said slowly, as he looked his
+friend steadily in the face: "Well?"
+
+"Well!" repeated Lysias.  I now find myself in the humiliating position
+of being obliged to deem myself more stupid than you--I must own you in
+the right, and beg your pardon for having thought you insolent and
+arrogant!  Never, no never did I hear a story so infernally scandalous as
+that in that roll, and such a thing could never have occurred but among
+these accursed Egyptians!  Poor little Irene!  And how can the dear
+little girl have kept such a sunny look through it all!  I could thrash
+myself like any school-boy to think that I--a fool among fools--should
+have directed the attention of Euergetes to this girl, and he, the most
+powerful and profligate man in the whole country.  What can now be done
+to save Irene from him?  I cannot endure the thought of seeing her
+abandoned to his clutches, and I will not permit it to happen.
+
+"Do not you think that we ought to take the water-bearers under our
+charge?"
+
+"Not only we ought but we must,"  said Publius decisively; "and if we did
+not we should be contemptible wretches.  Since the recluse took me into
+his confidence I feel as if it were my, duty to watch over these girls
+whose parents have been stolen from them, as if I were their guardian--
+and you, my Lysias, shall help me.  The elder sister is not now very
+friendly towards me, but I do not esteem her the less for that; the
+younger one seems less grave and reserved than Klea; I saw how she
+responded to your smile when the procession broke up.  Afterwards, you
+did not come home immediately any more than I did, and I suspect that it
+was Irene who detained you.  Be frank, I earnestly beseech you, and tell
+me all; for we must act in unison, and with thorough deliberation, if we
+hope to succeed in spoiling Euergetes' game."
+
+"I have not much to tell you," replied the Corinthian.  "After the
+procession I went to the Pastophorium--naturally it was to see Irene, and
+in order not to fail in this I allowed the pilgrims to tell me what
+visions the god had sent them in their dreams, and what advice had been
+given them in the temple of Asclepius as to what to do for their own
+complaints, and those of their cousins, male and female.
+
+"Quite half an hour had passed so before Irene came.  She carried a
+little basket in which lay the gold ornaments she had worn at the
+festival, and which she had to restore to the keeper of the temple-
+treasure.  My pomegranate-flower, which she had accepted in the morning,
+shone upon me from afar, and then, when she caught sight of me and
+blushed all over, casting down her eyes, then it was that it first struck
+me 'just like the Hebe on our cistern.'
+
+"She wanted to pass me, but I detained her, begging her to show me the
+ornaments in her hand; I said a number of things such as girls like to
+hear, and then I asked her if she were strictly watched, and whether they
+gave her delicate little hands and feet--which were worthy of better
+occupation than water-carrying--a great deal to do.  She did not hesitate
+to answer, but with all she said she rarely raised her eyes.  The longer
+you look at her the lovelier she is--and yet she is still a mere child-
+though a child certainly who no longer loves staying at home, who has
+dreams of splendor, and enjoyment, and freedom while she is kept shut up
+in a dismal, dark place, and left to starve.
+
+"The poor creatures may never quit the temple excepting for a procession,
+or before sunrise.  It sounded too delightful when she said that she was
+always so horribly tired, and so glad to go to sleep again after she was
+waked, and had to go out at once just when it is coldest, in the twilight
+before sunrise.  Then she has to draw water from a cistern called the
+Well of the Sun."
+
+"Do you know where that cistern lies?"  asked Publius.
+
+"Behind the acacia-grove," answered Lysias.  "The guide pointed it out to
+me.  It is said to hold particularly sacred water, which must be poured
+as a libation to the god at sunrise, unmixed with any other.  The girls
+must get up so early, that as soon as dawn breaks water from this cistern
+shall not be lacking at the altar of Serapis.  It is poured out on the
+earth by the priests as a drink-offering."
+
+Publius had listened attentively, and had not lost a word of his friend's
+narrative.  He now quitted him hastily, opened the tent-door, and went
+out into the night, looking up to discover the hour from the stars which
+were silently pursuing their everlasting courses in countless thousands,
+and sparkling with extraordinary brilliancy in the deep blue sky.  The
+moon was already set, and the morning-star was slowly rising--every night
+since the Roman had been in the land of the Pyramids he had admired its
+magnificent size and brightness.
+
+A cold breeze fanned the young man's brow, and as he drew his robe across
+his breast with a shiver, he thought of the sisters, who, before long,
+would have to go out in the fresh morning air.  Once more he raised his
+eyes from the earth to the firmament over his head, and it seemed to him
+that he saw before his very eyes the proud form of Klea, enveloped in a
+mantle sown over with stars.  His heart throbbed high, and he felt as if
+the breeze that his heaving breast inhaled in deep breaths was as fresh
+and pure as the ether that floats over Elysium, and of a strange potency
+withal, as if too rare to breathe.  Still he fancied he saw before him
+the image of Klea, but as he stretched out his hand towards the beautiful
+vision it vanished--a sound of hoofs and wheels fell upon his ear.
+Publius was not accustomed to abandon himself to dreaming when action was
+needed, and this reminded him of the purpose for which he had come out
+into the open air.  Chariot after chariot came driving past as he
+returned into his tent.  Lysias, who during his absence had been pacing
+up and down and reflecting, met him with the question:
+
+"How long is it yet till sunrise?"
+
+Hardly two hours," replied the Roman.  "And we must make good use of them
+if we would not arrive too late."
+
+"So I think too," said the Corinthian.  "The sisters will soon be at the
+Well of the Sun outside the temple walls, and I will persuade Irene to
+follow me.  You think I shall not be successful?  Nor do I myself--but
+still perhaps she will if I promise to show her something very pretty,
+and if she does not suspect that she is to be parted from her sister, for
+she is like a child."
+
+"But Klea," interrupted Publius thoughtfully, "is grave and prudent; and
+the light tone which you are so ready to adopt will be very little to her
+taste,  Consider that, and dare the attempt--no, you dare not deceive
+her.  Tell her the whole truth, out of Irene's hearing, with the gravity
+the matter deserves, and she will not hinder her sister when she knows
+how great and how imminent is the danger that threatens her."
+
+"Good!"  said the Corinthian.  "I will be so solemnly earnest that the
+most wrinkled and furrowed graybeard among the censors of your native
+city shall seem a Dionysiac dancer compared with me.  I will speak like
+your Cato when he so bitterly complained that the epicures of Rome paid
+more now for a barrel of fresh herrings than for a yoke of oxen.  You
+shall be perfectly satisfied with me!--But whither am I to conduct Irene?
+I might perhaps make use of one of the king's chariots which are passing
+now by dozens to carry the guests home."
+
+"I also had thought of that," replied Publius.  "Go with the chief of the
+Diadoches, whose splendid house was shown to us yesterday.  It is on the
+way to the Serapeum, and just now at the feast you were talking with him
+incessantly.  When there, indemnify the driver by the gift of a gold
+piece, so that he may not betray us, and do not return here but proceed
+to the harbor.  I will await you near the little temple of Isis with our
+travelling chariot and my own horses, will receive Irene, and conduct her
+to some new refuge while you drive back Fuergetes' chariot, and restore
+it to the driver."
+
+"That will not satisfy me by any means," said Lysias very gravely; "I was
+ready to give up my pomegranate-flower to you yesterday for Irene, but
+herself--"
+
+"I want nothing of her," exclaimed Publius annoyed.  "But you might--it
+seems to me--be rather more zealous in helping me to preserve her from
+the misfortune which threatens her through your own blunder.  We cannot
+bring her here, but I think that I have thought of a safe hiding-place
+for her.
+
+"Do you remember Apollodorus, the sculptor, to whom we were recommended
+by my father, and his kind and friendly wife who set before us that
+capital Chios wine?  The man owes me a service, for my father
+commissioned him and his assistants to execute the mosaic pavement in the
+new arcade he was having built in the capitol; and subsequently, when the
+envy of rival artists threatened his life, my father saved him.  You
+yourself heard him say that he and his were all at my disposal."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," said Lysias.  "But say, does it not strike you as
+most extraordinary that artists, the very men, that is to say, who beyond
+all others devote themselves to ideal aims and efforts, are particularly
+ready to yield to the basest impulses; envy, detraction, and--"
+
+"Man!" exclaimed Publius, angrily interrupting the Greek, "can you never
+for ten seconds keep on the same subject, and never keep anything to
+yourself that comes into your head?  We have just now, as it seems to me,
+more important matters to discuss than the jealousy of each other shown
+by artists--and in my opinion, by learned men too.  The sculptor
+Apollodorus, who is thus beholden to me, has been living here for the
+last six months with his wife and daughters, for he has been executing
+for Philometor the busts of the philosophers, and the animal groups to
+decorate the open space in front of the tomb of Apis.  His sons are
+managers of his large factory in Alexandria, and when he next goes there,
+down the Nile in his boat, as often happens, he can take Irene with him,
+and put her on board a ship.
+
+"As to where we can have her taken to keep her safe from Euergetes, we
+will talk that over afterwards with Apollodorus."
+
+"Good, very good," agreed the Corinthian.  "By Heracles!  I am not
+suspicious--still it does not altogether please me that you should
+yourself conduct Irene to Apollodorus, for if you are seen in her company
+our whole project may be shipwrecked.  Send the sculptor's wife, who is
+little known in Memphis, to the temple of Isis, and request her to bring
+a veil and cloak to conceal the girl.  Greet the gay Milesian from me
+too, and tell her--no, tell her nothing--I shall see her myself
+afterwards at the temple of Isis."
+
+During the last words of this conversation, slaves had been enveloping
+the two young men in their mantles.  They now quitted the tent together,
+wished each other success, and set out at a brisk pace; the Roman to have
+his horses harnessed, and Lysias to accompany the chief of the Diadoches
+in one of the king's chariots, and then to act on the plan he had agreed
+upon with Publius.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Chariot after chariot hurried out of the great gate of the king's palace
+and into the city, now sunk in slumber.  All was still in the great
+banqueting-hall, and dark-hued slaves began with brooms and sponges to
+clean the mosaic pavement, which was strewed with rose leaves and with
+those that had fallen from the faded garlands of ivy and poplar; while
+here and there the spilt wine shone with a dark gleam in the dim light of
+the few lamps that had not been extinguished.
+
+A young flute-player, overcome with sleep and wine, still sat in one
+corner.  The poplar wreath that had crowned his curls had slipped over
+his pretty face, but even in sleep he still held his flute clasped fast
+in his fingers.  The servants let him sleep on, and bustled about without
+noticing him; only an overseer pointed to him, and said laughing:
+
+"His companions went home no more sober than that one.  He is a pretty
+boy, and pretty Chloes lover besides--she will look for him in vain this
+morning."
+
+"And to-morrow too perhaps," answered another; "for if the fat king sees
+her, poor Damon will have seen the last of her."
+
+But the fat king, as Euergetes was called by the Alexandrians, and,
+following their example, by all the rest of Egypt, was not just then
+thinking of Chloe, nor of any such person; he was in the bath attached to
+his splendidly fitted residence.  Divested of all clothing, he was
+standing in the tepid fluid which completely filled a huge basin of white
+marble.  The clear surface of the perfumed water mirrored statues of
+nymphs fleeing from the pursuit of satyrs, and reflected the shimmering
+light of numbers of lamps suspended from the ceiling.  At the upper end
+of the bath reclined the bearded and stalwart statue of the Nile, over
+whom the sixteen infant figures--representing the number of ells to which
+the great Egyptian stream must rise to secure a favorable inundation--
+clambered and played to the delight of their noble father Nile and of
+themselves.  From the vase which supported the arm of the venerable god
+flowed an abundant stream of cold water, which five pretty lads received
+in slender alabaster vases, and poured over the head and the enormously
+prominent muscles of the breast, the back and the arms of the young king
+who was taking his bath.
+
+"More, more--again and again," cried Euergetes, as the boys began to
+pause in bringing and pouring the water; and then, when they threw a
+fresh stream over him, he snorted and plunged with satisfaction, and a
+perfect shower of jets splashed off him as the blast of his breath
+sputtered away the water that fell over his face.
+
+At last he shouted out: "Enough!"  flung himself with all his force into
+the water, that spurted up as if a huge block of stone had been thrown
+into it, held his head for a long time under water, and then went up the
+marble steps of the bath shaking his head violently and mischievously in
+his boyish insolence, so as thoroughly to wet his friends and servants
+who were standing round the margin of the basin; he suffered himself to
+be wrapped in snowy-white sheets of the thinnest and finest linen, to be
+sprinkled with costly essences of delicate odor, and then he withdrew
+into a small room hung all round with gaudy hangings.
+
+There he flung himself on a mound of soft cushions, and said with a deep-
+drawn breath: "Now I am happy; and I am as sober again as a baby that has
+never tasted anything but its mother's milk.  Pindar is right! there is
+nothing better than water! and it slakes that raging fire which wine
+lights up in our brain and blood.  Did I talk much nonsense just now,
+Hierax?"
+
+The man thus addressed, the commander-in-chief of the royal troops, and
+the king's particular friend, cast a hesitating glance at the bystanders;
+but, Euergetes desiring him to speak without reserve, he replied:
+
+"Wine never weakens the mind of such as you are to the point of folly,
+but you were imprudent.  It would be little short of a miracle if
+Philometor did not remark--"
+
+"Capital!" interrupted the king sitting up on his cushions.  "You,
+Hierax, and you, Komanus, remain here--you others may go.  But do not go
+too far off, so as to be close at hand in case I should need you.  In
+these days as much happens in a few hours as usually takes place in as
+many years."
+
+Those who were thus dismissed withdrew, only the king's dresser, a
+Macedonian of rank, paused doubtfully at the door, but Euergetes signed
+to him to retire immediately, calling after him:
+
+"I am very merry and shall not go to bed.  At three hours after sunrise I
+expect Aristarchus--and for work too.  Put out the manuscripts that I
+brought.  Is the Eunuch Eulaeus waiting in the anteroom?  Yes--so much
+the better!
+
+"Now we are alone, my wise friends Hierax and Komanus, and I must explain
+to you that on this occasion, out of pure prudence, you seem to me to
+have been anything rather than prudent.  To be prudent is to have the
+command of a wide circle of thought, so that what is close at hand is no
+more an obstacle than what is remote.  The narrow mind can command only
+that which lies close under observation; the fool and visionary only that
+which is far off.  I will not blame you, for even the wisest has his
+hours of folly, but on this occasion you have certainly overlooked that
+which is at hand, in gazing at the distance, and I see you stumble in
+consequence.  If you had not fallen into that error you would hardly have
+looked so bewildered when, just now, I exclaimed 'Capital!'
+
+"Now, attend to me.  Philometor and my sister know very well what my
+humor is, and what to expect of me.  If I had put on the mask of a
+satisfied man they would have been surprised, and have scented mischief,
+but as it was I showed myself to them exactly what I always am and even
+more reckless than usual, and talked of what I wanted so openly that they
+may indeed look forward to some deed of violence at my hands but hardly
+to a treacherous surprise, and that tomorrow; for he who falls on his
+enemy in the rear makes no noise about it.
+
+"If I believed in your casuistry, I might think that to attack the enemy
+from behind was not a particularly fine thing to do, for even I would
+rather see a man's face than his rear--particularly in the case of my
+brother and sister, who are both handsome to look upon.  But what can a
+man do?  After all, the best thing to do is what wins the victory and
+makes the game.  Indeed, my mode of warfare has found supporters among
+the wise.  If you want to catch mice you must waste bacon, and if we are
+to tempt men into a snare we must know what their notions and ideas are,
+and begin by endeavoring to confuse them.
+
+"A bull is least dangerous when he runs straight ahead in his fury; while
+his two-legged opponent is least dangerous when he does not know what he
+is about and runs feeling his way first to the right and then to the
+left.  Thanks to your approval--for I have deserved it, and I hope to be
+able to return it, my friend Hierax.  I am curious as to your report.
+Shake up the cushion here under my head--and now you may begin."
+
+"All appears admirably arranged," answered the general.  "The flower of
+our troops, the Diadoches and Hetairoi, two thousand-five hundred men,
+are on their way hither, and by to-morrow will encamp north of Memphis.
+Five hundred will find their way into the citadel, with the priests and
+other visitors to congratulate you on your birthday, the other two
+thousand will remain concealed in the tents.  The captain of your brother
+Philometor's Philobasilistes is bought over, and will stand by us; but
+his price was high--Komanus was forced to offer him twenty talents before
+he would bite."
+
+"He shall have them," said the king laughing, "and he shall keep them
+too, till it suits me to regard him as suspicious, and to reward him
+according to his deserts by confiscating his estates.  Well! proceed."
+
+"In order to quench the rising in Thebes, the day before yesterday
+Philometor sent the best of the mercenaries with the standards of
+Desilaus and Arsinoe to the South.  Certainly it cost not a little to
+bribe the ringleaders, and to stir up the discontent to an outbreak."
+
+"My brother will repay us for this outlay," interrupted the king, "when
+we pour his treasure into our own coffers.  Go on."
+
+"We shall have most difficulty with the priests and the Jews.  The former
+cling to Philometor, because he is the eldest son of his father, and has
+given large bounties to the temples, particularly of Apollinopolis and
+Philae; the Jews are attached to him, because he favors them more than
+the Greeks, and he, and his wife--your illustrious sister--trouble
+themselves with their vain religious squabbles; he disputes with them
+about the doctrines contained in their book, and at table too prefers
+conversing with them to any one else."
+
+"I will salt the wine and meat for them that they fatten on here," cried
+Euergetes vehemently, "I forbade to-day their presence at my table, for
+they have good eyes and wits as sharp as their noses.  And they are most
+dangerous when they are in fear, or can reckon on any gains.
+
+"At the same time it cannot be denied that they are honest and tenacious,
+and as most of them are possessed of some property they rarely make
+common cause with the shrieking mob--particularly here in Alexandria.
+
+"Envy alone can reproach them for their industry and enterprise, for the
+activity of the Hellenes has improved upon the example set by them and
+their Phoenician kindred.
+
+"They thrive best in peaceful times, and since the world runs more
+quietly here, under my brother and sister, than under me, they attach
+themselves to them, lend my brother money, and supply my sister with cut
+stones, sapphires and emeralds, selling fine stuffs and other woman's
+gear for a scrap of written papyrus, which will soon be of no more value
+than the feather which falls from the wing of that green screaming bird
+on the perch yonder.
+
+"It is incomprehensible to me that so keen a people cannot perceive that
+there is nothing permanent but change, nothing so certain as that nothing
+is certain; and that they therefore should regard their god as the one
+only god, their own doctrine as absolutely and eternally true, and that
+they contemn what other peoples believe.
+
+"These darkened views make fools of them, but certainly good soldiers
+too--perhaps by reason indeed of this very exalted self-consciousness and
+their firm reliance on their supreme god."
+
+"Yes, they certainly are," assented Hierax.  "But they serve your brother
+more willingly, and at a lower price, than us."
+
+"I will show them," cried the king, "that their taste is a perverted and
+obnoxious one.  I require of the priests that they should instruct the
+people to be obedient, and to bear their privations patiently; but the
+Jews," and at these words his eyes rolled with an ominous glare, "the
+Jews I will exterminate, when the time comes."
+
+"That will be good for our treasury too," laughed Komanus.
+
+"And for the temples in the country," added Euergetes, "for though I seek
+to extirpate other foes I would rather win over the priests; and I must
+try to win them if Philometor's kingdom falls into my hands, for the
+Egyptians require that their king should be a god; and I cannot arrive
+at the dignity of a real god, to whom my swarthy subjects will pray with
+thorough satisfaction, and without making my life a burden to me by
+continual revolts, unless I am raised to it by the suffrages of the
+priests."
+
+"And nevertheless," replied Hierax, who was the only one of Euergetes'
+dependents, who dared to contradict him on important questions,
+"nevertheless this very day a grave demand is to be preferred on your
+account to the high-priest of Serapis.  You press for the surrender of a
+servant of the god, and Philometor will not neglect--"
+
+"Will not neglect," interrupted Euergetes, "to inform the mighty
+Asclepiodorus that he wants the sweet creature for me, and not for
+himself.  Do you know that Eros has pierced my heart, and that I burn
+for the fair Irene, although these eyes have not yet been blessed with
+the sight of her?
+
+"I see you believe me, and I am speaking the exact truth, for I vow I
+will possess myself of this infantine Hebe as surely as I hope to win my
+brother's throne; but when I plant a tree, it is not merely to ornament
+my garden but to get some use of it.  You will see how I will win over
+both the prettiest of little lady-loves and the high-priest who, to be
+sure, is a Greek, but still a man hard to bend.  My tools are all ready
+outside there.
+
+"Now, leave me, and order Eulaeus to join me here."
+
+"You are as a divinity," said  Komanus, bowing deeply, "and we but as
+frail mortals.  Your proceedings often seem dark and incomprehensible to
+our weak intellect, but when a course, which to us seems to lead to no
+good issue, turns out well, we are forced to admit with astonishment that
+you always choose the best way, though often a tortuous one."
+
+For a short time the king was alone, sitting with his black brows knit,
+and gazing meditatively at the floor.  But as soon as he heard the soft
+foot-fall of Eulaeus, and the louder step of his guide, he once more
+assumed the aspect of a careless and reckless man of the world, shouted a
+jolly welcome to Eulaeus, reminded him of his, the king's, boyhood, and
+of how often he, Eulaeus, had helped him to persuade his mother to grant
+him some wish she had previously refused him.
+
+"But now, old boy," continued the king, "the times are changed, and with
+you now-a-days it is everything for Philometor and nothing for poor
+Euergetes, who, being the younger, is just the one who most needs your
+assistance."
+
+Eulaeus bowed with a smile which conveyed that he understood perfectly
+how little the king's last words were spoken in earnest, and he said:
+
+"I purposed always to assist the weaker of you two, and that is what I
+believe myself to be doing now."
+
+"You mean my sister?"
+
+"Our sovereign lady Cleopatra is of the sex which is often unjustly
+called the weaker.  Though you no doubt were pleased to speak in jest
+when you asked that question, I feel bound to answer you distinctly that
+it was not Cleopatra that I meant, but King Philometor."
+
+"Philometor?  Then you have no faith in his strength, you regard me as
+stronger than he; and yet, at the banquet to-day, you offered me your
+services, and told me that the task had devolved upon you of demanding
+the surrender of the little serving-maiden of Serapis, in the king's
+name, of Asclepiodorus, the high-priest.  Do you call that aiding the
+weaker?  But perhaps you were drunk when you told me that?
+
+"No?  You were more moderate than I?  Then some other change of views
+must have taken place in you; and yet that would very much surprise me,
+since your principles require you to aid the weaker son of my mother--"
+
+"You are laughing at me," interrupted the courtier with gentle
+reproachfulness, and yet in a tone of entreaty.  "If I took your side it
+was not from caprice, but simply and expressly from a desire to remain
+faithful to the one aim and end of my life."
+
+"And that is?"
+
+"To provide for the welfare of this country in the same sense as did your
+illustrious mother, whose counsellor I was."
+
+"But you forget to mention the other--to place yourself to the best
+possible advantage."
+
+"I did not forget it, but I did not mention it, for I know how closely
+measured out are the moments of a king; and besides, it seems to me as
+self-evident that we think of our personal advantage as that when we buy
+a horse we also buy his shadow."
+
+"How subtle!  But I no more blame you than I should a girl who stands
+before her mirror to deck herself for her lover, and who takes the same
+opportunity of rejoicing in her own beauty.
+
+"However, to return to your first speech.  It is for the sake of Egypt
+as you think--if I understand you rightly--that you now offer me the
+services you have hitherto devoted to my brother's interests?"
+
+"As you say; in these difficult times the country needs the will and the
+hand of a powerful leader."
+
+"And such a leader you think I am?"
+
+"Aye, a giant in strength of will, body and intellect--whose desire to
+unite the two parts of Egypt in your sole possession cannot fail, if you
+strike and grasp boldly, and if--"
+
+"If?"  repeated the king, looking at the speaker so keenly that his eyes
+fell, and he answered softly:
+
+"If Rome should raise no objection."
+
+Euergetes shrugged his shoulders, and replied gravely:
+
+"Rome indeed is like Fate, which always must give the final decision in
+everything we do.  I have certainly not been behindhand in enormous
+sacrifices to mollify that inexorable power, and my representative,
+through whose hands pass far greater sums than through those of the
+paymasters of the troops, writes me word that they are not unfavorably
+disposed towards me in the Senate."
+
+"We have learned that from ours also.  You have more friends by the Tiber
+than Philometor, my own king, has; but our last despatch is already
+several weeks old, and in the last few days things have occurred--"
+
+"Speak!" cried Euergetes, sitting bolt upright on his cushions.  "But if
+you are laying a trap for me, and if you are speaking now as my brother's
+tool, I will punish you--aye! and if you fled to the uttermost cave of
+the Troglodytes I would have you followed up, and you should be torn in
+pieces alive, as surely as I believe myself to be the true son of my
+father."
+
+"And I should deserve the punishment," replied Eulaeus humbly.  Then he
+went on: "If I see clearly, great events lie before us in the next few
+days."
+
+"Yes--truly," said Euergetes firmly.
+
+"But just at present Philometor is better represented in Rome than he has
+ever been.  You made acquaintance with young Publius Scipio at the king's
+table, and showed little zeal in endeavoring to win his good graces."
+
+"He is one of the Cornelii," interrupted the king, "a distinguished young
+man, and related to all the noblest blood of Rome; but he is not an
+ambassador; he has travelled from Athens to Alexandria, in order to learn
+more than he need; and he carries his head higher and speaks more freely
+than becomes him before kings, because the young fellows fancy it looks
+well to behave like their elders."
+
+"He is of more importance than you imagine."
+
+"Then I will invite him to Alexandria, and there will win him over in
+three days, as surely as my name is Euergetes."
+
+"It will then be too late, for he has to-day received, as I know for
+certain, plenipotentiary powers from the Senate to act in their name in
+case of need, until the envoy who is to be sent here again arrives."
+
+"And I only now learn this for the first time!" cried the king springing
+up from his couch, "my friends must be deaf, and blind and dull indeed,
+if still I have any, and my servants and emissaries too!  I cannot bear
+this haughty ungracious fellow, but I will invite him tomorrow morning--
+nay I will invite him to-day, to a festive entertainment, and send him
+the four handsomest horses that I have brought with me from Cyrene.  I
+will--"
+
+"It will all be in vain," said Eulaeus calmly and dispassionately.
+"For he is master, in the fullest and widest meaning of the word, of the
+queen's favor--nay--if I may permit myself to speak out freely--of
+Cleopatra's more than warm liking, and he enjoys this sweetest of gifts
+with a thankful heart.  Philometor--as he always does--lets matters go
+as they may, and Cleopatra and Publius--Publius and Cleopatra triumph
+even publicly in their love; gaze into each other's eyes like any pair of
+pastoral Arcadians, exchange cups and kiss the rim on the spot where the
+lips of the other have touched it.  Promise and grant what you will to
+this man, he will stand by your sister; and if you should succeed in
+expelling her from the throne he would boldly treat you as Popilius
+Laenas did your uncle Antiochus: he would draw a circle round your
+person, and say that if you dared to step beyond it Rome would march
+against you."
+
+Euergetes listened in silence, then, flinging away the draperies that
+wrapped his body, he paced up and down in stormy agitation, groaning from
+time to time, and roaring like a wild bull that feels itself confined
+with cords and bands, and that exerts all its strength in vain to rend
+them.
+
+Finally he stood still in front of Eulaeus and asked him:
+
+"What more do you know of the Roman?"
+
+"He, who would not allow you to compare yourself to Alcibiades, is
+endeavoring to out-do that darling of the Athenian maidens; for he is not
+content with having stolen the heart of the king's wife, he is putting
+out his hand to reach the fairest virgin who serves the highest of the
+gods.  The water-bearer whom Lysias, the Roman's friend, recommended for
+a Hebe is beloved by Publius, and he hopes to enjoy her favors more
+easily in your gay palace than he can in the gloomy temple of Serapis."
+
+At these words the king struck his forehead with his hand, exclaiming:
+"Oh! to be a king--a man who is a match for any ten! and to be obliged to
+submit with a patient shrug like a peasant whose grain my horsemen crush
+into the ground!
+
+"He can spoil everything; mar all my plans and thwart all my desires--and
+I can do nothing but clench my fist, and suffocate with rage.  But this
+fuming and groaning are just as unavailing as my raging and cursing by
+the death-bed of my mother, who was dead all the same and never got up
+again.
+
+"If this Publius were a Greek, a Syrian, an Egyptian--nay, were he my own
+brother--I tell you, Eulaeus, he should not long stand in my way; but he
+is plenipotentiary from Rome, and Rome is Fate--Rome is Fate."
+
+The king flung himself back on to his cushions with a deep sigh, and as
+if crushed with despair, hiding his face in the soft pillows; but Eulaeus
+crept noiselessly up to the young giant, and whispered in his ear with
+solemn deliberateness:
+
+"Rome is Fate, but even Rome can do nothing against Fate.  Publius Scipio
+must die because he is ruining your mother's daughter, and stands in the
+way of your saving Egypt.  The Senate would take a terrible revenge if he
+were murdered, but what can they do if wild beasts fall on their
+plenipotentiary, and tear him to pieces?"
+
+"Grand! splendid!"  cried Euergetes, springing again to his feet, and
+opening his large eyes with radiant surprise and delight, as if heaven
+itself had opened before them, revealing the sublime host of the gods
+feasting at golden tables.
+
+"You are a great man, Eulaeus, and I shall know how to reward you; but
+do you know of such wild beasts as we require, and do they know how to
+conduct themselves so that no one shall dare to harbor even the shadow of
+a suspicion that the wounds torn by their teeth and claws were inflicted
+by daggers, pikes or spearheads?"
+
+"Be perfectly easy," replied Eulaeus.  "These beasts of prey have already
+had work to do here in Memphis, and are in the service of the king--"
+
+"Aha! of my gentle brother!"  laughed Euergetes.  "And he boasts of never
+having killed any one excepting in battle--and now--"
+
+"But Philometor has a wife," interposed Eulaeus; and Euergetes went on.
+
+"Aye, woman, woman! what is there that a man may not learn from a woman?"
+
+Then he added in a lower tone: "When can your wild beasts do their work?"
+
+"The sun has long since risen; before it sets I will have made my
+preparations, and by about midnight, I should think, the deed may be
+done.  We will promise the Roman a secret meeting, lure him out to the
+temple of Serapis, and on his way home through the desert--"
+
+"Aye, then,--" cried the king, making a thrust at his own breast as
+though his hand held a dagger, and he added in warning: "But your beasts
+must be as powerful as lions, and as cautious-as cautious, as cats.  If
+you want gold apply to Komanus, or, better still, take this purse.  Is it
+enough?  Still I must ask you; have you any personal ground of hatred
+against the Roman?"
+
+"Yes," answered Eulaeus decisively.  "He guesses that I know all about
+him and his doings, and he has attacked me with false accusations which
+may bring me into peril this very day.  If you should hear that the queen
+has decided on throwing me into prison, take immediate steps for my
+liberation."
+
+"No one shall touch a hair of your head; depend upon that.  I see that it
+is to your interest to play my game, and I am heartily glad of it, for a
+man works with all his might for no one but himself.  And now for the
+last thing:  When will you fetch my little Hebe?"
+
+"In an hour's time I am going to Asclepiodorus; but we must not demand
+the girl till to-morrow, for today she must remain in the temple as a
+decoy-bird for Publius Scipio."
+
+"I will take patience; still I have yet another charge to give you.
+Represent the matter to the high-priest in such a way that he shall think
+my brother wishes to gratify one of my fancies by demanding--absolutely
+demanding--the water-bearer on my behalf.  Provoke the man as far as is
+possible without exciting suspicion, and if I know him rightly, he will
+stand upon his rights, and refuse you persistently.  Then, after you,
+will come Komanus from me with greetings and gifts and promises.
+
+"To-morrow, when we have done what must be done to the Roman, you shall
+fetch the girl in my brother's name either by cunning or by force; and
+the day after, if the gods graciously lend me their aid in uniting the
+two realms of Egypt under my own hand, I will explain to Asclepiodorus
+that I have punished Philometor for his sacrilege against his temple, and
+have deposed him from the throne.  Serapis shall see which of us is his
+friend.
+
+"If all goes well, as I mean that it shall, I will appoint you Epitropon
+of the re-united kingdom--that I swear to you by the souls of my deceased
+ancestors.  I will speak with you to-day at any hour you may demand it."
+
+Eulaeus departed with a step as light as if his interview with the king
+had restored him to youth.
+
+When Hierax, Komanus, and the other officers returned to the room,
+Euergetes gave orders that his four finest horses from Cyrene should be
+led before noonday to his friend Publius Cornelius Scipio, in token of
+his affection and respect.  Then he suffered himself to be dressed, and
+went to Aristarchus with whom he sat down to work at his studies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+The temple of Serapis lay in restful silence, enveloped in darkness,
+which so far hid its four wings from sight as to give it the aspect of a
+single rock-like mass wrapped in purple mist.
+
+Outside the temple precincts too all had been still; but just now a
+clatter of hoofs and rumble of wheels was audible through the silence,
+otherwise so profound that it seemed increased by every sound.  Before
+the vehicle which occasioned this disturbance had reached the temple, it
+stopped, just outside the sacred acacia-grove, for the neighing of a
+horse was now audible in that direction.
+
+It was one of the king's horses that neighed; Lysias, the Greek, tied him
+up to a tree by the road at the edge of the grove, flung his mantle over
+the loins of the smoking beast; and feeling his way from tree to tree
+soon found himself by the Well of the Sun where he sat down on the
+margin.
+
+Presently from the east came a keen, cold breeze, the harbinger of
+sunrise; the gray gloaming began by degrees to pierce and part the tops
+of the tall trees, which, in the darkness, had seemed a compact black
+roof.  The crowing of cocks rang out from the court-yard of the temple,
+and, as the Corinthian rose with a shiver to warm himself by a rapid walk
+backwards and forwards, he heard a door creak near the outer wall of the
+temple, of which the outline now grew sharper and clearer every instant
+in the growing light.
+
+He now gazed with eager observation down the path which, as the day
+approached, stood out with increasing clearness from the surrounding
+shades, and his heart began to beat faster as he perceived a figure
+approaching the well, with rapid steps.  It was a human form that
+advanced towards him--only one--no second figure accompanied it; but it
+was not a man--no, a woman in a long robe.  Still, she for whom he waited
+was surely smaller than the woman, who now came near to him.  Was it the
+elder and not the younger sister, whom alone he was anxious to speak
+with, who came to the well this morning?
+
+He could now distinguish her light foot-fall--now she was divided from
+him by a young acacia-shrub which hid her from his gaze-now she set down
+two water-jars on the ground--now she briskly lifted the bucket and
+filled the vessel she held in her left hand--now she looked towards the
+eastern horizon, where the dim light of dawn grew broader and brighter,
+and Lysias thought he recognized Irene--and now--Praised be the gods!  he
+was sure; before him stood the younger and not the elder sister; the very
+maiden whom he sought.
+
+Still half concealed by the acacia-shrub, and in a soft voice so as not
+to alarm her, he called Irene's name, and the poor child's blood froze
+with terror, for never before had she been startled by a man here, and at
+this hour.  She stood as if rooted to the spot, and, trembling with
+fright, she pressed the cold, wet, golden jar, sacred to the god, closely
+to her bosom.
+
+Lysias repeated her name, a little louder than before, and went on, but
+in a subdued voice:
+
+"Do not be frightened, Irene; I am Lysias, the Corinthian--your friend,
+whose pomegranate-blossom you wore yesterday, and who spoke to you after
+the procession.  Let me bid you good morning!"
+
+At these words the girl let her hand fall by her side, still holding the
+jar, and pressing her right hand to her heart, she exclaimed, drawing a
+deep breath:
+
+"How dreadfully you frightened me!  I thought some wandering soul was
+calling me that had not yet returned to the nether world, for it is not
+till the sun rises that spirits are scared away."
+
+"But it cannot scare men of flesh and blood whose purpose is good.
+I, you may believe me, would willingly stay with you, till Helios departs
+again, if you would permit me."
+
+"I can neither permit nor forbid you anything," answered Irene.  "But,
+how came you here at this hour?"
+
+"In a chariot," replied Lysias smiling.
+
+"That is nonsense--I want to know what you came to the Well of the Sun
+for at such an hour."
+
+"I What but for you yourself?  You told me yesterday that you were glad
+to sleep, and so am I; still, to see you once more, I have been only to
+glad to shorten my night's rest considerably."
+
+"But, how did you know?"
+
+"You yourself told me yesterday at what time you were allowed to leave
+the temple."
+
+"Did I tell you?  Great Serapis!  how light it is already.  I shall be
+punished if the water-jar is not standing on the altar by sunrise, and
+there is Klea's too to be filled."
+
+"I will fill it for you directly--there--that is done; and now I will
+carry them both for you to the end of the grove, if you will promise me
+to return soon, for I have many things to ask you."
+
+"Go on--only go on," said the girl; "I know very little; but ask away,
+though you will not find much to be made of any answers that I can give."
+
+"Oh! yes, indeed, I shall--for instance, if I asked you to tell me all
+about your parents.  My friend Publius, whom you know, and I also have
+heard how cruelly and unjustly they were punished, and we would gladly do
+much to procure their release."
+
+"I will come--I will be sure to come," cried Irene loudly and eagerly,
+"and shall I bring Klea with me?  She was called up in the middle of the
+night by the gatekeeper, whose child is very ill.  My sister is very fond
+of it, and Philo will only take his medicine from her.  The little one
+had gone to sleep in her lap, and his mother came and begged me to fetch
+the water for us both.  Now give me the jars, for none but we may enter
+the temple."
+
+"There they are.  Do not disturb your sister on my account in her care of
+the poor little boy, for I might indeed have one or two things to say to
+you which she need not hear, and which might give you pleasure.  Now, I
+am going back to the well, so farewell!  But do not let me have to wait
+very long for you."  He spoke in a tender tone of entreaty, and the girl
+answered low and rapidly as she hurried away from him:
+
+"I will come when the sun is up."
+
+The Corinthian looked after her till she had vanished within the temple,
+and his heart was stirred--stirred as it had not been for many years.  He
+could not help recalling the time when he would teaze his younger sister,
+then still quite a child, putting her to the test by asking her, with a
+perfectly grave face, to give him her cake or her apple which he did not
+really want at all.  The little one had almost always put the thing he
+asked for to his mouth with her tiny hands, and then he had often felt
+exactly as he felt now.
+
+Irene too was still but a child, and no less guileless than his darling
+in his own home; and just as his sister had trusted him--offering him
+the best she had to give--so this simple child trusted him; him, the
+profligate Lysias, before whom all the modest women of Corinth cast down
+their eyes, while fathers warned their growing-up sons against him;
+trusted him with her virgin self--nay, as he thought, her sacred person.
+
+"I will do thee no harm, sweet child!"  he murmured to himself, as he
+presently turned on his heel to return to the well.  He went forward
+quickly at first, but after a few steps he paused before the marvellous
+and glorious picture that met his gaze.  Was Memphis in flames?  Had fire
+fallen to burn up the shroud of mist which had veiled his way to the
+temple?
+
+The trunks of the acacia-trees stood up like the blackened pillars of a
+burning city, and behind them the glow of a conflagration blazed high up
+to the heavens.  Beams of violet and gold slipped and sparkled between
+the boughs, and danced among the thorny twigs, the white racemes of
+flowers, and the tufts of leaves with their feathery leaflets; the clouds
+above were fired with tints more pure and tender than those of the roses
+with which Cleopatra had decked herself for the banquet.
+
+Not like this did the sun rise in his own country!  Or, was it perhaps
+only that in Corinth or in Athens at break of day, as he staggered home
+drunk from some feast, he had looked more at the earth than at the
+heavens?
+
+His horses began now to neigh loudly as if to greet the steeds of the
+coming Sun-god.  Lysias hurried to them through the grove, patted their
+shining necks with soothing words, and stood looking down at the vast
+city at his feet, over which hung a film of violet mist--at the solemn
+Pyramids, over which the morning glow flung a gay robe of rose-color--on
+the huge temple of Ptah, with the great colossi in front of its pylons--
+on the Nile, mirroring the glory of the sky, and on the limestone hills
+behind the villages of Babylon and Troy, about which he had, only
+yesterday, heard a Jew at the king's table relating a legend current
+among his countrymen to the effect that these hills had been obliged to
+give up all their verdure to grace the mounts of the sacred city
+Hierosolyma.
+
+The rocky cliffs of this barren range glowed at this moment like the fire
+in the heart of the great ruby which had clasped the festal robe of King
+Euergetes across his bull-neck, as it reflected the shimmer of the
+tapers: and Lysias saw the day-star rising behind the range with blinding
+radiance, shooting forth rays like myriads of golden arrows, to rout and
+destroy his foe, the darkness of night.
+
+Eos, Helios, Phoebus Apollo--these had long been to him no more than
+names, with which he associated certain phenomena, certain processes and
+ideas; for he when he was not luxuriating in the bath, amusing himself in
+the gymnasium, at cock or quail-fights, in the theatre or at Dionysiac
+processions--was wont to exercise his wits in the schools of the
+philosophers, so as to be able to shine in bandying words at
+entertainments; but to-day, and face to face with this sunrise,
+he believed as in the days of his childhood--he saw in his mind's eye
+the god riding in his golden chariot, and curbing his foaming steeds,
+his shining train floating lightly round him, bearing torches or
+scattering flowers--he threw up his arms with an impulse of devotion,
+praying aloud:
+
+"To-day I am happy and light of heart.  To thy presence do I owe this,
+O! Phoebus Apollo, for thou art light itself.  Oh! let thy favors
+continue--"
+
+But he here broke off in his invocation, and dropped his arms, for he
+heard approaching footsteps.  Smiling at his childish weakness--for such
+he deemed it that he should have prayed--and yet content from his pious
+impulse, he turned his back on the sun, now quite risen, and stood face
+to face with Irene who called out to him:
+
+"I was beginning to think that you had got out of patience and had gone
+away, when I found you no longer by the well.  That distressed me--but
+you were only watching Helios rise.  I see it every day, and yet it
+always grieves me to see it as red as it was to-day, for our Egyptian
+nurse used to tell me that when the east was very red in the morning it
+was because the Sun-god had slain his enemies, and it was their blood
+that colored the heavens, and the clouds and the hills."
+
+"But you are a Greek," said Lysias, "and you must know that it is Eos
+that causes these tints when she touches the horizon with her rosy
+fingers before Helios appears.  Now to-day you are, to me, the rosy dawn
+presaging a fine day."
+
+"Such a ruddy glow as this," said Irene, "forebodes great heat, storms,
+and perhaps heavy rain, so the gatekeeper says; and he is always with the
+astrologers who observe the stars and the signs in the heavens from the
+towers near the temple-gates.  He is poor little Philo's father.
+I wanted to bring Klea with me, for she knows more about our parents than
+I do; but he begged me not to call her away, for the child's throat is
+almost closed up, and if it cries much the physician says it will choke,
+and yet it is never quiet but when it is lying in Klea's arms.  She is so
+good--and she never thinks of herself; she has been ever since midnight
+till now rocking that heavy child on her lap."
+
+"We will talk with her presently," said the Corinthian.  "But to-day
+it was for your sake that I came; you have such merry eyes, and your
+little mouth looks as if it were made for laughing, and not to sing
+lamentations.  How can you bear being always in that shut up dungeon
+with all those solemn men in their black and white robes?"
+
+There are some very good and kind ones among them.  I am most fond of old
+Krates, he looks gloomy enough at every one else; but with me only he
+jokes and talks, and he often shows me such pretty and elegantly wrought
+things."
+
+"Ah! I told you just now you are like the rosy dawn before whom all
+darkness must vanish."
+
+"If only you could know how thoughtless I can be, and how often I give
+trouble to Klea, who never scolds me for it, you would be far from
+comparing me with a goddess.  Little old Krates, too, often compares me
+to all sorts of pretty things, but that always sounds so comical that I
+cannot help laughing.  I had much rather listen to you when you flatter
+me."
+
+"Because I am young and youth suits with youth.  Your sister is older,
+and so much graver than you are.  Have you never had a companion of your
+own age whom you could play with, and to whom you could tell everything?"
+
+"Oh!  yes when I was still very young; but since my parents fell into
+trouble, and we have lived here in the temple, I have always been alone
+with Klea.  What do you want to know about my father?"
+
+"That I will ask you by-and-by.  Now only tell me, have you never played
+at hide and seek with other girls?  May you never look on at the merry
+doings in the streets at the Dionysiac festivals?  Have you ever ridden
+in a chariot?"
+
+"I dare say I have, long ago--but I have forgotten it.  How should I have
+any chance of such things here in the temple?  Klea says it is no good
+even to think of them.  She tells me a great deal about our parents--how
+my mother took care of us, and what my father used to say.  Has anything
+happened that may turn out favorably for him?  Is it possible that the
+king should have learned the truth?  Make haste and ask your questions at
+once, for I have already been too long out here."
+
+The impatient steeds neighed again as she spoke, and Lysias, to whom this
+chat with Irene was perfectly enchanting, but who nevertheless had not
+for a moment lost sight of his object, hastily pointed to the spot where
+his horses were standing, and said:
+
+"Did you hear the neighing of those mettlesome horses?  They brought me
+hither, and I can guide them well; nay, at the last Isthmian games I won
+the crown with my own quadriga.  You said you had never ridden standing
+in a chariot.  How would you like to try for once how it feels?  I will
+drive you with pleasure up and down behind the grove for a little while."
+
+Irene heard this proposal with sparkling eyes and cried, as she clapped
+her hands:
+
+"May I ride in a chariot with spirited horses, like the queen?  Oh!
+impossible!  Where are your horses standing?"
+
+In this instant she had forgotten Klea, the duty which called her back to
+the temple, even her parents, and she followed the Corinthian with winged
+steps, sprang into the two-wheeled chariot, and clung fast to the
+breastwork, as Lysias took his place by her side, seized the reins, and
+with a strong and practised hand curbed the mettle of his spirited
+steeds.
+
+She stood perfectly guileless and undoubting by his side, and wholly at
+his mercy as the chariot rattled off; but, unknown to herself, beneficent
+powers were shielding her with buckler and armor--her childlike
+innocence, and that memory of her parents which her tempter himself
+had revived in her mind, and which soon came back in vivid strength.
+
+Breathing deep with excitement, and filled with such rapture as a bird
+may feel when it first soars from its narrow nest high up into the ether
+she cried out again and again:
+
+"Oh, this is delightful! this is splendid!" and then:
+
+"How we rush through the air as if we were swallows!  Faster, Lysias,
+faster!  No, no--that is too fast; wait a little that I may not fall!
+Oh, I am not frightened; it is too delightful to cut through the air just
+as a Nile boat cuts through the stream in a storm, and to feel it on my
+face and neck."
+
+Lysias was very close to her; when, at her desire, he urged his horses to
+their utmost pace, and saw her sway, he involuntarily put out his hand to
+hold her by the girdle; but Irene avoided his grasp, pressing close
+against the side of the chariot next her, and every time he touched her
+she drew her arm close up to her body, shrinking together like the
+fragile leaf of a sensitive plant when it is touched by some foreign
+object.
+
+She now begged the Corinthian to allow her to hold the reins for a little
+while, and he immediately acceded to her request, giving them into her
+hand, though, stepping behind her, he carefully kept the ends of them in
+his own.  He could now see her shining hair, the graceful oval of her
+head, and her white throat eagerly bent forward; an indescribable
+longing came over him to press a kiss on her head; but he forbore, for he
+remembered his friend's words that he would fulfil the part of a guardian
+to these girls.  He too would be a protector to her, aye and more than
+that, he would care for her as a father might.  Still, as often as the
+chariot jolted over a stone, and he touched her to support her, the
+suppressed wish revived, and once when her hair was blown quite close to
+his lips he did indeed kiss it--but only as a friend or a brother might.
+Still, she must have felt the breath from his lips, for she turned round
+hastily, and gave him back the reins; then, pressing her hand to her
+brow, she said in a quite altered voice--not unmixed with a faint tone of
+regret:
+
+"This is not right--please now to turn the horses round."
+
+Lysias, instead of obeying her, pulled at the reins to urge the horses to
+a swifter pace, and before he could find a suitable answer, she had
+glanced up at the sun, and pointing to the east she exclaimed:
+
+"How late it is already!  what shall I say if I have been looked for, and
+they ask me where I have been so long?  Why don't you turn round--nor ask
+me anything about my parents?"
+
+The last words broke from her with vehemence, and as Lysias did not
+immediately reply nor make any attempt to check the pace of the horses,
+she herself seized the reins exclaiming:
+
+"Will you turn round or no?"
+
+"No!" said the Greek with decision.  "But--"
+
+"And this is what you intended!" shrieked the girl, beside herself.
+"You meant to carry me off by stratagem--but wait, only wait--"
+
+And before Lysias could prevent her she had turned round, and was
+preparing to spring from the chariot as it rushed onwards; but her
+companion was quicker than she; he clutched first at her robe and then
+her girdle, put his arm round her waist, and in spite of her resistance
+pulled her back into the chariot.
+
+Trembling, stamping her little feet and with tears in her eyes, she
+strove to free her girdle from his grasp; he, now bringing his horses to
+a stand-still, said kindly but earnestly:
+
+"What I have done is the best that could happen to you, and I will even
+turn the horses back again if you command it, but not till you have heard
+me; for when I got you into the chariot by stratagem it was because I was
+afraid that you would refuse to accompany me, and yet I knew that every
+delay would expose you to the most hideous peril.  I did not indeed take
+a base advantage of your father's name, for my friend Publius Scipio, who
+is very influential, intends to do everything in his power to procure his
+freedom and to reunite you to him.  But, Irene, that could never have
+happened if I had left you where you have hitherto lived."
+
+During this discourse the girl had looked at Lysias in bewilderment, and
+she interrupted him with the exclamation:
+
+"But I have never done any one an injury!  Who can gain any benefit by
+persecuting a poor creature like me:
+
+"Your father was the most righteous of men," replied Lysias, "and
+nevertheless he was carried off into torments like a criminal.  It is not
+only the unrighteous and the wicked that are persecuted.  Have you ever
+heard of King Euergetes, who, at his birth, was named the 'well-doer,'
+and who has earned that of the 'evil doer' by his crimes?  He has heard
+that you are fair, and he is about to demand of the high-priest that he
+should surrender you to him.  If Asclepiodorus agrees--and what can he do
+against the might of a king--you will be made the companion of flute-
+playing girls and painted women, who riot with drunken men at his wild
+carousals and orgies, and if your parents found you thus, better would it
+be for them--"
+
+"Is it true, all  you are  telling me?"  asked Irene with flaming cheeks.
+
+"Yes," answered Lysias firmly.  "Listen Irene--I have a father and a dear
+mother and a sister, who is like you, and I swear to you by their heads--
+by those whose names never passed my lips in the presence of any other
+woman I ever sued to--that I am speaking the simple truth; that I seek
+nothing but only to save you; that if you desire it, as soon as I have
+hidden you I will never see you again, terribly hard as that would be to
+me--for I love you so dearly, so deeply--poor sweet little Irene--as you
+can never imagine."
+
+Lysias took the girl's hand, but she withdrew it hastily, and raising her
+eyes, full of tears, to meet his she said clearly and firmly:
+
+"I believe you, for no man could speak like that and betray another.
+But how do you know all this?  Where are you taking me?  Will Klea follow
+me?"
+
+"At first you shall be concealed with the family of a worthy sculptor.
+We will let Klea know this very day of all that has happened to you,
+and when we have obtained the release of your parents then--but--Help us,
+protecting Zeus!  Do you see the chariot yonder?  I believe those are the
+white horses of the Eunuch Eulaeus, and if he were to see us here, all
+would be lost!  Hold tight, we must go as fast as in a chariot race.
+There, now the hill hides us, and down there, by the little temple of
+Isis, the wife of your future host is already waiting for you; she is no
+doubt sitting in the closed chariot near the palm-trees.
+
+"Yes, certainly, certainly, Klea shall hear all, so that she may not be
+uneasy about you!  I must say farewell to you directly and then,
+afterwards, sweet Irene, will you sometimes think of the unhappy Lysias;
+or did Aurora, who greeted him this morning, so bright and full of happy
+promise, usher in a day not of joy but of sorrow and regret?"  The Greek
+drew in rein as he spoke, bringing his horses to a sober pace, and looked
+tenderly in Irene's eyes.  She returned his gaze with heart-felt emotion,
+but her gunny glance was dimmed with tears.
+
+"Say something," entreated the Greek.  "Will you not forget me?  And may
+I soon visit you in your new retreat?"
+
+Irene would so gladly have said yes--and yes again, a thousand times yes;
+and yet she, who was so easily carried away by every little emotion of
+her heart, in this supreme moment found strength enough to snatch her
+hand from that of the Greek, who had again taken it, and to answer
+firmly:
+
+"I will remember you for ever and ever, but you must not come to see me
+till I am once more united to my Klea."
+
+"But Irene, consider, if now--" cried Lysias much agitated.
+
+"You swore to me by the heads of your nearest kin to obey my wishes,"
+interrupted the girl.  "Certainly I trust you, and all the more readily
+because you are so good to me, but I shall not do so any more if you do
+not keep your word.  Look, here comes a lady to meet us who looks like a
+friend.  She is already waving her hand to me.  Yes, I will go with her
+gladly, and yet I am so anxious--so troubled, I cannot tell you--but I am
+so thankful too!  Think of me sometimes, Lysias, and of our journey here,
+and of our talk, and of my parents:  I entreat you, do for them all you
+possibly can.  I wish I could help crying--but I cannot!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Lysias eyes had not deceived him.  The chariot with white horses which he
+had evaded during his flight with Irene belonged to Eulaeus.  The morning
+being cool--and also because Cleopatra's lady-in-waiting was with him--he
+had come out in a closed chariot, in which he sat on soft cushions side
+by side with the Macedonian lady, endeavoring to win her good graces by a
+conversation, witty enough in its way.
+
+"On the way there," thought he, "I will make her quite favorable to me,
+and on the way back I will talk to her of my own affairs."
+
+The drive passed quickly and pleasantly for both, and they neither of
+them paid any heed to the sound of the hoofs of the horses that were
+bearing away Irene.
+
+Eulaeus dismounted behind the acacia-grove, and expressed a hope that Zoe
+would not find the time very long while he was engaged with the high-
+priest; perhaps indeed, he remarked, she might even make some use of the
+time by making advances to the representative of Hebe.
+
+But Irene had been long since warmly welcomed in the house of
+Apollodorus, the sculptor, by the time they once more found themselves
+together in the chariot; Eulaeus feigning, and Zoe in reality feeling,
+extreme dissatisfaction at all that had taken place in the temple.
+The high-priest had rejected Philometor's demand that he should send
+the water-bearer to the palace on King Euergetes' birthday, with a
+decisiveness which Eulaeus would never have given him credit for, for he
+had on former occasions shown a disposition to measures of compromise;
+while Zoe had not even seen the waterbearer.
+
+"I fancy," said the queen's shrewd friend, "that I followed you somewhat
+too late, and that when I entered the temple about half an hour after
+you--having been detained first by Imhotep, the old physician, and then
+by an assistant of Apollodorus, the sculptor, with some new busts of the
+philosophers--the high-priest had already given orders that the girl
+should be kept concealed; for when I asked to see her, I was conducted
+first to her miserable room, which seemed more fit for peasants or goats
+than for a Hebe, even for a sham one--but I found it perfectly deserted.
+
+"Then I was shown into the temple of Serapis, where a priest was
+instructing some girls in singing, and then sent hither and thither,
+till at last, finding no trace whatever of the famous Irene, I came to
+the dwelling-house of the gate-keeper of the temple.
+
+"An ungainly woman opened the door, and said that Irene had been gone
+from thence for some long time, but that her elder sister was there,
+so I desired she might be fetched to speak with me.  And what, if you
+please, was the answer I received?  The goddess Klea--I call her so as
+being sister to a Hebe--had to nurse a sick child, and if I wanted to
+see her I might go in and find her.
+
+"The tone of the message quite conveyed that the distance from her down
+to me was as great as in fact it is the other way.  However, I thought it
+worth the trouble to see this supercilious water-bearing girl, and I went
+into a low room--it makes me sick now to remember how it smelt of
+poverty--and there she sat with an idiotic child, dying on her lap.
+Everything that surrounded me was so revolting and dismal that it will
+haunt my dreams with terror for weeks to come and spoil all my cheerful
+hours.
+
+"I did not remain long with these wretched creatures, but I must confess
+that if Irene is as like to Hebe as her elder sister is to Hera,
+Euergetes has good grounds for being angry if Asclepiodorus keeps the
+girl from him.
+
+"Many a queen--and not least the one whom you and I know so intimately-
+would willingly give half of her kingdom to possess such a figure and
+such a mien as this serving-girl.  And then her eyes, as she looked at me
+when she rose with that little gasping corpse in her arms, and asked me
+what I wanted with her sister!
+
+"There was an impressive and lurid glow in those solemn eyes, which
+looked as if they had been taken out of some Medusa's head to be set in
+her beautiful face.  And there was a sinister threat in them too which
+seemed to say: 'Require nothing of her that I do not approve of, or you
+will be turned into stone on the spot.'  She did not answer twenty words
+to my questions, and when I once more tasted the fresh air outside, which
+never seemed to me so pleasant as by contrast with that horrible hole,
+I had learnt no more than that no one knew--or chose to know--in what
+corner the fair Irene was hidden, and that I should do well to make
+no further enquiries.
+
+"And now, what will Philometor do?  What will you advise him to do?"
+
+"What cannot be got at by soft words may sometimes be obtained by a
+sufficiently large present," replied Eulaeus.  "You know very well that
+of all words none is less familiar to these gentry than the little word
+'enough'; but who indeed is really ready to say it?
+
+"You speak of the haughtiness and the stern repellent demeanor of our
+Hebe's sister.  I have seen her too, and I think that her image might be
+set up in the Stoa as a happy impersonation of the severest virtue: and
+yet children generally resemble their parents, and her father was the
+veriest peculator and the most cunning rascal that ever came in my way,
+and was sent off to the gold-mines for very sufficient reasons.  And for
+the sake of the daughter of a convicted criminal you have been driven
+through the dust and the scorching heat, and have had to submit to her
+scorn and contemptuous airs, while I am threatened with grave peril on
+her account, for you know that Cleopatra's latest whim is to do honor to
+the Roman, Publius Scipio; he, on the other hand, is running after our
+Hebe, and, having promised her that he will obtain an unqualified pardon
+for her father, he will do his utmost to throw the odium of his robbery
+upon me.
+
+"The queen is to give him audience this very day, and you cannot know how
+many enemies a man makes who, like me, has for many years been one of the
+leading men of a great state.  The king acknowledges, and with gratitude,
+all that I have done for him and for his mother; but if, at the moment
+when Publius Scipio accuses me, he is more in favor with her than ever,
+I am a lost man.
+
+"You are always with the queen; do you tell her who these girls are, and
+what motives the Roman has for loading me with their father's crimes; and
+some opportunity must offer for doing you and your belongings some
+friendly office or another."
+
+"What a shameless crew!"  exclaimed Zoe.  "Depend upon it I will not be
+silent, for I always do what is just.  I cannot bear seeing others
+suffering an injustice, and least of all that a man of your merit and
+distinction should be wounded in his honor, because a haughty foreigner
+takes a fancy to a pretty little face and a conceited doll of a girl."
+
+Zoe was in the right when she found the air stifling in the gate-keeper's
+house, for poor Irene, unaccustomed to such an atmosphere, could no more
+endure it than the pretentious maid of honor.  It cost even Klea an
+effort to remain in the wretched room, which served as the dwelling-place
+of the whole family; where the cooking was carried on at a smoky hearth,
+while, at night, it also sheltered a goat and a few fowls; but she had
+endured even severer trials than this for the sake of what she deemed
+right, and she was so fond of little Philo--her anxious care in arousing
+by degrees his slumbering intelligence had brought her so much soothing
+satisfaction, and the child's innocent gratitude had been so tender a
+reward--that she wholly forgot the repulsive surroundings as soon as she
+felt that her presence and care were indispensable to the suffering
+little one.
+
+Imhotep, the most famous of the priest-physicians of the temple of
+Asclepius--a man who was as learned in Greek as in Egyptian medical lore,
+and who had been known by the name of "the modern Herophilus" since King
+Philometor had summoned him from Alexandria to Memphis--had long since
+been watchful of the gradual development of the dormant intelligence of
+the gate-keeper's child, whom he saw every day in his visits to the
+temple.  Now, not long after Zoe had quitted the house, he came in to see
+the sick child for the third time.  Klea was still holding the boy on her
+lap when he entered.  On a wooden stool in front of her stood a brazier
+of charcoal, and on it a small copper kettle the physician had brought
+with him; to this a long tube was attached.  The tube was in two parts,
+joined together by a leather joint, also tubular, in such a way that the
+upper portion could be turned in any direction.  Klea from time to time
+applied it to the breast of the child, and, in obedience to Imhotep's
+instructions, made the little one inhale the steam that poured out of it.
+
+"Has it had the soothing effect it ought to have?"  asked the physician.
+
+"Yes, indeed, I think so," replied Klea,  "There is not so much noise in
+the chest when the poor little fellow draws his breath."
+
+The old man put his ear to the child's mouth, laid his hand on his brow,
+and said:
+
+"If the fever abates I hope for the best.  This inhaling of steam is an
+excellent remedy for these severe catarrhs, and a venerable one besides;
+for in the oldest writings of Hermes we find it prescribed as an
+application in such cases.  But now he has had enough of it.  "Ah! this
+steam--this steam!  Do you know that it is stronger than horses or oxen,
+or the united strength of a whole army of giants?  That diligent enquirer
+Hero of Alexandria discovered this lately.
+
+"But our little invalid has had enough of it, we must not overheat him.
+Now, take a linen cloth--that one will do though it is not very fine.
+Fold it together, wet it nicely with cold water--there is some in that
+miserable potsherd there--and now I will show you how to lay it on the
+child's throat.
+
+"You need not assure me that you understand me, Klea, for you have hands
+--neat hands--and patience without end!  Sixty-five years have I lived,
+and have always had good health, but I could almost wish to be ill for
+once, in order to be nursed by you.  That poor child is well off better
+than many a king's child when it is sick; for him hireling nurses, no
+doubt, fetch and do all that is necessary, but one thing they cannot
+give, for they have it not; I mean the loving and indefatigable patience
+by which you have worked a miracle on this child's mind, and are now
+working another on his body.  Aye, aye, my girl; it is to you and not
+me that this woman will owe her child if it is preserved to her.  Do you
+hear me, woman? and tell your husband so too; and if you do not reverence
+Klea as a goddess, and do not lay your hands beneath her feet, may you
+be--no--I will wish you no ill, for you have not too much of the good
+things of life as it is!"
+
+As he spoke the gate-keeper's wife came timidly up to the physician and
+the sick child, pushed her rough and tangled hair off her forehead a
+little, crossed her lean arms at full length behind her back, and,
+looking down with out-stretched neck at the boy, stared in dumb amazement
+at the wet cloths.  Then she timidly enquired:
+
+"Are the evil spirits driven out of the child?"
+
+"Certainly," replied the physician.  "Klea there has exorcised them, and
+I have helped her; now you know."
+
+"Then I may go out for a little while?  I have to sweep the pavement of
+the forecourt."
+
+Klea nodded assent, and when the woman had disappeared the physician
+said:
+
+"How many evil demons we have to deal with, alas! and how few good ones.
+Men are far more ready and willing to believe in mischievous spirits than
+in kind or helpful ones; for when things go ill with them--and it is
+generally their own fault when they do--it comforts them and flatters
+their vanity if only they can throw the blame on the shoulders of evil
+spirits; but when they are well to do, when fortune smiles on them of
+course, they like to ascribe it to themselves, to their own cleverness or
+their superior insight, and they laugh at those who admonish them of the
+gratitude they owe to the protecting and aiding demons.  I, for my part,
+think more of the good than of the evil spirits, and you, my child,
+without doubt are one of the very best.
+
+"You must change the compress every quarter of an hour, and between
+whiles go out into the open air, and let the fresh breezes fan your
+bosom--your cheeks look pale.  At mid-day go to your own little room,
+and try to sleep.  Nothing ought to be overdone, so you are to obey me."
+
+Klea replied with a friendly and filial nod, and Imhotep stroked down her
+hair; then he left; she remained alone in the stuffy hot room, which grew
+hotter every minute, while she changed the wet cloths for the sick child,
+and watched with delight the diminishing hoarseness and difficulty of his
+breathing.  From time to time she was overcome by a slight drowsiness,
+and closed her eyes for a few minutes, but only for a short while; and
+this half-awake and half-asleep condition, chequered by fleeting dreams,
+and broken only by an easy and pleasing duty, this relaxation of the
+tension of mind and body, had a certain charm of which, through it all,
+she remained perfectly conscious.  Here she was in her right place; the
+physicians kind words had done her good, and her anxiety for the little
+life she loved was now succeeded by a well-founded hope of its
+preservation.
+
+During the night she had already come to a definite resolution,
+to explain to the high-priest that she could not undertake the office
+of the twin-sisters, who wept by the bier of Osiris, and that she would
+rather endeavor to earn bread by the labor of her hands for herself and
+Irene--for that Irene should do any real work never entered her mind--
+at Alexandria, where even the blind and the maimed could find occupation.
+Even this prospect, which only yesterday had terrified her, began now to
+smile upon her, for it opened to her the possibility of proving
+independently the strong energy which she felt in herself.
+
+Now and then the figure of the Roman rose before her mind's eye, and
+every time that this occurred she colored to her very forehead.  But
+to-day she thought of this disturber of her peace differently from
+yesterday; for yesterday she had felt herself overwhelmed by him with
+shame, while to-day it appeared to her as though she had triumphed over
+him at the procession, since she had steadily avoided his glance, and
+when he had dared to approach her she had resolutely turned her back upon
+him.  This was well, for how could the proud foreigner expose himself
+again to such humiliation.
+
+"Away, away--for ever away!"  she murmured to herself, and her eyes and
+brow, which had been lighted up by a transient smile, once more assumed
+the expression of repellent sternness which, the day before, had so
+startled and angered the Roman.  Soon however the severity of her
+features relaxed, as she saw in fancy the young man's beseeching look,
+and remembered the praise given him by the recluse, and as--in the middle
+of this train of thought--her eyes closed again, slumber once more
+falling upon her spirit for a few minutes, she saw in her dream Publius
+himself, who approached her with a firm step, took her in his arms like a
+child, held her wrists to stop her struggling hands, gathered her up
+with rough force, and then flung her into a canoe lying at anchor by the
+bank of the Nile.
+
+She fought with all her might against this attack and seizure, screamed
+aloud with fury, and woke at the sound of her own voice.  Then she got
+up, dried her eyes that were wet with tears, and, after laying a freshly
+wetted cloth on the child's throat, she went out of doors in obedience to
+the physician's advice.
+
+The sun was already at the meridian, and its direct rays were fiercely
+reflected from the slabs of yellow sandstone that paved the forecourt.
+On one side only of the wide, unroofed space, one of the colonnades that
+surrounded it threw a narrow shade, hardly a span wide; and she would not
+go there, for under it stood several beds on which lay pilgrims who, here
+in the very dwelling of the divinity, hoped to be visited with dreams
+which might give them an insight into futurity.
+
+Klea's head was uncovered, and, fearing the heat of noon, she was about
+to return into the door-keeper's house, when she saw a young white-robed
+scribe, employed in the special service of Asclepiodorus, who came across
+the court beckoning eagerly to her.  She went towards him, but before he
+had reached her he shouted out an enquiry whether her sister Irene was in
+the gate-keeper's lodge;  the high-priest desired to speak with her, and
+she was nowhere to be found.  Klea told him that a grand lady from the
+queen's court had already enquired for her, and that the last time she
+had seen her had been before daybreak, when she was going to fill the
+jars for the altar of the god at the Well of the Sun.
+
+"The water for the first libation," answered the priest, "was placed on
+the altar at the right time, but Doris and her sister had to fetch it for
+the second and third.  Asclepiodorus is angry--not with you, for he knows
+from Imhotep that you are taking care of a sick child--but with Irene.
+Try and think where she can be.  Something serious must have occurred
+that the high-priest wishes to communicate to her."
+
+Klea was startled, for she remembered Irene's tears the evening before,
+and her cry of longing for happiness and freedom.  Could it be that the
+thoughtless child had yielded to this longing, and escaped without her
+knowledge, though only for a few hours, to see the city and the gay life
+there?
+
+She collected herself so as not to betray her anxiety to the messenger,
+and said with downcast eyes:
+
+"I will go and look for her."
+
+She hurried back into the house, once more looked to the sick child,
+called his mother and showed her how to prepare the compresses, urging
+her to follow Imhotep's directions carefully and exactly till she should
+return; she pressed one loving kiss on little Philo's forehead--feeling
+as she did so that he was less hot than he had been in the morning--and
+then she left, going first to her own dwelling.
+
+There everything stood or lay exactly as she had left it during the
+night, only the golden jars were wanting.  This increased Klea's alarm,
+but the thought that Irene should have taken the precious vessels with
+her, in order to sell them and to live on the proceeds, never once
+entered her mind, for her sister, she knew, though heedless and easily
+persuaded, was incapable of any base action.
+
+Where was she to seek the lost girl?  Serapion, the recluse, to whom she
+first addressed herself, knew nothing of her.
+
+On the altar of Serapis, whither she next went, she found both the
+vessels, and carried them back to her room.
+
+Perhaps Irene had gone to see old Krates, and while watching his work and
+chattering to him, had forgotten the flight of time--but no, the priest-
+smith, whom she sought in his workshop, knew nothing of the vanished
+maiden.  He would willingly have helped Klea to seek for his favorite,
+but the new lock for the tombs of the Apis had to be finished by mid-day,
+and his swollen feet were painful.
+
+Klea stood outside the old man's door sunk in thought, and it occurred to
+her that Irene had often, in her idle hours, climbed up into the dove-cot
+belonging to the temple, to look out from thence over the distant
+landscape, to visit the sitting birds, to stuff food into the gaping
+beaks of the young ones, or to look up at the cloud of soaring doves.
+The pigeon-house, built up of clay pots and Nile-mud, stood on the top of
+the storehouse, which lay adjoining the southern boundary wall of the
+temple.
+
+She hastened across the sunny courts and slightly shaded alleys, and
+mounted to the flat roof of the storehouse, but she found there neither
+the old dove-keeper nor his two grandsons who helped him in his work, for
+all three were in the anteroom to the kitchen, taking their dinner with
+the temple-servants.
+
+Klea shouted her sister's name; once, twice, ten times--but no one
+answered.  It was just as if the fierce heat of the sun burnt up the
+sound as it left her lips.  She looked into the first pigeon-house, the
+second, the third, all the way to the last.  The numberless little clay
+tenements of the brisk little birds threw out a glow like a heated oven;
+but this did not hinder her from hunting through every nook and corner.
+Her cheeks were burning, drops of perspiration stood on her brow, and she
+had much difficulty in freeing herself from the dust of the pigeon-
+houses, still she was not discouraged.
+
+Perhaps Irene had gone into the Anubidium, or sanctuary of Asclepius, to
+enquire as to the meaning of some strange vision, for there, with the
+priestly physicians, lived also a priestess who could interpret the
+dreams of those who sought to be healed even better than a certain
+recluse who also could exercise that science.  The enquirers often had to
+wait a long time outside the temple of Asclepius, and this consideration
+encouraged Klea, and made her insensible to the burning southwest wind
+which was now rising, and to the heat of the sun; still, as she returned
+to the Pastophorium--slowly, like a warrior returning from a defeat--she
+suffered severely from the heat, and her heart was wrung with anguish and
+suspense.
+
+Willingly would she have cried, and often heaved a groan that was more
+like a sob, but the solace of tears to relieve her heart was still denied
+to her.
+
+Before going to tell Asclepiodorus that her search had been unsuccessful,
+she felt prompted once more to talk with her friend, the anchorite; but
+before she had gone far enough even to see his cell, the high-priest's
+scribe once more stood in her way, and desired her to follow him to the
+temple.  There she had to wait in mortal impatience for more than an
+hour in an ante room.  At last she was conducted into a room where
+Asclepiodorus was sitting with the whole chapter of the priesthood
+of the temple of Serapis.
+
+Klea entered timidly, and had to wait again some minutes in the presence
+of the mighty conclave before the high-priest asked her whether she could
+give any information as to the whereabouts of the fugitive, and whether
+she had heard or observed anything that could guide them on her track,
+since he, Asclepiodorus, knew that if Irene had run away secretly from
+the temple she must be as anxious about her as he was.
+
+Klea had much difficulty in finding words, and her knees shook as she
+began to speak, but she refused the seat which was brought for her by
+order of Asclepiodorus.  She recounted in order all the places where she
+had in vain sought her sister, and when she mentioned the sanctuary of
+Asclepius, and a recollection came suddenly and vividly before her of the
+figure of a lady of distinction, who had come there with a number of
+slaves and waiting-maids to have a dream interpreted, Zoe's visit to
+herself flashed upon her memory; her demeanor--at first so over-friendly
+and then so supercilious--and her haughty enquiries for Irene.
+
+She broke off in her narrative, and exclaimed:
+
+"I am sure, holy father, that Irene has not fled of her own free impulse,
+but some one perhaps may have lured her into quitting the temple and me;
+she is still but a child with a wavering mind.  Could it possibly be that
+a lady of rank should have decoyed her into going with her?  Such a
+person came to-day to see me at the door-keeper's lodge.  She was richly
+dressed and wore a gold crescent in her light wavy hair, which was
+plaited with a silk ribband, and she asked me urgently about my sister.
+Imhotep, the physician, who often visits at the king's palace, saw her
+too, and told me her name is Zoe, and that she is lady-in-waiting to
+Queen Cleopatra."
+
+These words occasioned the greatest excitement throughout the conclave of
+priests, and Asclepiodorus exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! women, women!  You indeed were right, Philammon; I could not and
+would not believe it!  Cleopatra has done many things which are forgiven
+only in a queen, but that she should become the tool of her brother's
+basest passions, even you, Philammon, could hardly regard as likely,
+though you are always prepared to expect evil rather than good.  But now,
+what is to be done?  How can we protect ourselves against violence and
+superior force?"
+
+Klea had appeared before the priests with cheeks crimson and glowing from
+the noontide heat, but at the high-priest's last words the blood left her
+face, she turned ashy-pale, and a chill shiver ran through her trembling
+limbs.  Her father's child--her bright, innocent Irene--basely stolen for
+Euergetes, that licentious tyrant of whose wild deeds Serapion had told
+her only last evening, when he painted the dangers that would threaten
+her and Irene if they should quit the shelter of the sanctuary.
+
+Alas, it was too true!  They had tempted away her darling child, her
+comfort and delight, lured her with splendor and ease, only to sink her
+in shame!  She was forced to cling to the back of the chair she had
+disdained, to save herself from falling.
+
+But this weakness overmastered her for a few minutes only; she boldly
+took two hasty steps up to the table behind which the high-priest was
+sitting, and, supporting herself with her right hand upon it, she
+exclaimed, while her voice, usually so full and sonorous, had a hoarse
+tone:
+
+"A woman has been the instrument of making another woman unworthy of the
+name of woman! and you--you, the protectors of right and virtue--you who
+are called to act according to the will and mind of the gods whom you
+serve--you are too weak to prevent it?  If you endure this, if you do not
+put a stop to this crime you are not worthy--nay, I will not be
+interrupted--you, I say, are unworthy of the sacred title and of the
+reverence you claim, and I will appeal--"
+
+"Silence, girl!"  cried Asclepiodorus to the terribly excited Klea.
+"I would have you imprisoned with the blasphemers, if I did not well
+understand the anguish which has turned your brain.  We will interfere on
+behalf of the abducted girl, and you must wait patiently in silence.
+You, Callimachus, must at once order Ismael, the messenger, to saddle the
+horses, and ride to Memphis to deliver a despatch from me to the queen;
+let us all combine to compose it, and subscribe our names as soon as we
+are perfectly certain that Irene has been carried off from these
+precincts.  Philammon, do you command that the gong be sounded which
+calls together all the inhabitants of the temple; and you, my girl, quit
+this hall, and join the others."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Klea obeyed the high-priest's command at once, and wandered--not knowing
+exactly whither--from one corridor to another of the huge pile, till she
+was startled by the sound of the great brazen plate, struck with mighty
+blows, which rang out to the remotest nook and corner of the precincts.
+This call was for her too, and she went forthwith into the great court
+of assembly, which at every moment grew fuller and fuller.  The temple-
+servants and the keepers of the beasts, the gate-keepers, the litter-
+bearers, the water-carriers-all streamed in from their interrupted meal,
+some wiping their mouths as they hurried in, or still holding in their
+hands a piece of bread, a radish, or a date which they hastily munched;
+the washer-men and women came in with hands still wet from washing the
+white robes of the priests, and the cooks arrived with brows still
+streaming from their unfinished labors.  Perfumes floated round from the
+unwashed hands of the pastophori, who had been busied in the laboratories
+in the preparation of incense, while from the library and writing-rooms
+came the curators and scribes and the officials of the temple counting-
+house, their hair in disorder, and their light working-dress stained with
+red or black.  The troop of singers, male and female, came in orderly
+array, just as they had been assembled for practice, and with them came
+the faded twins to whom Klea and Irene had been designated as successors
+by Asclepiodorus.  Then came the pupils of the temple-school, tumbling
+noisily into the court-yard in high delight at this interruption to their
+lessons.  The eldest of these were sent to bring in the great canopy
+under which the heads of the establishment might assemble.
+
+Last of all appeared Asclepiodorus, who handed to a young scribe a
+complete list of all the inhabitants and members of the temple, that he
+might read it out.  This he proceeded to do; each one answered with an
+audible "Here" as his name was called, and for each one who was absent
+information was immediately given as to his whereabouts.
+
+Klea had joined the singing-women, and awaited in breathless anxiety a
+long-endlessly long-time for the name of her sister to be called; for it
+was not till the very smallest of the school-boys and the lowest of the
+neat-herds had answered, "Here," that the scribe read out, "Klea, the
+water-bearer," and nodded to her in answer as she replied "Here!"
+
+Then his voice seemed louder than before as he read.  "Irene, the water-
+bearer."
+
+No answer following on these words, a slight movement, like the bowing
+wave that flies over a ripe cornfield when the morning breeze sweeps
+across the ears, was evident among the assembled inhabitants of the
+temple, who waited in breathless silence till Asclepiodorus stood forth,
+and said in a distinct and audible voice:
+
+"You have all met here now at my call.  All have obeyed it excepting
+those holy men consecrated to Serapis, whose vows forbid their breaking
+their seclusion, and Irene, the water-bearer.  Once more I call, 'Irene,'
+a second, and a third time--and still no answer; I now appeal to you all
+assembled here, great and small, men and women who serve Serapis.  Can
+any one of you give any information as to the whereabouts of this young
+girl?  Has any one seen her since, at break of day, she placed the first
+libation from the Well of the Sun on the altar of the god?  You are all
+silent!  Then no one has met her in the course of this day?  Now, one
+question more, and whoever can answer it stand forth and speak the words
+of truth.
+
+"By which gate did this lady of rank depart who visited the temple early
+this morning?--By the eastern gate--good.
+
+"Was she alone?--She was.
+
+"By which gate did the epistolographer Eulaeus depart?--By the east.
+
+"Was he alone?--He was.
+
+"Did any one here present meet the chariot either of the lady or of
+Eulaeus?"
+
+"I did," cried a car-driver, whose daily duty it was to go to Memphis
+with his oxen and cart to fetch provisions for the kitchen, and other
+necessaries.
+
+"Speak," said the high-priest.
+
+"I saw," replied the man, "the white horses of my Lord Eulaeus hard by
+the vineyard of Khakem; I know them well.  They were harnessed to a
+closed chariot, in which besides himself sat a lady."
+
+"Was it Irene?"  asked Asclepiodorus.
+
+"I do not know," replied the tarter, "for I could not see who sat in the
+chariot, but I heard the voice of Eulaeus, and then a woman's laugh.  She
+laughed so heartily that I had to screw my mouth up myself, it tickled me
+so."
+
+While Klea supposed this description to apply to Irene's merry laugh-
+which she had never thought of with regret till this moment--the high-
+priest exclaimed:
+
+"You, keeper of the eastern gate, did the lady and Eulaeus enter and
+leave this sanctuary together?"
+
+"No," was the answer.  "She came in half an hour later than he did, and
+she quitted the temple quite alone and long after the eunuch."
+
+"And Irene did not pass through your gate, and cannot have gone out by
+it?--I ask you in the name of the god we serve!"
+
+"She may have done so, holy father," answered the gate-keeper in much
+alarm.  "I have a sick child, and to look after him I went into my room
+several times; but only for a few minutes at a time-still, the gate
+stands open, all is quiet in Memphis now."
+
+"You have done very wrong," said Asclepiodorus severely, "but since you
+have told the truth you may go unpunished.  We have learned enough.  All
+you gate-keepers now listen to me.  Every gate of the temple must be
+carefully shut, and no one--not even a pilgrim nor any dignitary from
+Memphis, however high a personage he may be--is to enter or go out
+without my express permission; be as alert as if you feared an attack,
+and now go each of you to his duties."
+
+The assembly dispersed; these to one side, those to another.
+
+Klea did not perceive that many looked at her with suspicion as
+though she were responsible for her sister's conduct, and others with
+compassion; she did not even notice the twin-sisters, whose place she and
+Irene were to have filled, and this hurt the feelings of the good elderly
+maidens, who had to perform so much lamenting which they did not feel at
+all, that they eagerly seized every opportunity of expressing their
+feelings when, for once in a way, they were moved to sincere sorrow.
+But neither these sympathizing persons nor any other of the inhabitants
+of the temple, who approached Klea with the purpose of questioning or of
+pitying her, dared to address her, so stern and terrible was the solemn
+expression of her eyes which she kept fixed upon the ground.
+
+At last she remained alone in the great court; her heart beat faster
+unusual, and strange and weighty thoughts were stirring in her soul.
+One thing was clear to her: Eulaeus--her father's ruthless foe and
+destroyer--was now also working the fall of the child of the man he
+had ruined, and, though she knew it not, the high-priest shared her
+suspicions.  She, Klea, was by no means minded to let this happen without
+an effort at defence, and it even became clearer and clearer to her mind
+that it was her duty to act, and without delay.  In the first instance
+she would ask counsel of her friend Serapion; but as she approached his
+cell the gong was sounded which summoned the priests to service, and at
+the same time warned her of her duty of fetching water.
+
+Mechanically, and still thinking of nothing but Irene's deliverance, she
+fulfilled the task which she was accustomed to perform every day at the
+sound of this brazen clang, and went to her room to fetch the golden jars
+of the god.
+
+As she entered the empty room her cat sprang to meet her with two leaps
+of joy, putting up her back, rubbing her soft head against her feet with
+her fine bushy tail ringed with black stripes set up straight, as cats
+are wont only when they are pleased.  Klea was about to stroke the
+coaxing animal, but it sprang back, stared at her shyly, and, as she
+could not help thinking, angrily with its green eyes, and then shrank
+back into the corner close to Irene's couch.
+
+"She mistook me!"  thought Klea.  "Irene is more lovable than I even to
+a beast, and Irene, Irene--"  She sighed deeply at the name, and would
+have sunk down on her trunk there to consider of new ways and means--all
+of which however she was forced to reject as foolish and impracticable--
+but on the chest lay a little shirt she had begun to make for little
+Philo, and this reminded her again of the sick child and of the duty of
+fetching the water.
+
+Without further delay she took up the jars, and as she went towards the
+well she remembered the last precepts that had been given her by her
+father, whom she had once been permitted to visit in prison.  Only a few
+detached sentences of this, his last warning speech, now came into her
+mind, though no word of it had escaped her memory; it ran much as
+follows:
+
+"It may seem as though I had met with an evil recompense from the gods
+for my conduct in adhering to what I think just and virtuous; but it only
+seems so, and so long as I succeed in living in accordance with nature,
+which obeys an everlasting law, no man is justified in accusing me.  My
+own peace of mind especially will never desert me so long as I do not set
+myself to act in opposition to the fundamental convictions of my inmost
+being, but obey the doctrines of Zeno and Chrysippus.  This peace every
+one may preserve, aye, even you, a woman, if you constantly do what you
+recognize to be right, and fulfil the duties you take upon yourself.  The
+very god himself is proof and witness of this doctrine, for he grants to
+him who obeys him that tranquillity of spirit which must be pleasing in
+his eyes, since it is the only condition of the soul in which it appears
+to be neither fettered and hindered nor tossed and driven; while he, on
+the contrary, who wanders from the paths of virtue and of her daughter,
+stern duty, never attains peace, but feels the torment of an unsatisfied
+and hostile power, which with its hard grip drags his soul now on and now
+back.
+
+"He who preserves a tranquil mind is not miserable, even in misfortune,
+and thankfully learns to feel con tented in every state of life; and that
+because he is filled with those elevated sentiments which are directly
+related to the noblest portion of his being--those, I mean--of justice
+and goodness.  Act then, my child, in conformity with justice and duty,
+regardless of any ulterior object, without considering whether your
+action will bring you pleasure or pain, without fear of the judgment of
+men or the envy of the gods, and you will win that peace of mind which
+distinguishes the wise from the unwise, and may be happy even in adverse
+circumstances; for the only real evil is the dominion of wickedness, that
+is to say the unreason which rebels against nature, and the only true
+happiness consists in the possession of virtue.  He alone, however, can
+call virtue his who possesses it wholly, and sins not against it in the
+smallest particular; for there is no difference of degrees either in good
+or in evil, and even the smallest action opposed to duty, truth or
+justice, though punishable by no law, is a sin, and stands in opposition
+to virtue.
+
+"Irene," thus Philotas had concluded his injunctions, "cannot as yet
+understand this doctrine, but you are grave and have sense beyond your
+years.  Repeat this to her daily, and when the time comes impress on your
+sister--towards whom you must fill the place of a mother--impress on her
+heart these precepts as your father's last will and testament."
+
+And now, as Klea went towards the well within the temple-wall to fetch
+water, she repeated to herself many of these injunctions; she felt
+herself encouraged by them, and firmly resolved not to give her sister up
+to the seducer without a struggle.
+
+As soon as the vessels for libation at the altar were filled she returned
+to little Philo, whose state seemed to her to give no further cause for
+anxiety; after staying with him for more than an hour she left the gate-
+keeper's dwelling to seek Serapion's advice, and to divulge to him all
+she had been able to plan and consider in the quiet of the sick-room.
+
+The recluse was wont to recognize her step from afar, and to be looking
+out for her from his window when she went to visit him; but to-day he
+heard her not, for he was stepping again and again up and down the few
+paces which the small size of his tiny cell allowed him to traverse.  He
+could reflect best when he walked up and down, and he thought and thought
+again, for he had heard all that was known in the temple regarding
+Irene's disappearance; and he would, he must rescue her--but the more he
+tormented his brain the more clearly he saw that every attempt to snatch
+the kidnapped girl from the powerful robber must in fact be vain.
+
+"And it must not, it shall not be!" he had cried, stamping his great
+foot, a few minutes before Klea reached his cell; but as soon as he was
+aware of her presence he made an effort to appear quite easy, and cried
+out with the vehemence which characterized him even in less momentous
+circumstances:
+
+"We must consider, we must reflect, we must puzzle our brains, for the
+gods have been napping this morning, and we must be doubly wide-awake.
+Irene--our little Irene--and who would have thought it yesterday!  It is
+a good-for-nothing, unspeakably base knave's trick--and now, what can we
+do to snatch the prey from the gluttonous monster, the savage wild beast,
+before he can devour our child, our pet little one?
+
+"Often and often I have been provoked at my own stupidity, but never,
+never have I felt so stupid, such a godforsaken blockhead as I do now.
+When I try to consider I feel as if that heavy shutter had been nailed
+clown on my head.  Have you had any ideas?  I have not one which would
+not disgrace the veriest ass--not a single one."
+
+"Then you know everything? "asked Klea, "even that it is probably our
+father's enemy, Eulaeus, who has treacherously decoyed the poor child to
+go away with him?"
+
+"Yes, Yes!"  cried Serapion, "wherever there is some scoundrel's trick to
+be played he must have a finger in the pie, as sure as there must be meal
+for bread to be made.  But it is a new thing to me that on this occasion
+he should be Euergetes' tool.  Old Philammon told me all about it.  Just
+now the messenger came back from Memphis, and brought a paltry scrap of
+papyrus on which some wretched scribbler had written in the name of
+Philometer, that nothing was known of Irene at court, and complaining
+deeply that Asclepiodorus had not hesitated to play an underhand game
+with the king.  So they have no idea whatever of voluntarily releasing
+our child."
+
+"Then I shall proceed to do my duty," said Klea resolutely.  "I shall go
+to Memphis, and fetch my sister."
+
+"The anchorite stared at the girl in horror, exclaiming: "That is folly,
+madness, suicide!  Do you want to throw two victims into his jaws instead
+of one?"
+
+"I can protect myself, and as regards Irene, I will claim the queen's
+assistance.  She is a woman, and will never suffer--"
+
+"What is there in this world that she will not suffer if it can procure
+her profit or pleasure?  Who knows what delightful thing Euergetes may
+not have promised her in return for our little maid?  No, by Serapis!
+no, Cleopatra will not help you, but--and that is a good idea--there is
+one who will to a certainty.  We must apply to the Roman Publius Scipio,
+and he will have no difficulty in succeeding."
+
+"From him," exclaimed Klea, coloring scarlet, "I will accept neither good
+nor evil; I do not know him, and I do not want to know him."
+
+"Child, child!" interrupted the recluse with grave chiding.  "Does your
+pride then so far outweigh your love, your duty, and concern for Irene?
+What, in the name of all the gods, has Publius done to you that you avoid
+him more anxiously than if he were covered with leprosy?  There is a
+limit to all things, and now--aye, indeed--I must out with it come what
+may, for this is not the time to pretend to be blind when I see with both
+eyes what is going on--your heart is full of the Roman, and draws you to
+him; but you are an honest girl, and, in order to remain so, you fly from
+him because you distrust yourself, and do not know what might happen if
+he were to tell you that he too has been hit by one of Eros' darts.  You
+may turn red and white, and look at me as if I were your enemy, and
+talking contemptible nonsense.  I have seen many strange things, but I
+never saw any one before you who was a coward out of sheer courage, and
+yet of all the women I know there is not one to whom fear is less known
+than my bold and resolute Klea.  The road is a hard one that you must
+take, but only cover your poor little heart with a coat of mail, and
+venture in all confidence to meet the Roman, who is an excellent good
+fellow.  No doubt it will be hard to you to crave a boon, but ought you
+to shrink from those few steps over sharp stones?  Our poor child is
+standing on the edge of the abyss; if you do not arrive at the right
+time, and speak the right words to the only person who is able to help in
+this matter, she will be thrust into the foul bog and sink in it, because
+her brave sister was frightened at--herself!"
+
+Klea had cast down her eyes as the anchorite addressed her thus; she
+stood for some time frowning at the ground in silence, but at last she
+said, with quivering lips and as gloomily as if she were pronouncing a
+sentence on herself.
+
+"Then I will ask the Roman to assist me; but how can I get to him?"
+
+"Ah!--now my Klea is her father's daughter once more," answered Serapion,
+stretching out both his arms towards her from the little window of his
+cell; and then he went on: "I can make the painful path somewhat smoother
+for you.  My brother Glaucus, who is commander of the civic guard in the
+palace, you already know; I will give you a few words of recommendation
+to him, and also, to lighten your task, a little letter to Publius
+Scipio, which shall contain a short account of the matter in hand.  If
+Publius wishes to speak with you yourself go to him and trust him, but
+still more trust yourself.
+
+"Now go, and when you have once more filled the water-jars come back to
+me, and fetch the letters.  The sooner you can go the better, for it
+would be well that you should leave the path through the desert behind
+you before nightfall, for in the dark there are often dangerous tramps
+about.  You will find a friendly welcome at my sister Leukippa's; she
+lives in the toll-house by the great harbor--show her this ring and she
+will give you a bed, and, if the gods are merciful, one for Irene too."
+
+"Thank you, father," said Klea, but she said no more, and then left him
+with a rapid step.
+
+Serapion looked lovingly after her; then he took two wooden tablets faced
+with wax out of his chest, and, with a metal style, he wrote on one a
+short letter to his brother, and on the other a longer one to the Roman,
+which ran as follows:
+
+"Serapion, the recluse of Serapis, to Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica,
+the Roman.
+
+"Serapion greets Publius Scipio, and acquaints him that Irene, the
+younger sister of Klea, the water-bearer, has disappeared from this
+temple, and, as Serapion suspects, by the wiles of the epistolographer
+Eulaeus, whom we both know, and who seems to have acted under the orders
+of King Ptolemy Euergetes.  Seek to discover where Irene can be.  Save
+her if thou canst from her ravishers, and conduct her back to this temple
+or deliver her in Memphis into the hands of my sister Leukippa, the wife
+of the overseer of the harbor, named Hipparchus, who dwells in the toll-
+house.  May Serapis preserve thee and thine."
+
+The recluse had just finished his letters when Klea returned to him.
+The girl hid them in the folds of the bosom of her robe, said farewell to
+her friend, and remained quite grave and collected, while Serapion, with
+tears in his eyes, stroked her hair, gave her his parting blessing, and
+finally even hung round her neck an amulet for good luck, that his mother
+had worn--it was an eye in rock-crystal with a protective inscription.
+Then, without any further delay, she set out towards the temple gate,
+which, in obedience to the commands of the high priest, was now locked.
+The gate-keeper--little Philo's father--sat close by on a stone bench,
+keeping guard.  In a friendly tone Klea asked him to open the gate; but
+the anxious official would not immediately comply with her request, but
+reminded her of Asclepiodorus' strict injunctions, and informed her that
+the great Roman had demanded admission to the temple about three hours
+since, but had been refused by the high-priest's special orders.  He had
+asked too for her, and had promised to return on the morrow.
+
+The hot blood flew to Klea's face and eyes as she heard this news.
+Could Publius no more cease to think of her than she of him?  Had
+Serapion guessed rightly?  "The darts of Eros"--the recluse's phrase
+flashed through her mind, and struck her heart as if it were itself a
+winged arrow; it frightened her and yet she liked it, but only for one
+brief instant, for the utmost distrust of her own weakness came over her
+again directly, and she told herself with a shudder that she was on the
+high-road to follow up and seek out the importunate stranger.
+
+All the horrors of her undertaking stood vividly before her, and if she
+had now retraced her steps she would not have been without an excuse to
+offer to her own conscience, since the temple-gate was closed, and might
+not be opened to any one, not even to her.
+
+For a moment she felt a certain satisfaction in this flattering
+reflection, but as she thought again of Irene her resolve was once more
+confirmed, and going closer up to the gate-keeper she said with great
+determination:
+
+"Open the gate to me without delay; you know that I am not accustomed to
+do or to desire anything wrong.  I beg of you to push back the bolt at
+once."
+
+The man to whom Klea had done many kindnesses, and whom Imhotep had that
+very day told that she was the good spirit of his house, and that he
+ought to venerate her as a divinity--obeyed her orders, though with some
+doubt and hesitation.  The heavy bolt flew back, the brazen gate opened,
+the water-bearer stepped out, flung a dark veil over her head, and set
+out on her walk.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+If you want to catch mice you must waste bacon
+Man works with all his might for no one but himself
+Nothing permanent but change
+Nothing so certain as that nothing is certain
+Priests that they should instruct the people to be obedient
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SISTERS
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 4.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A paved road, with a row of Sphinxes on each side, led from the Greek
+temple of Serapis to the rock-hewn tombs of Apis, and the temples and
+chapels built over them, and near them; in these the Apis bull after its
+death--or "in Osiris" as the phrase went--was worshipped, while, so long
+as it lived, it was taken care of and prayed to in the temple to which it
+belonged, that of the god Ptah at Memphis.  After death these sacred
+bulls, which were distinguished by peculiar marks, had extraordinarily
+costly obsequies; they were called the risen Ptah, and regarded as the
+symbol of the soul of Osiris, by whose procreative power all that dies or
+passes away is brought to new birth and new life--the departed soul of
+man, the plant that has perished, and the heavenly bodies that have set.
+Osiris-Sokari, who was worshipped as the companion of Osiris, presided
+over the wanderings which had to be performed by the seemingly extinct
+spirit before its resuscitation as another being in a new form; and
+Egyptian priests governed in the temples of these gods, which were purely
+Egyptian in style, and which had been built at a very early date over the
+tomb-cave of the sacred bulls.  And even the Greek ministers of Serapis,
+settled at Memphis, were ready to follow the example of their rulers and
+to sacrifice to Osiris-Apis, who was closely allied to Serapis--not only
+in name but in his essential attributes.  Serapis himself indeed was a
+divinity introduced from Asia into the Nile valley by the Ptolemies, in
+order to supply to their Greek and Egyptian subjects alike an object of
+adoration, before whose altars they could unite in a common worship.
+They devoted themselves to the worship of Apis in Osiris at the shrines,
+of Greek architecture, and containing stone images of bulls, that stood
+outside the Egyptian sanctuary, and they were very ready to be initiated
+into the higher significance of his essence; indeed, all religious
+mysteries in their Greek home bore reference to the immortality of the
+soul and its fate in the other world.
+
+Just as two neighboring cities may be joined by a bridge, so the Greek
+temple of Serapis--to which the water-bearers belonged--was connected
+with the Egyptian sanctuary of Osiris-Apis by the fine paved road for
+processions along which Klea now rapidly proceeded.  There was a shorter
+way to Memphis, but she chose this one, because the mounds of sand on
+each side of the road bordered by Sphinxes--which every day had to be
+cleared of the desert-drift--concealed her from the sight of her
+companions in the temple; besides the best and safest way into the city
+was by a road leading from a crescent, decorated with busts of the
+philosophers, that lay near the principal entrance to the new Apis tombs.
+
+She looked neither at the lion-bodies with men's heads that guarded the
+way, nor at the images of beasts on the wall that shut it in; nor did she
+heed the dusky-hued temple-slaves of Osiris-Apis who were sweeping the
+sand from the paved way with large brooms, for she thought of nothing but
+Irene and the difficult task that lay before her, and she walked swiftly
+onwards with her eyes fixed on the ground.
+
+But she had taken no more than a few steps when she heard her name called
+quite close to her, and looking up in alarm she found herself standing
+opposite Krates, the little smith, who came close up to her, took hold of
+her veil, threw it back a little before she could prevent him, and asked:
+
+"Where are you off to, child?"
+
+"Do not detain me," entreated Klea.  "You know that Irene, whom you are
+always so fond of, has been carried off; perhaps I may be able to save
+her, but if you betray me, and if they follow me--"
+
+"I will not hinder you," interrupted the old man.  "Nay, if it were not
+for these swollen feet I would go with you, for I can think of nothing
+else but the poor dear little thing; but as it is I shall be glad enough
+when I am sitting still again in my workshop; it is exactly as if a
+workman of my own trade lived in each of my great toes, and was dancing
+round in them with hammer and file and chisel and nails.  Very likely you
+may be so fortunate as to find your sister, for a crafty woman succeeds
+in many things which are too difficult for a wise man.  Go on, and if
+they seek for you old Krates will not betray you."
+
+He nodded kindly at Klea, and had already half turned his back on her
+when he once more looked round, and called out to her:
+
+"Wait a minute, girl--you can do me a little service.  I have just fitted
+a new lock to the door of the Apis-tomb down there.  It answers
+admirably, but the one key to it which I have made is not enough; we
+require four, and you shall order them for me of the locksmith Heri, to
+be sent the day after to-morrow; he lives opposite the gate of Sokari--
+to the left, next the bridge over the canal--you cannot miss it.  I hate
+repeating and copying as much as I like inventing and making new things,
+and Heri can work from a pattern just as well as I can.  If it were not
+for my legs I would give the man my commission myself, for he who speaks
+by the lips of a go-between is often misunderstood or not understood at
+all."
+
+"I will gladly save you the walk," replied Klea, while the Smith sat down
+on the pedestal of one of the Sphinxes, and opening the leather wallet
+which hung by his side shook out the contents.  A few files, chisels, and
+nails fell out into his lap; then the key, and finally a sharp, pointed
+knife with which Krates had cut out the hollow in the door for the
+insertion of the lock; Krates touched up the pattern-key for the smith in
+Memphis with a few strokes of the file, and then, muttering thoughtfully
+and shaking his head doubtfully from side to side, he exclaimed:
+
+"You still must come with me once more to the door, for I require
+accurate workmanship from other people, and so I must be severe upon my
+own."
+
+"But I want so much to reach Memphis before dark," besought Klea.
+
+"The whole thing will not take a minute, and if you will give me your arm
+I shall go twice as fast.  There are the files, there is the knife."
+
+"Give it me," Klea requested.  "This blade is sharp and bright, and as
+soon as I saw it I felt as if it bid me take it with me.  Very likely I
+may have to come through the desert alone at night."
+
+"Aye," said the smith, "and even the weakest feels stronger when he has a
+weapon.  Hide the knife somewhere about you, my child, only take care not
+to hurt yourself with it.  Now let me take your arm, and on we will go--
+but not quite so fast."
+
+Klea led the smith to the door he indicated, and saw with admiration how
+unfailingly the bolt sprang forward when one half of the door closed upon
+the other, and how easily the key pushed it back again; then, after
+conducting Krates back to the Sphinx near which she had met him, she went
+on her way at her quickest pace, for the sun was already very low, and it
+seemed scarcely possible to reach Memphis before it should set.
+
+As she approached a tavern where soldiers and low people were accustomed
+to resort, she was met by a drunken slave.  She went on and past him
+without any fear, for the knife in her girdle, and on which she kept her
+hand, kept up her courage, and she felt as if she had thus acquired a
+third hand which was more powerful and less timid than her own.  A
+company of soldiers had encamped in front of the tavern, and the wine of
+Kbakem, which was grown close by, on the eastern declivity of the Libyan
+range, had an excellent savor.  The men were in capital spirits, for at
+noon today--after they had been quartered here for months as guards of
+the tombs of Apis and of the temples of the Necropolis--a commanding
+officer of the Diadoches had arrived at Memphis, who had ordered them to
+break up at once, and to withdraw into the capital before nightfall.
+They were not to be relieved by other mercenaries till the next morning.
+
+All this Klea learned from a messenger from the Egyptian temple in the
+Necropolis, who recognized her, and who was going to Memphis,
+commissioned by the priests of Osiris-Apis and Sokari to convey a
+petition to the king, praying that fresh troops might be promptly sent to
+replace those now withdrawn.
+
+For some time she went on side by side with this messenger, but soon she
+found that she could not keep up with his hurried pace, and had to fall
+behind.  In front of another tavern sat the officers of the troops, whose
+noisy mirth she had heard as she passed the former one; they were sitting
+over their wine and looking on at the dancing of two Egyptian girls, who
+screeched like cackling hens over their mad leaps, and who so effectually
+riveted the attention of the spectators, who were beating time for them
+by clapping their hands, that Klea, accelerating her step, was able to
+slip unobserved past the wild crew.  All these scenes, nay everything she
+met with on the high-road, scared the girl who was accustomed to the
+silence and the solemn life of the temple of Serapis, and she therefore
+struck into a side path that probably also led to the city which she
+could already see lying before her with its pylons, its citadel and its
+houses, veiled in evening mist.  In a quarter of an hour at most she
+would have crossed the desert, and reach the fertile meadow land, whose
+emerald hue grew darker and darker every moment.  The sun was already
+sinking to rest behind the Libyan range, and soon after, for twilight is
+short in Egypt, she was wrapped in the darkness of night.  The westwind,
+which had begun to blow even at noon, now rose higher, and seemed to
+pursue her with its hot breath and the clouds of sand it carried with it
+from the desert.
+
+She must certainly be approaching water, for she heard the deep pipe of
+the bittern in the reeds, and fancied she breathed a moister air.  A few
+steps more, and her foot sank in mud; and she now perceived that she was
+standing on the edge of a wide ditch in which tall papyrus-plants were
+growing.  The side path she had struck into ended at this plantation, and
+there was nothing to be done but to turn about, and to continue her walk
+against the wind and with the sand blowing in her face.
+
+The light from the drinking-booth showed her the direction she must
+follow, for though the moon was up, it is true, black clouds swept across
+it, covering it and the smaller lights of heaven for many minutes at a
+time.  Still she felt no fatigue, but the shouts of the men and the loud
+cries of the women that rang out from the tavern filled her with alarm
+and disgust.  She made a wide circuit round the hostelry, wading through
+the sand hillocks and tearing her dress on the thorns and thistles that
+had boldly struck deep root in the desert, and had grown up there like
+the squalid brats in the hovel of a beggar.  But still, as she hurried on
+by the high-road, the hideous laughter and the crowing mirth of the
+dancing-girls still rang in her mind's ear.
+
+Her blood coursed more swiftly through her veins, her head was on fire,
+she saw Irene close before her, tangibly distinct--with flowing hair and
+fluttering garments, whirling in a wild dance like a Moenad at a
+Dionysiac festival, flying from one embrace to another and shouting and
+shrieking in unbridled folly like the wretched girls she had seen on her
+way.  She was seized with terror for her sister--an unbounded dread such
+as she had never felt before, and as the wind was now once more behind
+her she let herself be driven on by it, lifting her feet in a swift run
+and flying, as if pursued by the Erinnyes, without once looking round her
+and wholly forgetful of the smith's commission, on towards the city along
+the road planted with trees, which as she knew led to the gate of the
+citadel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+In front of the gate of the king's palace sat a crowd of petitioners who
+were accustomed to stay here from early dawn till late at night, until
+they were called into the palace to receive the answer to the petition
+they had drawn up.  When Klea reached the end of her journey she was so
+exhausted and bewildered that she felt the imperative necessity of
+seeking rest and quiet reflection, so she seated herself among these
+people, next to a woman from Upper Egypt.  But hardly had she taken her
+place by her with a silent greeting, when her talkative neighbor began to
+relate with particular minuteness why she had come to Memphis, and how
+certain unjust judges had conspired with her bad husband to trick her--
+for men were always ready to join against a woman--and to deprive her of
+everything which had been secured to her and her children by her
+marriage-contract.  For two months now, she said, she had been waiting
+early and late before the sublime gate, and was consuming her last ready
+cash in the city where living was so dear; but it was all one to her, and
+at a pinch she would sell even her gold ornaments, for sooner or later
+her cause must come before the king, and then the wicked villain and his
+accomplices would be taught what was just.
+
+Klea heard but little of this harangue; a feeling had come over her like
+that of a person who is having water poured again and again on the top of
+his head.  Presently her neighbor observed that the new-comer was not
+listening at all to her complainings; she slapped her shoulder with her
+hand, and said:
+
+"You seem to think of nothing but your own concerns; and I dare say they
+are not of such a nature as that you should relate them to any one else;
+so far as mine are concerned the more they are discussed, the better."
+
+The tone in which these remarks were made was so dry, and at the same
+time so sharp, that it hurt Klea, and she rose hastily to go closer to
+the gate.  Her neighbor threw a cross word after her; but she did not
+heed it, and drawing her veil closer over her face, she went through the
+gate of the palace into a vast courtyard, brightly lighted up by cressets
+and torches, and crowded with foot-soldiers and mounted guards.
+
+The sentry at the gate perhaps had not observed her, or perhaps had let
+her pass unchallenged from her dignified and erect gait, and the numerous
+armed men through whom she now made her way seemed to be so much occupied
+with their own affairs, that no one bestowed any notice on her.  In a
+narrow alley, which led to a second court and was lighted by lanterns,
+one of the body-guard known as Philobasilistes, a haughty young fellow in
+yellow riding-boots and a shirt of mail over his red tunic, came riding
+towards her on his tall horse, and noticing her he tried to squeeze her
+between his charger and the wall, and put out his hand to raise her veil;
+but Klea slipped aside, and put up her hands to protect herself from the
+horse's head which was almost touching her.
+
+The cavalier, enjoying her alarm, called out: "Only stand still--he is
+not vicious."
+
+"Which, you or your horse?" asked Klea, with such a solemn tone in her
+deep voice that for an instant the young guardsman lost his self-
+possession, and this gave her time to go farther from the horse.  But the
+girl's sharp retort had annoyed the conceited young fellow, and not
+having time to follow her himself, he called out in a tone of
+encouragement to a party of mercenaries from Cyprus, whom the frightened
+girl was trying to pass:
+
+"Look under this girl's veil, comrades, and if she is as pretty as she is
+well-grown, I wish you joy of your prize."  He laughed as he pressed his
+knees against the flanks of his bay and trotted slowly away, while the
+Cypriotes gave Klea ample time to reach the second court, which was more
+brightly lighted even than the first, that they might there surround her
+with insolent importunity.
+
+The helpless and persecuted girl felt the blood run cold in her veins,
+and for a few minutes she could see nothing but a bewildering confusion
+of flashing eyes and weapons, of beards and hands, could hear nothing but
+words and sounds, of which she understood and felt only that they were
+revolting and horrible, and threatened her with death and ruin.  She had
+crossed her arms over her bosom, but now she raised her hands to hide her
+face, for she felt a strong hand snatch away the veil that covered her
+head.  This insolent proceeding turned her numb horror to indignant rage,
+and, fixing her sparkling eyes on her bearded opponents, she exclaimed:
+
+"Shame upon you, who in the king's own house fall like wolves on a
+defenceless woman, and in a peaceful spot snatch the veil from a young
+girl's head.  Your mothers would blush for you, and your sisters cry
+shame on you--as I do now!"
+
+Astonished at Klea's distinguished beauty, startled at the angry glare in
+her eyes, and the deep chest-tones of her voice which trembled with
+excitement, the Cypriotes drew back, while the same audacious rascal that
+had pulled away her veil came closer to her, and cried:
+
+"Who would make such a noise about a rubbishy veil!  If you will be my
+sweetheart I will buy you a new one, and many things besides."
+
+At the same time he tried to throw his arm round her; but at his touch
+Klea felt the blood leave her cheeks and mount to her bloodshot eyes, and
+at that instant her hand, guided by some uncontrollable inward impulse,
+grasped the handle of the knife which Krates had lent her; she raised it
+high in the air though with an unsteady arm, exclaiming:
+
+"Let me go or, by Serapis whom I serve, I will strike you to the heart!"
+
+The soldier to whom this threat was addressed, was not the man to be
+intimidated by a blade of cold iron in a woman's hand; with a quick
+movement he seized her wrist in order to disarm her; but although Klea
+was forced to drop the knife she struggled with him to free herself from
+his clutch, and this contest between a man and a woman, who seemed to be
+of superior rank to that indicated by her very simple dress, seemed to
+most of the Cypriotes so undignified, so much out of place within the
+walls of a palace, that they pulled their comrade back from Klea, while
+others on the contrary came to the assistance of the bully who defended
+himself stoutly.  And in the midst of the fray, which was conducted with
+no small noise, stood Klea with flying breath.  Her antagonist, though
+flung to the ground, still held her wrist with his left hand while he
+defended himself against his comrades with the right, and she tried with
+all her force and cunning to withdraw it; for at the very height of her
+excitement and danger she felt as if a sudden gust of wind had swept her
+spirit clear of all confusion, and she was again able to contemplate her
+position calmly and resolutely.
+
+If only her hand were free she might perhaps be able to take advantage of
+the struggle between her foes, and to force her way out between their
+ranks.
+
+Twice, thrice, four times, she tried to wrench her hand with a sudden
+jerk through the fingers that grasped it; but each time in vain.
+Suddenly, from the man at her feet there broke a loud, long-drawn cry of
+pain which re-echoed from the high walls of the court, and at the same
+time she felt the fingers of her antagonist gradually and slowly slip
+from her arm like the straps of a sandal carefully lifted by the surgeon
+from a broken ankle.
+
+"It is all over with him!" exclaimed the eldest of the Cypriotes.  "A man
+never calls out like that but once in his life!  True enough--the dagger
+is sticking here just under the ninth rib!  This is mad work!  That is
+your doing again, Lykos, you savage wolf!"
+
+"He bit deep into my finger in the struggle--"
+
+"And you are for ever tearing each other to pieces for the sake of the
+women," interrupted the elder, not listening to the other's excuses.
+"Well, I was no better than you in my time, and nothing can alter it!
+You had better be off now, for if the Epistrategist learns we have fallen
+to stabbing each other again--"
+
+The Cypriote had not ceased speaking, and his countrymen were in the very
+act of raising the body of their comrade when a division of the civic
+watch rushed into the court in close order and through the passage near
+which the fight for the girl had arisen, thus stopping the way against
+those who were about to escape, since all who wished to get out of the
+court into the open street must pass through the doorway into which Klea
+had been forced by the horseman.  Every other exit from this second court
+of the citadel led into the strictly guarded gardens and buildings of the
+palace itself.
+
+The noisy strife round Klea, and the cry of the wounded man had attracted
+the watch; the Cypriotes and the maiden soon found themselves surrounded,
+and they were conducted through a narrow side passage into the court-yard
+of the prison.  After a short enquiry the men who had been taken were
+allowed to return under an escort to their own phalanx, and Klea gladly
+followed the commander of the watch to a less brilliantly illuminated
+part of the prison-yard, for in him she had recognized at once Serapion's
+brother Glaucus, and he in her the daughter of the man who had done and
+suffered so much for his father's sake; besides they had often exchanged
+greetings and a few words in the temple of Serapis.
+
+"All that is in my power," said Glaucus--a man somewhat taller but not so
+broadly built as his brother--when he had read the recluse's note and
+when Klea had answered a number of questions, "all that is in my power I
+will gladly do for you and your sister, for I do not forget all that I
+owe to your father; still I cannot but regret that you have incurred such
+risk, for it is always hazardous for a pretty young girl to venture into
+this palace at a late hour, and particularly just now, for the courts are
+swarming not only with Philometor's fighting men but with those of his
+brother, who have come here for their sovereign's birthday festival.  The
+people have been liberally entertained, and the soldier who has been
+sacrificing to Dionysus seizes the gifts of Eros and Aphrodite wherever
+he may find them.  I will at once take charge of my brother's letter to
+the Roman Publius Cornelius Scipio, but when you have received his answer
+you will do well to let yourself be escorted to my wife or my sister, who
+both live in the city, and to remain till to-morrow morning with one or
+the other.  Here you cannot remain a minute unmolested while I am away--
+Where now--Aye!  The only safe shelter I can offer you is the prison down
+there; the room where they lock up the subaltern officers when they have
+committed any offence is quite unoccupied, and I will conduct you
+thither.  It is always kept clean, and there is a bench in it too."
+
+Klea followed her friend who, as his hasty demeanor plainly showed, had
+been interrupted in important business.  In a few steps they reached the
+prison; she begged Glaucus to bring her the Roman's answer as quickly as
+possible, declared herself quite ready to remain in the dark--since she
+perceived that the light of a lamp might betray her, and she was not
+afraid of the dark--and suffered herself to be locked in.
+
+As she heard the iron bolt creak in its brass socket a shiver ran through
+her, and although the room in which she found herself was neither worse
+nor smaller than that in which she and her sister lived in the temple,
+still it oppressed her, and she even felt as if an indescribable
+something hindered her breathing as she said to herself that she was
+locked in and no longer free to come and to go.  A dim light penetrated
+into her prison through the single barred window that opened on to the
+court, and she could see a little bench of palm-branches on which she sat
+down to seek the repose she so sorely needed.  All sense of discomfort
+gradually vanished before the new feeling of rest and refreshment, and
+pleasant hopes and anticipations were just beginning to mingle themselves
+with the remembrance of the horrors she had just experienced when
+suddenly there was a stir and a bustle just in front of the  prison--and
+she could hear, outside, the clatter of harness and words of command.
+She rose from her seat and saw that about twenty horsemen, whose golden
+helmets and armor reflected the light of the lanterns, cleared the wide
+court by driving the men before them, as the flames drive the game from a
+fired hedge, and by forcing them into a second court from which again
+they proceeded to expel them.  At least Klea could hear them shouting 'In
+the king's name' there as they had before done close to her.  Presently
+the horsemen returned and placed themselves, ten and ten, as guards at
+each of the passages leading into the court.  It was not without interest
+that Klea looked on at this scene which was perfectly new to her; and
+when one of the fine horses, dazzled by the light of the lanterns, turned
+restive and shied, leaping and rearing and threatening his rider with a
+fall--when the horseman checked and soothed it, and brought it to a
+stand-still--the Macedonian warrior was transfigured in her eyes to
+Publius, who no doubt could manage a horse no less well than this man.
+
+No sooner was the court completely cleared of men by the mounted guard
+than a new incident claimed Klea's attention.  First she heard footsteps
+in the room adjoining her prison, then bright streaks of light fell
+through the cracks of the slight partition which divided her place of
+retreat from the other room, then the two window-openings close to hers
+were closed with heavy shutters, then seats or benches were dragged about
+and various objects were laid upon a table, and finally the door of the
+adjoining room was thrown open and slammed to again so violently, that
+the door which closed hers and the bench near which she was standing
+trembled and jarred.
+
+At the same moment a deep sonorous voice called out with a loud and
+hearty shout of laughter:
+
+"A mirror--give me a mirror, Eulaeus.  By heaven!  I do not look much
+like prison fare--more like a man in whose strong brain there is no lack
+of deep schemes, who can throttle his antagonist with a grip of his fist,
+and who is prompt to avail himself of all the spoil that comes in his
+way, so that he may compress the pleasures of a whole day into every
+hour, and enjoy them to the utmost!  As surely as my name is Euergetes
+my uncle Antiochus was right in liking to mix among the populace.  The
+splendid puppets who surround us kings, and cover every portion of their
+own bodies in wrappings and swaddling bands, also stifle the expression
+of every genuine sentiment; and it is enough to turn our brain to reflect
+that, if we would not be deceived, every word that we hear--and, oh dear!
+how many words we must needs hear-must be pondered in our minds.  Now,
+the mob on the contrary--who think themselves beautifully dressed in a
+threadbare cloth hanging round their brown loins--are far better off.
+If one of them says to another of his own class--a naked wretch who wears
+about him everything he happens to possess--that he is a dog, he answers
+with a blow of his fist in the other's face, and what can be plainer than
+that!  If on the other hand he tells him he is a splendid fellow, he
+believes it without reservation, and has a perfect right to believe it.
+
+"Did you see how that stunted little fellow with a snub-nose and bandy-
+legs, who is as broad as he is long, showed all his teeth in a delighted
+grin when I praised his steady hand?  He laughs just like a hyena, and
+every respectable father of a family looks on the fellow as a god-
+forsaken monster; but the immortals must think him worth something to
+have given him such magnificent grinders in his ugly mouth, and to have
+preserved him mercifully for fifty years--for that is about the rascal's
+age.  If that fellow's dagger breaks he can kill his victim with those
+teeth, as a fox does a duck, or smash his bones with his fist."
+
+"But, my lord," replied Eulaeus dryly and with a certain matter-of-fact
+gravity to King Euergetes--for he it was who had come with him into the
+room adjoining Klea's retreat, "the dry little Egyptian with the thin
+straight hair is even more trustworthy and tougher and nimbler than his
+companion, and, so far, more estimable.  One flings himself on his prey
+with a rush like a block of stone hurled from a roof, but the other,
+without being seen, strikes his poisoned fang into his flesh like an
+adder hidden in the sand.  The third, on whom I had set great hopes, was
+beheaded the day before yesterday without my knowledge; but the pair whom
+you have condescended to inspect with your own eyes are sufficient.  They
+must use neither dagger nor lance, but they will easily achieve their end
+with slings and hooks and poisoned needles, which leave wounds that
+resemble the sting of an adder.  We may safely depend on these fellows."
+
+Once more Euergetes laughed loudly, and exclaimed: What criticism!
+Exactly as if these blood-hounds were tragic actors of which one could
+best produce his effects by fire and pathos, and the other by the
+subtlety of his conception.  I call that an unprejudiced judgment.  And
+why should not a man be great even as a murderer?  From what hangman's
+noose did you drag out the neck of one, and from what headsman's block
+did you rescue the other when you found them?
+
+"It is a lucky hour in which we first see something new to us, and,
+by Heracles!  I never before in the whole course of my life saw such
+villains as these.  I do not regret having gone to see them and talked to
+them as if I were their equal.  Now, take this torn coat off me, and help
+me to undress.  Before I go to the feast I will take a hasty plunge in my
+bath, for I twitch in every limb, I feel as if I had got dirty in their
+company.
+
+"There lie my clothes and my sandals; strap them on for me, and tell me
+as you do it how you lured the Roman into the toils."
+
+Klea could hear every word of this frightful conversation, and clasped
+her hand over her brow with a shudder, for she found it difficult to
+believe in the reality of the hideous images that it brought before her
+mind.  Was she awake or was she a prey to some horrid dream?
+
+She hardly knew, and, indeed, she scarcely understood half of all she
+heard till the Roman's name was mentioned.  She felt as if the point of a
+thin, keen knife was being driven obliquely through her brain from right
+to left, as it now flashed through her mind that it was against him,
+against Publius, that the wild beasts, disguised in human form, were
+directed by Eulaeus, and face to face with this--the most hideous, the
+most incredible of horrors--she suddenly recovered the full use of her
+senses.  She softly slipped close to that rift in the partition through
+which the broadest beam of light fell into the room, put her ear close to
+it, and drank in, with fearful attention, word for word the report made
+by the eunuch to his iniquitous superior, who frequently interrupted him
+with remarks, words of approval or a short laugh-drank them in, as a man
+perishing in the desert drinks the loathsome waters of a salt pool.
+
+And what she heard was indeed well fitted to deprive her of her senses,
+but the more definite the facts to which the words referred that she
+could overhear, the more keenly she listened, and the more resolutely she
+collected her thoughts.  Eulaeus had used her own name to induce the
+Roman to keep an assignation at midnight in the desert close to the Apis-
+tombs.  He repeated the words that he had written to this effect on a
+tile, and which requested Publius to come quite alone to the spot
+indicated, since she dare not speak with him in the temple.  Finally he
+was invited to write his answer on the other side of the square of clay.
+As Klea heard these words, put into her own mouth by a villain, she could
+have sobbed aloud heartily with anguish, shame, and rage; but the point
+now was to keep her ears wide open, for Euergetes asked his odious tool:
+
+"And what was the Roman's answer?"  Eulaeus must have handed the tile to
+the king, for he laughed loudly again, and cried out:
+
+"So he will walk into the trap--will arrive by half an hour after
+midnight at the latest, and greets Klea from her sister Irene.  He
+carries on love-making and abduction wholesale, and buys water-bearers
+by the pair, like doves in the market or sandals in a shoe maker's stall.
+Only see how the simpleton writes Greek; in these few words there are two
+mistakes, two regular schoolboys' blunders.
+
+"The fellow must have had a very pleasant day of it, since he must have
+been reckoning on a not unsuccessful evening--but the gods have an ugly
+habit of clenching the hand with which they have long caressed their
+favorites, and striking him with their fist.
+
+"Amalthea's horn has been poured out on him today; first he snapped up,
+under my very nose, my little Hebe, the Irene of Irenes, whom I hope to-
+morrow to inherit from him; then he got the gift of my best Cyrenaan
+horses, and at the same time the flattering assurance of my valuable
+friendship; then he had audience of my fair sister--and it goes more to
+the heart of a republican than you would believe when crowned heads are
+graciously disposed towards him--finally the sister of his pretty
+sweetheart invites him to an assignation, and she, if you and Zoe speak
+the truth, is a beauty in the grand style.  Now these are really too many
+good things for one inhabitant of this most stingily provided world; and
+in one single day too, which, once begun, is so soon ended; and justice
+requires that we should lend a helping hand to destiny, and cut off the
+head of this poppy that aspires to rise above its brethren; the thousands
+who have less good fortune than he would otherwise have great cause to
+complain of neglect."
+
+"I am happy to see you in such good humor," said Eulaeus.
+
+"My humor is as may be," interrupted the king.  "I believe I am only
+whistling a merry tune to keep up my spirits in the dark.  If I were on
+more familiar terms with what other men call fear I should have ample
+reason to be afraid; for in the quail-fight we have gone in for I have
+wagered a crown-aye, and more than that even.  To-morrow only will decide
+whether the game is lost or won, but I know already to-day that I would
+rather see my enterprise against Philometor fail, with all my hopes of
+the double crown, than our plot against the life of the Roman; for I was
+a man before I was a king, and a man I should remain, if my throne, which
+now indeed stands on only two legs, were to crash under my weight.
+
+"My sovereign dignity is but a robe, though the costliest, to be sure, of
+all garments.  If forgiveness were any part of my nature I might easily
+forgive the man who should soil or injure that--but he who comes too near
+to Euergetes the man, who dares to touch this body, and the spirit it
+contains, or to cross it in its desires and purposes--him I will crush
+unhesitatingly to the earth, I will see him torn in pieces.  Sentence is
+passed on the Roman, and if your ruffians do their duty, and if the gods
+accept the holocaust that I had slain before them at sunset for the
+success of my project, in a couple of hours Publius Cornelius Scipio will
+have bled to death.
+
+"He is in a position to laugh at me--as a man--but I therefore--as a man
+--have the right, and--as a king--have the power, to make sure that that
+laugh shall be his last.  If I could murder Rome as I can him how glad
+should I be! for Rome alone hinders me from being the greatest of all the
+great kings of our time; and yet I shall rejoice to-morrow when they tell
+me Publius Cornelius Scipio has been torn by wild beasts, and his body is
+so mutilated that his own mother could not recognize it more than if a
+messenger were to bring me the news that Carthage had broken the power of
+Rome."
+
+Euergetes had spoken the last words in a voice that sounded like the roll
+of thunder as it growls in a rapidly approaching storm, louder, deeper,
+and more furious each instant.  When at last he was silent Eulaeus said:
+"The immortals, my lord, will not deny you this happiness.  The brave
+fellows whom you condescended to see and to talk to strike as certainly
+as the bolt of our father Zeus, and as we have learned from the Roman's
+horse-keeper where he has hidden Irene, she will no more elude your grasp
+than the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt.--Now, allow me to put on your
+mantle, and then to call the body-guard that they may escort you as you
+return to your residence."
+
+"One thing more," cried the king, detaining Eulaeus.  "There are always
+troops by the Tombs of Apis placed there to guard the sacred places; may
+not they prove a hindrance to your friends?"
+
+"I have withdrawn all the soldiers and armed guards to Memphis down to
+the last man," replied Eulaeus, and quartered them within the White Wall.
+Early tomorrow, before you proceed to business, they will be replaced by
+a stronger division, so that they may not prove a reinforcement to your
+brother's troops here if things come to fighting."
+
+"I shall know how to reward your foresight," said Euergetes as Eulaeus
+quitted the room.
+
+Again Klea heard a door open, and the sound of many hoofs on the pavement
+of the court-yard, and when she went, all trembling, up to the window,
+she saw Euergetes himself, and the powerfully knit horse that was led in
+for him.  The tyrant twisted his hand in the mane of the restless and
+pawing steed, and Klea thought that the monstrous mass could never mount
+on to the horse's back without the aid of many men; but she was mistaken,
+for with a mighty spring the giant flung himself high in the air and on
+to the horse, and then, guiding his panting steed by the pressure of his
+knees alone, he bounded out of the prison-yard surrounded by his splendid
+train.
+
+For some minutes the court-yard remained empty, then a man hurriedly
+crossed it, unlocked the door of the room where Klea was, and informed
+her that he was a subaltern under Glaucus, and had brought her a message
+from him.
+
+"My lord," said the veteran soldier to the girl, "bid me greet you, and
+says that he found neither the Roman Publius Scipio, nor his friend the
+Corinthian at home.  He is prevented from coming to you himself; he has
+his hands full of business, for soldiers in the service of both the kings
+are quartered within the White Wall, and all sorts of squabbles break out
+between them.  Still, you cannot remain in this room, for it will shortly
+be occupied by a party of young officers who began the fray.  Glaucus
+proposes for your choice that you should either allow me to conduct you
+to his wife or return to the temple to which you are attached.  In the
+latter case a chariot shall convey you as far as the second tavern in
+Khakem on the borders of the desert-for the city is full of drunken
+soldiery.  There you may probably find an escort if you explain to the
+host who you are.  But the chariot must be back again in less than an
+hour, for it is one of the king's, and when the banquet is over there may
+be a scarcity of chariots."
+
+"Yes--I will go back to the place I came from," said Klea eagerly,
+interrupting the messenger.  "Take me at once to the chariot."
+
+"Follow me, then," said the old man.
+
+"But I have no veil," observed Klea, "and have only this thin robe on.
+Rough soldiers snatched my wrapper from my face, and my cloak from off my
+shoulders."
+
+"I will bring you the captain's cloak which is lying here in the
+orderly's room, and his travelling-hat too; that will hide your face with
+its broad flap.  You are so tall that you might be taken for a man, and
+that is well, for a woman leaving the palace at this hour would hardly
+pass unmolested.  A slave shall fetch the things from your temple
+to-morrow.  I may inform you that my master ordered me take as much care
+of you as if you were his own daughter.  And he told me too--and I had
+nearly forgotten it--to tell you that your sister was carried off by the
+Roman, and not by that other dangerous man, you would know whom he meant.
+Now wait, pray, till I return; I shall not be long gone."
+
+In a few minutes the guard returned with a large cloak in which he
+wrapped Klea, and a broad-brimmed travelling-hat which she pressed down
+on her head, and he then conducted her to that quarter of the palace
+where the king's stables were.  She kept close to the officer, and was
+soon mounted on a chariot, and then conducted by the driver--who took her
+for a young Macedonian noble, who was tempted out at night by some
+assignation--as far as the second tavern on the road back to the
+Serapeum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+While Klea had been listening to the conversation between Euergetes and
+Eulaeus, Cleopatra had been sitting in her tent, and allowing herself to
+be dressed with no less care than on the preceding evening, but in other
+garments.
+
+It would seem that all had not gone so smoothly as she wished during the
+day, for her two tire-women had red eyes.  Her lady-in-waiting, Zoe, was
+reading to her, not this time from a Greek philosopher but from a Greek
+translation of the Hebrew Psalms: a discussion as to their poetic merit
+having arisen a few days previously at the supper-table.  Onias, the
+Israelite general, had asserted that these odes might be compared with
+those of Alcman or of Pindar, and had quoted certain passages that had
+pleased the queen.  To-day she was not disposed for thought, but wanted
+something strange and out of the common to distract her mind, so she
+desired Zoe to open the book of the Hebrews, of which the translation was
+considered by the Hellenic Jews in Alexandria as an admirable work--nay,
+even as inspired by God himself; it had long been known to her through
+her Israelite friends and guests.
+
+Cleopatra had been listening for about a quarter of an hour to Zoe's
+reading when the blast of a trumpet rang out on the steps which led up
+her tent, announcing a visitor of the male sex.  The queen glanced
+angrily round, signed to her lady to stop reading, and exclaimed:
+
+"I will not see my husband now!  Go, Thais, and tell the eunuchs on the
+steps, that I beg Philometor not to disturb me just now.  Go on, Zoe."
+
+Ten more psalms had been read, and a few verses repeated twice or thrice
+by Cleopatra's desire, when the pretty Athenian returned with flaming
+cheeks, and said in an excited tone:
+
+"It is not your husband, the king, but your brother Euergetes, who asks
+to speak with you."
+
+"He might have chosen some other hour," replied Cleopatra, looking round
+at her maid.  Thais cast down her eyes, and twitched the edge of her robe
+between her fingers as she addressed her mistress; but the queen, whom
+nothing could escape that she chose to see, and who was not to-day in the
+humor for laughing or for letting any indiscretion escape unreproved,
+went on at once in an incensed and cutting tone, raising her voice to a
+sharp pitch:
+
+"I do not choose that my messengers should allow themselves to be
+detained, be it by whom it may--do you hear!  Leave Me this instant and
+go to your room, and stay there till I want you to undress me this
+evening.  Andromeda--do you hear, old woman?--you can bring my brother to
+me, and he will let you return quicker than Thais, I fancy.  You need not
+leer at yourself in the glass, you cannot do anything to alter your
+wrinkles.  My head-dress is already done.  Give me that linen wrapper,
+Olympias, and then he may come!  Why, there he is already!  First you ask
+permission, brother, and then disdain to wait till it is given you."
+
+"Longing and waiting," replied Euergetes, "are but an ill-assorted
+couple.  I wasted this evening with common soldiers and fawning
+flatterers; then, in order to see a few noble countenances, I went into
+the prison, after that I hastily took a bath, for the residence of your
+convicts spoils one's complexion more, and in a less pleasant manner,
+than this little shrine, where everything looks and smells like
+Aphrodite's tiring-room; and now I have a longing to hear a few good
+words before supper-time comes."
+
+"From my lips?"  asked Cleopatra.
+
+"There are none that can speak better, whether by the Nile or the
+Ilissus."
+
+"What do you want of me?"
+
+"I--of you?"
+
+"Certainly, for you do not speak so prettily unless you want something."
+
+"But I have already told you!  I want to hear you say something wise,
+something witty, something soul-stirring."
+
+"We cannot call up wit as we would a maid-servant.  It comes unbidden,
+and the more urgently we press it to appear the more certainly it remains
+away."
+
+"That may be true of others, but not of you who, even while you declare
+that you have no store of Attic salt, are seasoning your speech with it.
+All yield obedience to grace and beauty, even wit and the sharp-tongued
+Momus who mocks even at the gods."
+
+"You are mistaken, for not even my own waiting-maids return in proper
+time when I commission them with a message to you."
+
+"And may we not to be allowed to sacrifice to the Charites on the way to
+the temple of Aphrodite?"
+
+"If I were indeed the goddess, those worshippers who regarded my hand-
+maidens as my equals would find small acceptance with me."
+
+"Your reproof is perfectly just, for you are justified in requiring that
+all who know you should worship but one goddess, as the Jews do but one
+god.  But I entreat you do not again compare yourself to the brainless
+Cyprian dame.  You may be allowed to do so, so far as your grace is
+concerned; but who ever saw an Aphrodite philosophizing and reading
+serious books?  I have disturbed you in grave studies no doubt; what is
+the book you are rolling up, fair Zoe?"
+
+"The sacred book of the Jews, Sire," replied Zoe; "one that I know you do
+not love."
+
+And you--who read Homer, Pindar, Sophocles, and Plato--do you like it?"
+asked Euergetes.
+
+"I find passages in it which show a profound knowledge of life, and
+others of which no one can dispute the high poetic flight," replied
+Cleopatra.  "Much of it has no doubt a thoroughly barbarian twang, and it
+is particularly in the Psalms--which we have now been reading, and which
+might be ranked with the finest hymns--that I miss the number and rhythm
+of the syllables, the observance of a fixed metre--in short, severity of
+form.  David, the royal poet, was no less possessed by the divinity when
+he sang to his lyre than other poets have been, but he does not seem to
+have known that delight felt by our poets in overcoming the difficulties
+they have raised for themselves.  The poet should slavishly obey the laws
+he lays down for himself of his own free-will, and subordinate to them
+every word, and yet his matter and his song should seem to float on a
+free and soaring wing.  Now, even the original Hebrew text of the Psalms
+has no metrical laws."
+
+"I could well dispense with them," replied Euergetes; "Plato too
+disdained to measure syllables, and I know passages in his works which
+are nevertheless full of the highest poetic beauty.  Besides, it has been
+pointed out to me that even the Hebrew poems, like the Egyptian, follow
+certain rules, which however I might certainly call rhetorical rather
+than poetical.  The first member in a series of ideas stands in
+antithesis to the next, which either re-states the former one in a new
+form or sets it in a clearer light by suggesting some contrast.  Thus
+they avail themselves of the art of the orator--or indeed of the painter
+--who brings a light color into juxtaposition with a dark one, in order
+to increase its luminous effect.  This method and style are indeed not
+amiss, and that was the least of all the things that filled me with
+aversion for this book, in which besides, there is many a proverb which
+may be pleasing to kings who desire to have submissive subjects, and to
+fathers who would bring up their sons in obedience to themselves and to
+the laws.  Even mothers must be greatly comforted by them,--who ask no
+more than that their children may get through the world without being
+jostled or pushed, and unmolested if possible, that they may live longer
+than the oaks or ravens, and be blessed with the greatest possible number
+of descendants.  Aye! these ordinances are indeed precious to those who
+accept them, for they save them the trouble of thinking for themselves.
+Besides, the great god of the Jews is said to have dictated all that this
+book contains to its writers, just as I dictate to Philippus, my hump-
+backed secretary, all that I want said.  They regard everyone as a
+blasphemer and desecrator who thinks that anything written in that roll
+is erroneous, or even merely human.  Plato's doctrines are not amiss, and
+yet Aristotle had criticised them severely and attempted to confute them.
+I myself incline to the views of the Stagyrite, you to those of the noble
+Athenian, and how many good and instructive hours we owe to our
+discussions over this difference of opinion!  And how amusing it is to
+listen when the Platonists on the one hand and the Aristotelians on the
+other, among the busy threshers of straw in the Museum at Alexandria,
+fall together by the ears so vehemently that they would both enjoy
+flinging their metal cups at each others' heads--if the loss of the wine,
+which I pay for, were not too serious to bear.  We still seek for truth;
+the Jews believe they possess it entirely.
+
+"Even those among them who most zealously study our philosophers believe
+this; and yet the writers of this book know of nothing but actual
+present, and their god--who will no more endure another god as his equal
+than a citizen's wife will admit a second woman to her husband's house--
+is said to have created the world out of nothing for no other purpose but
+to be worshipped and feared by its inhabitants.
+
+"Now, given a philosophical Jew who knows his Empedocles--and I grant
+there are many such in Alexandria, extremely keen and cultivated men--
+what idea can he form in his own mind of 'creation out of nothing?'  Must
+he not pause to think very seriously when he remembers the fundamental
+axiom that 'out of nothing, nothing can come,' and that nothing which has
+once existed can ever be completely annihilated?  At any rate the
+necessary deduction must be that the life of man ends in that nothingness
+whence everything in existence has proceeded.  To live and to die
+according to this book is not highly profitable.  I can easily reconcile
+myself to the idea of annihilation, as a man who knows how to value a
+dreamless sleep after a day brimful of enjoyment--as a man who if he must
+cease to be Euergetes would rather spring into the open jaws of
+nothingness--but as a philosopher, no, never!"
+
+"You, it is true," replied the queen, "cannot help measuring all and
+everything by the intellectual standard exclusively; for the gods, who
+endowed you with gifts beyond a thousand others, struck with blindness or
+deafness that organ which conveys to our minds any religious or moral
+sentiment.  If that could see or hear, you could no more exclude the
+conviction that these writings are full of the deepest purport than I
+can, nor doubt that they have a powerful hold on the mind of the reader.
+
+"They fetter their adherents to a fixed law, but they take all bitterness
+out of sorrow by teaching that a stern father sends us suffering which is
+represented as being sometimes a means of education, and sometimes a
+punishment for transgressing a hard and clearly defined law.  Their god,
+in his infallible but stern wisdom, sets those who cling to him on an
+evil and stony path to prove their strength, and to let them at last
+reach the glorious goal which is revealed to them from the beginning."
+
+"How strange such words as these sound in the mouth of a Greek,"
+interrupted Euergetes.  "You certainly must be repeating them after the
+son of the Jewish high-priest, who defends the cause of his cruel god
+with so much warmth and skill."
+
+"I should have thought," retorted Cleopatra, "that this overwhelming
+figure of a god would have pleased you, of all men; for I know of no
+weakness in you.  Quite lately Dositheos, the Jewish centurion--a very
+learned man--tried to describe to my husband the one great god to whom
+his nation adheres with such obstinate fidelity, but I could not help
+thinking of our beautiful and happy gods as a gay company of amorous
+lords and pleasure-loving ladies, and comparing them with this stern and
+powerful being who, if only he chose to do it, might swallow them all up,
+as Chronos swallowed his own children."
+
+"That," exclaimed Euergetes, "is exactly what most provokes me in this
+superstition.  It crushes our light-hearted pleasure in life, and
+whenever I have been reading the book of the Hebrews everything has come
+into my mind that I least like to think of.  It is like an importunate
+creditor that reminds us of our forgotten debts, and I love pleasure and
+hate an importunate reminder. And you, pretty one, life blooms for you--"
+
+"But  I," interrupted  Cleopatra, "I can  admire all that is great; and
+does it not seem a bold and grand thing even to you, that the mighty idea
+that it is one single power that moves and fills the world, should be
+freely and openly declared in the sacred writings of the Jews--an idea
+which the Egyptians carefully wrap up and conceal, which the priests of
+the Nile only venture to divulge to the most privileged of those who are
+initiated into their mysteries, and which--though the Greek philosophers
+indeed have fearlessly uttered it--has never been introduced by any
+Hellene into the religion of the people?  If you were not so averse to
+the Hebrew nation, and if you, like my husband and myself, had diligently
+occupied yourself with their concerns and their belief you would be
+juster to them and to their scriptures, and to the great creating and
+preserving spirit, their god--"
+
+"You are confounding this jealous and most unamiable and ill-tempered
+tyrant of the universe with the Absolute of Aristotle!" cried Euergetes;
+"he stigmatises most of what you and I and all rational Greeks require
+for the enjoyment of life as sin--sin upon sin.  And yet if my easily
+persuadable brother governed at Alexandria, I believe the shrewd priests
+might succeed in stamping him as a worshipper of that magnified
+schoolmaster, who punishes his untutored brood with fire and torment."
+
+"I cannot deny," replied Cleopatra, "that even to me the doctrine of the
+Jews has something very fearful in it, and that to adopt it seems to me
+tantamount to confiscating all the pleasures of life.--But enough of such
+things, which I should no more relish as a daily food than you do.
+Let us rejoice in that we are Hellenes, and let us now go to the banquet.
+I fear you have found a very unsatisfactory substitute for what you
+sought in coming up here."
+
+"No--no.  I feel strangely excited to-day, and my work with Aristarchus
+would have led to no issue.  It is a pity that we should have begun to
+talk of that barbarian rubbish; there are so many other subjects more
+pleasing and more cheering to the mind.  Do you remember how we used to
+read the great tragedians and Plato together?"
+
+"And how you would often interrupt our tutor Agatharchides in his
+lectures on geography, to point out some mistake!  Did you prosecute
+those studies in Cyrene?"
+
+"Of course.  It really is a pity, Cleopatra, that we should no longer
+live together as we did formerly.  There is no one, not even Aristarchus,
+with whom I find it more pleasant and profitable to converse and discuss
+than with you.  If only you had lived at Athens in the time of Pericles,
+who knows if you might not have been his friend instead of the immortal
+Aspasia.  This Memphis is certainly not the right place for you; for a
+few months in the year you ought to come to Alexandria, which has now
+risen to be superior to Athens."
+
+"I do not know you to-day!"  exclaimed Cleopatra, gazing at her brother
+in astonishment.  "I have never heard you speak so kindly and brotherly
+since the death of my mother.  You must have some great request to make
+of us."
+
+"You see how thankless a thing it is for me to let my heart speak for
+once, like other people.  I am like the boy in the fable when the wolf
+came!  I have so often behaved in an unbrotherly fashion that when I show
+the aspect of a brother you think I have put on a mask.  If I had had
+anything special to ask of you I should have waited till to-morrow, for
+in this part of the country even a blind beggar does not like to refuse
+his lame comrade anything on his birthday."
+
+"If only we knew what you wish for!  Philometor and I would do it more
+than gladly, although you always want something monstrous.  Our
+performance to-morrow will--at any rate--but--Zoe, pray be good enough
+to retire with the maids; I have a few words to say to my brother alone."
+
+As soon as the queen's ladies had withdrawn, she went on:
+
+"It is a real grief to use, but the best part of the festival in honor of
+your birthday will not be particularly successful, for the priests of
+Serapis spitefully refuse us the Hebe about whom Lysias has made us so
+curious.  Asclepiodorus, it would seem, keeps her in concealment, and
+carries his audacity so far as to tell us that someone has carried her
+off from the temple.  He insinuates that we have stolen her, and demands
+her restitution in the name of all his associates."
+
+"You are doing the man an injustice; our dove has followed the lure of a
+dove-catcher who will not allow me to have her, and who is now billing
+and cooing with her in his own nest.  I am cheated, but I can scarcely
+be angry with the Roman, for his claim was of older standing than mine."
+
+"The Roman?"  asked Cleopatra, rising from her seat and turning pale.
+"But that is impossible.  You are making common cause with Eulaeus, and
+want to set me against Publius Scipio.  At the banquet last night you
+showed plainly enough your ill-feeling against him."
+
+"You seem to feel more warmly towards him.  But before I prove to you
+that I am neither lying nor joking, may I enquire what has this man, this
+many-named Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, to recommend him above any
+handsome well-grown Macedonian, who is resolute in my cause, in the whole
+corps of your body guard, excepting his patrician pride?  He is as bitter
+and ungenial as a sour apple, and all the very best that you--a subtle
+thinker, a brilliant and cultivated philosopher--can find to say is no
+more appreciated by his meanly cultivated intellect than the odes of
+Sappho by a Nubian boatman."
+
+"It is exactly for that," cried the queen, "that I value him; he is
+different from all of us; we who--how shall I express myself--who always
+think at second-hand, and always set our foot in the rut trodden by the
+master of the school we adhere to; who squeeze our minds into the moulds
+that others have carved out, and when we speak hesitate to step beyond
+the outlines of those figures of rhetoric which we learned at school!
+You have burst these bonds, but even your mighty spirit still shows
+traces of them.  Publius Scipio, on the contrary, thinks and sees and
+speaks with perfect independence, and his upright sense guides him to the
+truth without any trouble or special training.  His society revives me
+like the fresh air that I breathe when I come out into the open air from
+the temple filled with the smoke of incense--like the milk and bread
+which a peasant offered us during our late excursion to the coast, after
+we had been living for a year on nothing but dainties."
+
+"He has all the admirable characteristics of a child!"  interrupted
+Euergetes.  "And if that is all that appears estimable to you in the
+Roman your son may soon replace the great Cornelius."
+
+"Not soon! no, not till he shall have grown older than you are, and a
+man, a thorough man, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot,
+for such a man is Publius!  I believe--nay, I am sure--that he is
+incapable of any mean action, that he could not be false in word or
+even in look, nor feign a sentiment be did not feel."
+
+"Why so vehement, sister?  So much zeal is quite unnecessary on this
+occasion!  You know well enough that I have my easy days, and that this
+excitement is not good for you; nor has the Roman deserved that you
+should be quite beside yourself for his sake.  The fellow dared in my
+presence to look at you as Paris might at Helen before he carried her
+off, and to drink out of your cup; and this morning he no doubt did not
+contradict what he conveyed to you last night with his eyes--nay, perhaps
+by his words.  And yet, scarcely an hour before, he had been to the
+Necropolis to bear his sweetheart away from the temple of the gloomy
+Serapis into that of the smiling Eros."
+
+"You shall prove this!" cried the queen in great excitement.  "Publius is
+my friend--"
+
+"And I am yours!"
+
+"You have often proved the reverse, and now again with lies
+and cheating--"
+
+"You seem," interrupted Euergetes, "to have learned from your
+unphilosophical favorite to express your indignation with extraordinary
+frankness; to-day however I am, as I have said, as gentle as a kitten--"
+
+"Euergetes and gentleness!" cried Cleopatra with a forced laugh.  "No,
+you only step softly like a cat when she is watching a bird, and your
+gentleness covers some ruthless scheme, which we shall find out soon
+enough to our cost.  You have been talking with Eulaeus to-day; Eulaeus,
+who fears and hates Publius, and it seems to me that you have hatched
+some conspiracy against him; but if you dare to cast a single stone in
+his path, to touch a single hair of his head, I will show you that even a
+weak woman can be terrible.  Nemesis and the Erinnyes from Alecto to
+Megaera, the most terrible of all the gods, are women!"
+
+Cleopatra had hissed rather than spoken these words, with her teeth set
+with rage, and had raised her small fist to threaten her brother; but
+Euergetes preserved a perfect composure till she had ceased speaking.
+Then he took a step closer to her, crossed his arms over his breast, and
+asked her in the deepest bass of his fine deep voice:
+
+"Are you idiotically in love with this Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica,
+or do you purpose to make use of him and his kith and kin in Rome against
+me?"
+
+Transported with rage, and without blenching in the least at her
+brother's piercing gaze, she hastily retorted: "Up to this moment only
+the first perhaps--for what is my husband to me?  But if you go on as you
+have begun I shall begin to consider how I may make use of his influence
+and of his liking for me, on the shores of the Tiber."
+
+"Liking!"  cried Euergetes, and he laughed so loud and violently that
+Zoe, who was listening at the tent door, gave a little scream, and
+Cleopatra drew back a step.  "And to think that you--the most prudent of
+the prudent--who can hear the dew fall and the grass grow, and smell here
+in Memphis the smoke of every fire that is lighted in Alexandria or in
+Syria or even in Rome--that you, my mother's daughter, should be caught
+over head and ears by a broad-shouldered lout, for all the world like a
+clumsy town-girl or a wench at a loom.  This ignorant Adonis, who knows
+so well how to make use of his own strange and resolute personality, and
+of the power that stands in his background, thinks no more of the hearts
+he sets in flames than I of the earthen jar out of which water is drawn
+when I am thirsty.  You think to make use of him by the 'Tiber; but he
+has anticipated you, and learns from you all that is going on by the Nile
+and everything they most want to know in the Senate.
+
+"You do not believe me, for no one ever is ready to believe anything that
+can diminish his self-esteem--and why should you believe me?  I frankly
+confess that I do not hesitate to lie when I hope to gain more by untruth
+than by that much-belauded and divine truth, which, according to your
+favorite Plato, is allied to all earthly beauty; but it is often just as
+useless as beauty itself, for the useful and the beautiful exclude each
+other in a thousand cases, for ten when they coincide.  There, the gong
+is sounding for the third time.  If you care for plain proof that the
+Roman, only an hour before he visited you this morning, had our
+little Hebe carried off from the temple, and conveyed to the house of
+Apollodorus, the sculptor, at Memphis, you have only to come to see me in
+my rooms early to-morrow after the first morning sacrifice.  You will at
+any rate wish to come and congratulate me; bring your children with you,
+as I propose making them presents.  You might even question the Roman
+himself at the banquet to-day, but he will hardly appear, for the
+sweetest gifts of Eros are bestowed at night, and as the temple of
+Serapis is closed at sunset Publius has never yet seen his Irene in the
+evening.  May I expect you and the children after morning sacrifice?"
+
+Before Cleopatra had time to answer this question another trumpet-blast
+was heard, and she exclaimed: "That is Philometor, come to fetch us to
+the banquet.  I will ere long give the Roman the opportunity of defending
+himself, though--in spite of your accusations--I trust him entirely.
+This morning I asked him solemnly whether it was true that he was in love
+with his friend's charming Hebe, and he denied it in his firm and manly
+way, and his replies were admirable and worthy of the noblest mind, when
+I ventured to doubt his sincerity.  He takes truth more seriously than
+you do.  He regards it not only as beautiful and right to be truthful,
+he says, but as prudent too; for lies can only procure us a small short-
+lived advantage, as transitory as the mists of night which vanish as soon
+as the sun appears, while truth is like the sunlight itself, which as
+often as it is dimmed by clouds reappears again and again.  And, he says,
+what makes a liar so particularly contemptible in his eyes is, that to
+attain his end, he must be constantly declaring and repeating the horror
+he has of those who are and do the very same thing as he himself.  The
+ruler of a state cannot always be truthful, and I often have failed in
+truth; but my intercourse with Publius has aroused much that is good in
+me, and which had been slumbering with closed eyes; and if this man
+should prove to be the same as all the rest of you, then I will follow
+your road, Euergetes, and laugh at virtue and truth, and set the busts of
+Aristippus and Strato on the pedestals where those of Zeno and
+Antisthenes now stand."
+
+"You mean to have the busts of the philosophers moved again?"  asked King
+Philometor, who, as he entered the tent, had heard the queen's last
+words.  "And Aristippus is to have the place of honor?  I have no
+objection--though he teaches that man must subjugate matter and not
+become subject to it.--["Mihi res, non me rebus subjungere."]--This
+indeed is easier to say than to do, and there is no man to whom it is
+more impossible than to a king who has to keep on good terms with Greeks
+and Egyptians, as we have, and with Rome as well.  And besides all this
+to avoid quarrelling with a jealous brother, who shares our kingdom!  If
+men could only know how much they would have to do as kings only in
+reading and writing, they would take care never to struggle for a crown!
+Up to this last half hour I have been examining and deciding applications
+and petitions.  Have you got through yours, Euergetes?  Even more had
+accumulated for you than for us."
+
+"All were settled in an hour," replied the other promptly.  "My eye is
+quicker than the mouth of your reader, and my decisions commonly consist
+of three words while you dictate long treatises to your scribes.  So I
+had done when you had scarcely begun, and yet I could tell you at once,
+if it were not too tedious a matter, every single case that has come
+before me for months, and explain it in all its details."
+
+"That I could not indeed," said Philometor modestly, "but I know and
+admire your swift intelligence and accurate memory."
+
+"You see I am more fit for a king than you are;" laughed Euergetes.  "You
+are too gentle and debonair for a throne!  Hand over your government to
+me.  I will fill your treasury every year with gold.  I beg you now, come
+to Alexandria with Cleopatra for good, and share with me the palace and
+the gardens in the Bruchion.  I will nominate your little Philopator heir
+to the throne, for I have no wish to contract a permanent tie with any
+woman, as Cleopatra belongs to you.  This is a bold proposal, but
+reflect, Philometor, if you were to accept it, how much time it would
+give you for your music, your disputations with the Jews, and all your
+other favorite occupations."
+
+"You never know how far you may go with your jest!"  interrupted
+Cleopatra.  "Besides, you devote quite as much time to your studies in
+philology and natural history as he does to music and improving
+conversations with his learned friends."
+
+"Just so," assented Philometor, "and you may be counted among the sages
+of the Museum with far more reason than I."
+
+"But the difference between us," replied Euergetes, "is that I despise
+all the philosophical prattlers and rubbish-collectors in Alexandria
+almost to the point of hating them, while for science I have as great a
+passion as for a lover.  You, on the contrary, make much of the learned
+men, but trouble yourself precious little about science."
+
+"Drop the subject, pray," begged Cleopatra.  "I believe that you two have
+never yet been together for half an hour without Euergetes having begun
+some dispute, and Philometor having at last given in, to pacify him.  Our
+guests must have been waiting for us a long time.  Had Publius Scipio
+made his appearance?"
+
+"He had sent to excuse himself," replied the king as he scratched the
+poll of Cleopatra's parrot, parting its feathers with the tips of his
+fingers.  "Lysias, the Corinthian, is sitting below, and he says he does
+not know where his friend can be gone."
+
+"But we know very well," said Euergetes, casting an ironical glance at
+the queen.  "It is pleasant to be with Philometor and Cleopatra, but
+better still with Eros and Hebe.  Sister, you look pale--shall I call for
+Zoe?"
+
+Cleopatra shook her head in negation, but she dropped into a seat, and
+sat stooping, with her head bowed over her knees as if she were
+dreadfully tired.  Euergetes turned his back on her, and spoke to his
+brother of indifferent subjects, while she drew lines, some straight and
+some crooked, with her fan-stick through the pile of the soft rug on the
+floor, and sat gazing thoughtfully at her feet.  As she sat thus her eye
+was caught by her sandals, richly set with precious stones, and the
+slender toes she had so often contemplated with pleasure; but now the
+sight of them seemed to vex her, for in obedience to a swift impulse she
+loosened the straps, pushed off her right sandal with her left foot,
+kicked it from her, and said, turning to her husband:
+
+"It is late and I do not feel well, and you may sup without me."
+
+"By the healing Isis!"  exclaimed Philometor, going up to her.  "You look
+suffering.  Shall I send for the physicians?  Is it really nothing more
+than your usual headache?  The gods be thanked!  But that you should be
+unwell just to-day!  I had so much to say to you; and the chief thing of
+all was that we are still a long way from completeness in our
+preparations for our performance.  If this luckless Hebe were not--"
+
+"She is in good hands," interrupted Euergetes.  "The Roman, Publius
+Scipio, has taken her to a place of safety; perhaps in order to present
+her to me to morrow morning in return for the horses from Cyrene which I
+sent him to-day.  How brightly your eyes sparkle, sister--with joy no
+doubt at this good idea.  This evening, I dare say he is rehearsing the
+little one in her part that she may perform it well to-morrow.  If we are
+mistaken--if Publius is ungrateful and proposes keeping the dove, then
+Thais, your pretty Athenian waiting-woman, may play the part of Hebe.
+What do you think of that suggestion, Cleopatra?"
+
+"That I forbid such jesting with me!"  cried the queen vehemently.
+"No one has any consideration for me--no one pities me, and I suffer
+fearfully!  Euergetes scorns me--you, Philometor, would be glad to drag
+me down!  If only the banquet is not interfered with, and so long as
+nothing spoils your pleasure!--Whether I die or no, no one cares!"
+
+With these words the queen burst into tears, and roughly pushed away her
+husband as he endeavored to soothe her.  At last she dried her eyes, and
+said: "Go down-the guests are waiting."
+
+"Immediately, my love," replied Philometor.  "But one thing I must tell
+you, for I know that it will arouse your sympathy.  The Roman read to you
+the petition for pardon for Philotas, the chief of the Chrematistes
+and 'relative of the king,' which contains such serious charges against
+Eulaeus.  I was ready with all my heart to grant your wish and to pardon
+the man who is the father of these miserable water-bearers; but, before
+having the decree drawn up, I had the lists of the exiles to the gold-
+mines carefully looked through, and there it was discovered that Philotas
+and his wife have both been dead more than half a year.  Death has
+settled this question, and I cannot grant to Publius the first service he
+has asked of me--asked with great urgency too.  I am sorry for this, both
+for his sake and for that of poor Philotas, who was held in high esteem
+by our mother."
+
+"May the ravens devour them!" answered Cleopatra, pressing her forehead
+against the ivory frame which surrounded the stuffed back of her seat.
+"Once more I beg of you excuse me from all further speech."  This time
+the two kings obeyed her wishes.  When Euergetes offered her his hand she
+said with downcast eyes, and poking her fan-stick into the wool of the
+carpet:
+
+"I will visit you early to-morrow."
+
+"After the first sacrifice," added Euergetes.  "If I know you well,
+something that you will then hear will please you greatly; very greatly
+indeed, I should think.  Bring the children with you; that I ask of you
+as a birthday request."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+The royal chariot in which Klea was standing, wrapped in the cloak and
+wearing the hat of the captain of the civic guard, went swiftly and
+without stopping through the streets of Memphis.  As long as she saw
+houses with lighted windows on each side of the way, and met riotous
+soldiers and quiet citizens going home from the taverns, or from working
+late in their workshops, with lanterns in their hands or carried by their
+slaves--so long her predominant feeling was one of hatred to Publius; and
+mixed with this was a sentiment altogether new to her--a sentiment that
+made her blood boil, and her heart now stand still and then again beat
+wildly--the thought that he might be a wretched deceiver.  Had he not
+attempted to entrap one of them--whether her sister or herself it was all
+the same--wickedly to betray her, and to get her into his power!
+
+"With me," thought she, "he could not hope to gain his evil ends, and
+when he saw that I knew how to protect myself he lured the poor
+unresisting child away with him, in order to ruin her and to drag her
+into shame and misery.  Just like Rome herself, who seizes on one country
+after another to make them her own, so is this ruthless man.  No sooner
+had that villain Eulaeus' letter reached him, than he thought himself
+justified in believing that I too was spellbound by a glance from his
+eyes, and would spread my wings to fly into his arms; and so he put out
+his greedy hand to catch me too, and threw aside the splendor and
+delights of a royal banquet to hurry by night out into the desert, and to
+risk a hideous death--for the avenging deities still punish the
+evildoer."
+
+By this time she was shrouded in total darkness, for the moon was still
+hidden by black clouds.  Memphis was already behind her, and the chariot
+was passing through a tall-stemmed palm-grove, where even at mid-day deep
+shades intermingled with the sunlight.  When, just at this spot, the
+thought once more pierced her soul that the seducer was devoted to death,
+she felt as though suddenly a bright glaring light had flashed up in her
+and round her, and she could have broken out into a shout of joy like one
+who, seeking retribution for blood, places his foot at last on the breast
+of his fallen foe.  She clenched her teeth tightly and grasped her
+girdle, in which she had stuck the knife given her by the smith.
+
+If the charioteer by her side had been Publius, she would have stabbed
+him to the heart with the weapon with delight, and then have thrown
+herself under the horses' hoofs and the brazen wheels of the chariot.
+
+But no!  Still more gladly would she have found him dying in the desert,
+and before his heart had ceased to beat have shouted in his ear how much
+she hated him; and then, when his breast no longer heaved a breath--then
+she would have flung herself upon him, and have kissed his dimmed eyes.
+
+Her wildest thoughts of vengeance were as inseparable from tender pity
+and the warmest longings of a heart overflowing with love, as the dark
+waters of a river are from the brighter flood of a stream with which it
+has recently mingled.  All the passionate impulses which had hitherto
+been slumbering in her soul were set free, and now raised their clamorous
+voices as she was whirled across the desert through the gloom of night.
+The wishes roused in her breast by her hatred appealing to her on one
+side and her love singing in her ear, in tempting flute-tones, on the
+other, jostled and hustled one another, each displacing the other as they
+crowded her mind in wild confusion.  As she proceeded on her journey she
+felt that she could have thrown herself like a tigress on her victim, and
+yet--like an outcast woman--have flung herself at Publius' knees in
+supplication for the love that was denied her.  She had lost all idea of
+time and distance, and started as from a wild and bewildering dream when
+the chariot suddenly halted, and the driver said in his rough tones:
+
+"Here we are, I must turn back again."
+
+She shuddered, drew the cloak more closely round her, sprang out on to
+the road, and stood there motionless till the charioteer said:
+
+"I have not spared my horses, my noble gentleman.  Won't you give me
+something to get a drop of wine?"  Klea's whole possessions were two
+silver drachma, of which she herself owned one and the other belonged to
+Irene.  On the last anniversary but one of his mother's death, the king
+had given at the temple a sum to be divided among all the attendants,
+male and female, who served Serapis, and a piece of silver had fallen to
+the share of herself and her sister.  Klea had them both about her in a
+little bag, which also contained a ring that her mother had given her at
+parting, and the amulet belonging to Serapion.  The girl took out the two
+silver coins and gave them to the driver, who, after testing the liberal
+gift with his fingers, cried out as he turned his horses:
+
+"A pleasant night to you, and may Aphrodite and all the Loves be
+favorable!"
+
+"Irene's drachma!"  muttered Klea to herself, as the chariot rolled away.
+The sweet form of her sister rose before her mind; she recalled the hour
+when the girl--still but a child--had entrusted it to her, because she
+lost everything unless Klea took charge of it for her.
+
+"Who will watch her and care for her now?"  she asked herself, and she
+stood thinking, trying to defend herself against the wild wishes which
+again began to stir in her, and to collect her scattered thoughts.  She
+had involuntarily avoided the beam of light which fell across the road
+from the tavern-window, and yet she could not help raising her eyes and
+looking along it, and she found herself looking through the darkness
+which enveloped her, straight into the faces of two men whose gaze was
+directed to the very spot where she was standing.  And what faces they
+were that she saw!  One, a fat face, framed in thick hair and a short,
+thick and ragged beard, was of a dusky brown and as coarse and brutal as
+the other was smooth, colorless and lean, cruel and crafty.  The eyes of
+the first of these ruffians were prominent, weak and bloodshot, with a
+fixed glassy stare, while those of the other seemed always to be on the
+watch with a restless and uneasy leer.
+
+These were Euergetes' assassins--they must be!  Spellbound with terror
+and revulsion she stood quite still, fearing only that the ruffians might
+hear the beating of her heart, for she felt as if it were a hammer swung
+up and down in an empty space, and beating with loud echoes, now in her
+bosom and now in her throat.
+
+"The young gentleman must have gone round behind the tavern--he knows the
+shortest way to the 'tombs.  Let us go after him, and finish off the
+business at once," said the broad-shouldered villain in a hoarse whisper
+that broke down every now and then, and which seemed to Klea even more
+repulsive than the monster's face.
+
+"So that he may hear us go after him-stupid!"  answered the other.  "When
+he has been waiting for his sweetheart about a quarter of an hour I will
+call his name in a woman's voice, and at his first step towards the
+desert do you break his neck with the sand-bag.  We have plenty of time
+yet, for it must still be a good half hour before midnight."
+
+"So much the better," said the other.  "Our wine-jar is not nearly empty
+yet, and we paid the lazy landlord for it in advance, before he crept
+into bed."
+
+"You shall only drink two cups more," said the punier villain.  "For this
+time we have to do with a sturdy fellow, Setnam is not with us now to
+lend a hand in the work, and the dead meat must show no gaping thrusts or
+cuts.  My teeth are not like yours when you are fasting--even cooked food
+must not be too tough for them to chew it, now-a-days.  If you soak
+yourself in drink and fail in your blow, and I am not ready with the
+poisoned stiletto the thing won't come off neatly.  But why did not the
+Roman let his chariot wait?"
+
+"Aye! why did he let it go away?"  asked the other staring open-mouthed
+in the direction where the sound of wheels was still to be heard.  His
+companion mean while laid his hand to his ear, and listened.  Both were
+silent for a few minutes, then the thin one said:
+
+"The chariot has stopped at the first tavern.  So much the better.  The
+Roman has valuable cattle in his shafts, and at the inn down there, there
+is a shed for horses.  Here in this hole there is hardly a stall for an
+ass, and nothing but sour wine and mouldy beer.  I don't like the
+rubbish, and save my coin for Alexandria and white Mariotic; that is
+strengthening and purifies the blood.  For the present I only wish we
+were as well off as those horses; they will have plenty of time to
+recover their breath."
+
+"Yes, plenty of time," answered the other with a broad grin, and then he
+with his companion withdrew into the room to fill his cup.
+
+Klea too could hear that the chariot which had brought her hither, had
+halted at the farther tavern, but it did not occur to her that the driver
+had gone in to treat himself to wine with half of Irene's drachma.  The
+horses should make up for the lost time, and they could easily do it, for
+when did the king's banquets ever end before midnight?
+
+As soon as Plea saw that the assassins were filling their earthen cups,
+she slipped softly on tiptoe behind the tavern; the moon came out from
+behind the clouds for a few minutes, she sought and found the short way
+by the desert-path to the Apis-tombs, and hastened rapidly along it.  She
+looked straight before her, for whenever she glanced at the road-side,
+and her eye was caught by some dried up shrub of the desert, silvery in
+the pale moonlight, she fancied she saw behind it the face of a murderer.
+
+The skeletons of fallen beasts standing up out of the dust, and the
+bleached jawbones of camels and asses, which shone much whiter than the
+desert-sand on which they lay, seemed to have come to life and motion,
+and made her think of the tiger-teeth of the bearded ruffian.
+
+The clouds of dust driven in her face by the warm west wind, which had
+risen higher, increased her alarm, for they were mingled with the colder
+current of the night-breeze; and again and again she felt as if spirits
+were driving her onwards with their hot breath, and stroking her face
+with their cold fingers.  Every thing that her senses perceived was
+transformed by her heated imagination into a fearful something; but more
+fearful and more horrible than anything she heard, than any phantom that
+met her eye in the ghastly moonlight, were her own thoughts of what was
+to be done now, in the immediate future--of the fearful fate that
+threatened the Roman and Irene; and she was incapable of separating one
+from the other in her mind, for one influence alone possessed her, heart
+and soul: dread, dread; the same boundless, nameless, deadly dread--alike
+of mortal peril and irremediable shame, and of the airiest phantoms and
+the merest nothings.
+
+A large black cloud floated slowly across the moon and utter darkness hid
+everything around, even the undefined forms which her imagination had
+turned to images of dread.  She was forced to moderate her pace, and find
+her way, feeling each step; and just as to a child some hideous form that
+looms before him vanishes into nothingness when he covers his eyes with
+his hand, so the profound darkness which now enveloped her, suddenly
+released her soul from a hundred imaginary terrors.
+
+She stood still, drew a deep breath, collected the whole natural force of
+her will, and asked herself what she could do to avert the horrid issue.
+
+Since seeing the murderers every thought of revenge, every wish to punish
+the seducer with death, had vanished from her mind; one desire alone
+possessed her now--that of rescuing him, the man, from the clutches of
+these ravening beasts.  Walking slowly onwards she repeated to herself
+every word she had heard that referred to Publius and Irene as spoken by
+Euergetes, Eulaeus, the recluse, and the assassins, and recalled every
+step she had taken since she left the temple; thus she brought herself
+back to the consciousness that she had come out and faced danger and
+endured terror, solely and exclusively for Irene's sake.  The image of
+her sister rose clearly before her mind in all its bright charm, undimmed
+by any jealous grudge which, indeed, ever since her passion had held her
+in its toils had never for the smallest fraction of a minute possessed
+her.
+
+Irene had grown up under her eye, sheltered by her care, in the sunshine
+of her love.  To take care of her, to deny herself, and bear the severest
+fatigue for her had been her pleasure; and now as she appealed to her
+father--as she wont to do--as if he were present, and asked him in an
+inaudible cry: "Tell me, have I not done all for her that I could do?"
+and said to herself that he could not possibly answer her appeal but with
+assent, her eyes filled with tears; the bitterness and discontent which
+had lately filled her breast gradually disappeared, and a gentle, calm,
+refreshing sense of satisfaction came over her spirit, like a cooling
+breeze after a scorching day.
+
+As she now again stood still, straining her eyes which were growing more
+accustomed to the darkness, to discover one of the temples at the end of
+the alley of sphinxes, suddenly and unexpectedly at her right hand a
+solemn and many-voiced hymn of lamentation fell upon her ear.  This was
+from the priests of Osiris-Apis who were performing the sacred mysteries
+of their god, at midnight, on the roof of the temple.  She knew the hymn
+well--a lament for the deceased Osiris which implored him with urgent
+supplication to break the power of death, to rise again, to bestow new
+light and new vitality on the world and on men, and to vouchsafe to all
+the departed a new existence.
+
+The pious lament had a powerful effect on her excited spirit.  Her
+parents too perhaps had passed through death, and were now taking part in
+the conduct of the destiny of the world and of men in union with the life
+giving God.  Her breath came fast, she threw up her arms, and, for the
+first time since in her wrath she had turned her back on the holy of
+holies in the temple of Serapis, she poured forth her whole soul with
+passionate fervor in a deep and silent prayer for strength to fulfil her
+duty to the end,--for some sign to show her the way to save Irene from
+misfortune, and Publius from death.  And as she prayed she felt no longer
+alone--no, it seemed to her that she stood face to face with the
+invincible Power which protects the good, in whom she now again had
+faith, though for Him she knew no name; as a daughter, pursued by foes,
+might clasp her powerful father's knees and claim his succor.
+
+She had not stood thus with uplifted arms for many minutes when the moon,
+once more appearing, recalled her to herself and to actuality.  She now
+perceived close to her, at hardly a hundred paces from where she stood,
+the line of sphinxes by the side of which lay the tombs of Apis near
+which she was to await Publius.  Her heart began to beat faster again,
+and her dread of her own weakness revived.  In a few minutes she must
+meet the Roman, and, involuntarily putting up her hand to smooth her
+hair, she was reminded that she still wore Glaucus' hat on her head and
+his cloak wrapped round her shoulders.  Lifting up her heart again in a
+brief prayer for a calm and collected mind, she slowly arranged her dress
+and its folds, and as she did so the key of the tomb-cave, which she
+still had about her, fell under her hand.  An idea flashed through her
+brain--she caught at it, and with hurried breath followed it out, till
+she thought she had now hit upon the right way to preserve from death the
+man who was so rich and powerful, who had given her nothing but taken
+everything from her, and to whom, nevertheless, she--the poor water-
+bearer whom he had thought to trifle with--could now bestow the most
+precious of the gifts of the immortals, namely, life.
+
+Serapion had said, and she was willing to believe, that Publius was not
+base, and he certainly was not one of those who could prove ungrateful to
+a preserver.  She longed to earn the right to demand something of him,
+and that could be nothing else but that he should give up her sister and
+bring Irene back to her.
+
+When could it be that he had come to an understanding with the
+inexperienced and easily wooed maiden?  How ready she must have been to
+clasp the hand held out to her by this man!  Nothing surprised her in
+Irene, the child of the present; she could comprehend too that Irene's
+charm might quickly win the heart even of a grave and serious man.
+
+And yet--in all the processions it was never Irene that he had gazed at,
+but always herself, and how came it to pass that he had given a prompt
+and ready assent to the false invitation to go out to meet her in the
+desert at midnight?  Perhaps she was still nearer to his heart than
+Irene, and if gratitude drew him to her with fresh force then--aye then--
+he might perhaps woo her, and forget his pride and her lowly position,
+and ask her to be his wife.
+
+She thought this out fully, but before she had reached the half circle
+enclosed by the Philosophers' busts the question occurred to her mind.
+And Irene?
+
+Had she gone with him and quitted her without bidding her farewell
+because the young heart was possessed with a passionate love for Publius
+--who was indeed the most lovable of men?  And he?  Would he indeed, out
+of gratitude for what she hoped to do for him, make up his mind, if she
+demanded it, to make her Irene his wife--the poor but more than lovely
+daughter of a noble house?
+
+And if this were possible, if these two could be happy in love and honor,
+should she Klea come between the couple to divide them?  Should she
+jealously snatch Irene from his arms and carry her back to the gloomy
+temple which now--after she had fluttered awhile in sportive freedom
+in the sunny air--would certainly seem to her doubly sinister and
+unendurable?  Should she be the one to plunge Irene into misery--Irene,
+her child, the treasure confided to her care, whom she had sworn to
+cherish?
+
+"No, and again no," she said resolutely.  "She was born for happiness,
+and I for endurance, and if I dare beseech thee to grant me one thing
+more, O thou infinite Divinity! it is that Thou wouldst cut out from my
+soul this love which is eating into my heart as though it were rotten
+wood, and keep me far from envy and jealousy when I see her happy in his
+arms.  It is hard--very hard to drive one's own heart out into the desert
+in order that spring may blossom in that of another: but it is well so--
+and my mother would commend me and my father would say I had acted after
+his own heart, and in obedience to the teaching of the great men on these
+pedestals.  Be still, be still my aching heart--there--that is right!"
+
+Thus reflecting she went past the busts of Zeno and Chrysippus, glancing
+at their features distinct in the moonlight: and her eyes falling on the
+smooth slabs of stone with which the open space was paved, her own shadow
+caught her attention, black and sharply defined, and exactly resembling
+that of some man travelling from one town to another in his cloak and
+broad-brimmed hat.
+
+"Just like a man!"  she muttered to herself; and as, at the same moment,
+she saw a figure resembling her own, and, like herself, wearing a hat,
+appear near the entrance to the tombs, and fancied she recognized it as
+Publius, a thought, a scheme, flashed through her excited brain, which at
+first appalled her, but in the next instant filled her with the ecstasy
+which an eagle may feel when he spreads his mighty wings and soars above
+the dust of the earth into the pure and infinite ether.  Her heart beat
+high, she breathed deeply and slowly, but she advanced to meet the Roman,
+drawn up to her full height like a queen, who goes forward to receive
+some equal sovereign; her hat, which she had taken off, in her left hand,
+and the Smith's key in her right-straight on towards the door of the
+Apis-tombs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The man whom Klea had seen was in fact none other than Publius.  He was
+now at the end of a busy day, for after he had assured himself that Irene
+had been received by the sculptor and his wife, and welcomed as if she
+were their own child, he had returned to his tent to write once more a
+dispatch to Rome.  But this he could not accomplish, for his friend
+Lysias paced restlessly up and down by him as he sat, and as often as he
+put the reed to the papyrus disturbed him with enquiries about the
+recluse, the sculptor, and their rescued protegee.
+
+When, finally, the Corinthian desired to know whether he, Publius,
+considered Irene's eyes to be brown or blue, he had sprung up
+impatiently, and exclaimed indignantly:
+
+"And supposing they were red or green, what would it matter to me!"
+
+Lysias seemed pleased rather than vexed with this reply, and he was on
+the point of confessing to his friend that Irene had caused in his heart
+a perfect conflagration--as of a forest or a city in flames--when a
+master of the horse had appeared from Euergetes, to present the four
+splendid horses from Cyrene, which his master requested the noble Roman
+Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica to accept in token of his friendship.
+
+The two friends, who both were judges and lovers of horses, spent at
+least an hour in admiring the fine build and easy paces of these valuable
+beasts.  Then came a chamberlain from the queen to invite Publius to go
+to her at once.
+
+The Roman followed the messenger after a short delay in his tent, in
+order to take with him the gems representing the marriage of Hebe, for on
+his way from the sculptor's to the palace it had occurred to him that he
+would offer them to the queen, after he had informed her of the parentage
+of the two water-carriers.  Publius had keen eyes, and the queen's
+weaknesses had not escaped him, but he had never suspected her of being
+capable of abetting her licentious brother in forcibly possessing himself
+of the innocent daughter of a noble father.  He now purposed to make her
+a present--as in some degree a substitute for the representation his
+friend had projected, and which had come to nothing--of the picture which
+she had hoped to find pleasure in reproducing.
+
+Cleopatra received him on her roof, a favor of which few could boast; she
+allowed him to sit at her feet while she reclined on her couch, and gave
+him to understand, by every glance of her eyes and every word she spoke,
+that his presence was a happiness to her, and filled her with passionate
+delight.  Publius soon contrived to lead the conversation to the subject
+of the innocent parents of the water-bearers, who had been sent off to
+the goldmines; but Cleopatra interrupted his speech in their favor and
+asked him plainly, undisguisedly, and without any agitation, whether it
+was true that he himself desired to win the youthful Hebe.  And she met
+his absolute denial with such persistent and repeated expressions of
+disbelief, assuming at last a tone of reproach, that he grew vexed and
+broke out into a positive declaration that he regarded lying as unmanly
+and disgraceful, and could endure any insult rather than a doubt of his
+veracity.
+
+Such a vehement and energetic remonstrance from a man she had
+distinguished was a novelty to Cleopatra, and she did not take it amiss,
+for she might now believe--what she much wished to believe--that Publius
+wanted to have nothing to do with the fair Hebe, that Eulaeus had
+slandered her friend, and that Zoe had been in error when, after her vain
+expedition to the temple--from which she had then just returned--she had
+told her that the Roman was Irene's lover, and must at the earliest hour
+have betrayed to the girl herself, or to the priests in the Serapeum,
+what was their purpose regarding her.
+
+In the soul of this noble youth there was nothing false--there could be
+nothing false!  And she, who was accustomed never to hear a word from the
+men who surrounded her without asking herself with what aim it was
+spoken, and how much of it was dissimulation or downright falsehood,
+trusted the Roman, and was so happy in her trust that, full of gracious
+gaiety, she herself invited Publius to give her the recluse's petition
+to read.  The Roman at once gave her the roll, saying that since it
+contained so much that was sad, much as he hoped she would make herself
+acquainted with it, he felt himself called upon also to give her some
+pleasure, though in truth but a very small one.  Thus speaking he
+produced the gems, and she showed as much delight over this little work
+of art as if, instead of being a rich queen and possessed of the finest
+engraved gems in the world, she were some poor girl receiving her first
+gift of some long-desired gold ornament.
+
+"Exquisite, splendid!"  she cried again and again.  "And besides, they
+are an imperishable memorial of you, dear friend, and of your visit to
+Egypt.  I will have them set with the most precious stones; even diamonds
+will seem worthless to me compared with this gift from you.  This has
+already decided my sentence as to Eulaeus and his unhappy victims before
+I read your petition.  Still I will read that roll, and read it
+attentively, for my husband regards Eulaeus as a useful--almost an
+indispensable-tool, and I must give good reasons for my verdict and for
+the pardon.  I believe in the innocence of the unfortunate Philotas, but
+if he had committed a hundred murders, after this present I would procure
+his freedom all the same."
+
+The words vexed the Roman, and they made her who had spoken them in order
+to please him appear to him at that moment more in the light of a
+corruptible official than of a queen.  He found the time hang heavy that
+he spent with Cleopatra, who, in spite of his reserve, gave him to
+understand with more and more insistence how warmly she felt towards him;
+but the more she talked and the more she told him, the more silent he
+became, and he breathed a sigh of relief when her husband at last
+appeared to fetch him and Cleopatra away to their mid-day meal.
+
+At table Philometor promised to take up the cause of Philotas and his
+wife, both of whom he had known, and whose fate had much grieved him;
+still he begged his wife and the Roman not to bring Eulaeus to justice
+till Euergetes should have left Memphis, for, during his brother's
+presence, beset as he was with difficulties, he could not spare him; and
+if he might judge of Publius by himself he cared far more to reinstate
+the innocent in their rights, and to release them from their miserable
+lot--a lot of which he had only learned the full horrors quite recently
+from his tutor Agatharchides--than to drag a wretch before the judges
+to-morrow or the day after, who was unworthy of his anger, and who at
+any rate should not escape punishment.
+
+Before the letter from Asclepiodorus--stating the mistaken hypothesis
+entertained by the priests of Serapis that Irene had been carried off by
+the king's order--could reach the palace, Publius had found an
+opportunity of excusing himself and quitting the royal couple.  Not even
+Cleopatra herself could raise any objection to his distinct assurance
+that he must write to Rome today on matters of importance.  Philometor's
+favor was easy to win, and as soon as he was alone with his wife he could
+not find words enough in praise of the noble qualities of the young man,
+who seemed destined in the future to be of the greatest service to him
+and to his interests at Rome, and whose friendly attitude towards himself
+was one more advantage that he owed--as he was happy to acknowledge--to
+the irresistible talents and grace of his wife.
+
+When Publius had quitted the palace and hurried back to his tent, he felt
+like a journeyman returning from a hard day's labor, or a man acquitted
+from a serious charge; like one who had lost his way, and has found the
+right road again.
+
+The heavy air in the arbors and alleys of the embowered gardens seemed to
+him easier to breathe than the cool breeze that fanned Cleopatra's raised
+roof.  He felt the queen's presence to be at once exciting and
+oppressive, and in spite of all that was flattering to himself in the
+advances made to him by the powerful princess, it was no more gratifying
+to his taste than an elegantly prepared dish served on gold plate, which
+we are forced to partake of though poison may be hidden in it, and which
+when at last we taste it is sickeningly sweet.
+
+Publius was an honest man, and it seemed to him--as to all who resemble
+him--that love which was forced upon him was like a decoration of honor
+bestowed by a hand which we do not respect, and that we would rather
+refuse than accept; or like praise out of all proportion to our merit,
+which may indeed delight a fool, but rouses the indignation rather than
+the gratitude of a wise man.  It struck him too that Cleopatra intended
+to make use of him, in the first place as a toy to amuse herself, and
+then as a useful instrument or underling, and this so gravely incensed
+and discomfited the serious and sensitive young man that he would
+willingly have quitted Memphis and Egypt at once and without any leave-
+taking.  However, it was not quite easy for him to get away, for all his
+thoughts of Cleopatra were mixed up with others of Klea, as inseparably
+as when we picture to ourselves the shades of night, the tender light of
+the calm moon rises too before our fancy.
+
+Having saved Irene, his present desire was to restore her parents to
+liberty; to quit Egypt without having seen Klea once more seemed to him
+absolutely impossible.  He endeavored once more to revive in his mind the
+image of her proud tall figure; he felt he must tell her that she was
+beautiful, a woman worthy of a king--that he was her friend and hated
+injustice, and was ready to sacrifice much for justice's sake and for her
+own in the service of her parents and herself.  To-day again, before the
+banquet, he purposed to go to the temple, and to entreat the recluse to
+help him to an interview with his adopted daughter.
+
+If only Klea could know beforehand what he had been doing for Irene and
+their parents she must surely let him see that her haughty eyes could
+look kindly on him, must offer him her hand in farewell, and then he
+should clasp it in both his, and press it to his breast.  Then would he
+tell her in the warmest and most inspired words he could command how
+happy he was to have seen her and known her, and how painful it was to
+bid her farewell; perhaps she might leave her hand in his, and give him
+some kind word in return.  One kind word--one phrase of thanks from
+Klea's firm but beautiful mouth--seemed to him of higher value than a
+kiss or an embrace from the great and wealthy Queen of Egypt.
+
+When Publius was excited he could be altogether carried away by a sudden
+sweep of passion, but his imagination was neither particularly lively nor
+glowing.  While his horses were being harnessed, and then while he was
+driving to the Serapeum, the tall form of the water-bearer was constantly
+before him; again and again he pictured himself holding her hand instead
+of the reins, and while he repeated to himself all he meant to say at
+parting, and in fancy heard her thank him with a trembling voice for his
+valuable help, and say that she would never forget him, he felt his eyes
+moisten--unused as they had been to tears for many years.  He could not
+help recalling the day when he had taken leave of his family to go to the
+wars for the first time.  Then it had not been his own eyes but his
+mother's that had sparkled through tears, and it struck him that Klea,
+if she could be compared to any other woman, was most like to that noble
+matron to whom he owed his life, and that she might stand by the side of
+the daughter of the great Scipio Africanus like a youthful Minerva by the
+side of Juno, the stately mother of the gods.
+
+His disappointment was great when he found the door of the temple closed,
+and was forced to return to Memphis without having seen either Klea or
+the recluse.
+
+He could try again to-morrow to accomplish what had been impossible to-
+day, but his wish to see the girl he loved, rose to a torturing longing,
+and as he sat once more in his tent to finish his second despatch to Rome
+the thought of Klea came again to disturb his serious work.  Twenty times
+he started up to collect his thoughts, and as often flung away his reed
+as the figure of the water-bearer interposed between him and the writing
+under his hand; at last, out of patience with himself, he struck the
+table in front of him with some force, set his fists in his sides hard
+enough to hurt himself, and held them there for a minute, ordering
+himself firmly and angrily to do his duty before he thought of anything
+else.
+
+His iron will won the victory; by the time it was growing dusk the
+despatch was written.  He was in the very act of stamping the wax of the
+seal with the signet of his family--engraved on the sardonyx of his ring-
+-when one of his servants announced a black slave who desired to speak
+with him.  Publius ordered that he should be admitted, and the negro
+handed him the tile on which Eulaeus had treacherously written Klea's
+invitation to meet her at midnight near the Apis-tombs.  His enemy's
+crafty-looking emissary seemed to the young man as a messenger from the
+gods; in a transport of haste and, without the faintest shadow of a
+suspicion he wrote, "I will be there," on the luckless piece of clay.
+
+Publius was anxious to give the letter to the Senate, which he had just
+finished, with his own hand, and privately, to the messenger who had
+yesterday brought him the despatch from Rome; and as he would rather have
+set aside an invitation to carry off a royal treasure that same night
+than have neglected to meet Klea, he could not in any case be a guest at
+the king's banquet, though Cleopatra would expect to see him there in
+accordance with his promise.  At this juncture he was annoyed to miss his
+friend Lysias, for he wished to avoid offending the queen; and the
+Corinthian, who at this moment was doubtless occupied in some perfectly
+useless manner, was as clever in inventing plausible excuses as he
+himself was dull in such matters.  He hastily wrote a few lines to the
+friend who shared his tent, requesting him to inform the king that he had
+been prevented by urgent business from appearing among his guests that
+evening; then he threw on his cloak, put on his travelling-hat which
+shaded his face, and proceeded on foot and without any servant to the
+harbor, with his letter in one hand and a staff in the other.
+
+The soldiers and civic guards which filled the courts of the palace,
+taking him for a messenger, did not challenge him as he walked swiftly
+and firmly on, and so, without being detained or recognized, he reached
+the inn by the harbor, where he was forced to wait an hour before the
+messenger came home from the gay strangers' quarter where he had gone to
+amuse himself.  He had a great deal to talk of with this man, who was to
+set out next morning for Alexandria and Rome; but Publius hardly gave
+himself the necessary time, for he meant to start for the meeting place
+in the Necropolis indicated by Klea, and well-known to himself, a full
+hour before midnight, although he knew that be could reach his
+destination in a very much shorter time.
+
+The sun seems to move too slowly to those who long and wait, and a planet
+would be more likely to fail in punctuality than a lover when called by
+love.
+
+In order to avoid observation he did not take a chariot but a strong mule
+which the host of the inn lent him with pleasure; for the Roman was so
+full of happy excitement in the hope of meeting Klea that he had slipped
+a gold piece into the small, lightly-closed fingers of the innkeeper's
+pretty child, which lay asleep on a bench by the side of the table,
+besides paying double as much for the country wine he had drunk as if it
+had been fine Falernian and without asking for his reckoning.  The host
+looked at him in astonishment when, finally, he sprang with a grand leap
+on to the back of the tall beast, without laying his hand on it; and it
+seemed even to Publius himself as though he had never since boyhood felt
+so fresh, so extravagantly happy as at this moment.
+
+The road to the tombs from the harbor was a different one to that which
+led thither from the king's palace, and which Klea had taken, nor did it
+lead past the tavern in which she had seen the murderers.  By day it was
+much used by pilgrims, and the Roman could not miss it even by night, for
+the mule he was riding knew it well.  That he had learned, for in answer
+to his question as to what the innkeeper kept the beast for he had said
+that it was wanted every day to carry pilgrims arriving from Upper Egypt
+to the temple of Serapis and the tombs of the sacred bulls; he could
+therefore very decidedly refuse the host's offer to send a driver with
+the beast.  All who saw him set out supposed that he was returning to the
+city and the palace.
+
+Publius rode through the streets of the city at an easy trot, and, as the
+laughter of soldiers carousing in a tavern fell upon his ear, he could
+have joined heartily in their merriment.  But when the silent desert lay
+around him, and the stars showed him that he would be much too early at
+the appointed place, he brought the mule to a slower pace, and the nearer
+he came to his destination the graver he grew, and the stronger his heart
+beat.  It must be something important and pressing indeed that Klea
+desired to tell him in such a place and at such an hour.  Or was she like
+a thousand other women--was he now on the way to a lover's meeting with
+her, who only a few days before had responded to his glance and accepted
+his violets?
+
+This thought flashed once through his mind with importunate distinctness,
+but he dismissed it as absurd and unworthy of himself.  A king would be
+more likely to offer to share his throne with a beggar than this girl
+would be to invite him to enjoy the sweet follies of love-making with her
+in a secret spot.
+
+Of course she wanted above all things to acquire some certainty as to her
+sister's fate, perhaps too to speak to him of her parents; still, she
+would hardly have made up her mind to invite him if she had not learned
+to trust him, and this confidence filled him with pride, and at the same
+time with an eager longing to see her, which seemed to storm his heart
+with more violence with every minute that passed.
+
+While the mule sought and found its way in the deep darkness with slow
+and sure steps, he gazed up at the firmament, at the play of the clouds
+which now covered the moon with their black masses, and now parted,
+floating off in white sheeny billows while the silver crescent of the
+moon showed between them like a swan against the dark mirror of a lake.
+
+And all the time he thought incessantly of Klea--thinking in a dreamy way
+that he saw her before him, but different and taller than before, her
+form growing more and more before his eyes till at last it was so tall
+that her head touched the sky, the clouds seemed to be her veil, and the
+moon a brilliant diadem in her abundant dark hair.  Powerfully stirred by
+this vision he let the bridle fall on the mule's neck, and spread open
+his arms to the beautiful phantom, but as he rode forwards it ever
+retired, and when presently the west wind blew the sand in his face, and
+he had to cover his eyes with his hand it vanished entirely, and did not
+return before he found himself at the Apis-tombs.
+
+He had hoped to find here a soldier or a watchman to whom he could
+entrust the beast, but when the midnight chant of the priests of the
+temple of Osiris-Apis had died away not a sound was to be heard far or
+near; all that lay around him was as still and as motionless as though
+all that had ever lived there were dead.  Or had some demon robbed him of
+his hearing?  He could hear the rush of his own swift pulses in his ears-
+not the faintest sound besides.
+
+Such silence is there nowhere but in the city of the dead and at night,
+nowhere but in the desert.
+
+He tied the mule's bridle to a stela of granite covered with
+inscriptions, and went forward to the appointed place.  Midnight must be
+past--that he saw by the position of the moon, and he was beginning to
+ask himself whether he should remain standing where he was or go on to
+meet the water-bearer when he heard first a light footstep, and then saw
+a tall erect figure wrapped in a long mantle advancing straight towards
+him along the avenue of sphinxes.  Was it a man or a woman--was it she
+whom he expected? and if it were she, was there ever a woman who had come
+to meet a lover at an assignation with so measured, nay so solemn,
+a step?  Now he recognized her face--was it the pale moonlight that made
+it look so bloodless and marble-white?  There was something rigid in her
+features, and yet they had never--not even when she blushingly accepted
+his violets--looked to him so faultlessly beautiful, so regular and so
+nobly cut, so dignified, nay impressive.
+
+For fully a minute the two stood face to face, speechless and yet quite
+near to each other.  Then Publius broke the silence, uttering with the
+warmest feeling and yet with anxiety in his deep, pure voice, only one
+single word; and the word was her name "Klea."
+
+The music of this single word stirred the girl's heart like a message and
+blessing from heaven, like the sweetest harmony of the siren's song, like
+the word of acquittal from a judge's lips when the verdict is life or
+death, and her lips were already parted to say 'Publius' in a tone no
+less deep and heartfelt-but, with all the force of her soul, she
+restrained herself, and said softly and quickly:
+
+"You are here at a late hour, and it is well that you have come."
+
+"You sent for me," replied the Roman.
+
+"It was another that did that, not I," replied Klea in a slow dull tone,
+as if she were lifting a heavy weight, and could hardly draw her breath.
+"Now--follow me, for this is not the place to explain everything in."
+
+With these words Klea went towards the locked door of the Apis-tombs, and
+tried, as she stood in front of it, to insert into the lock the key that
+Krates had given her; but the lock was still so new, and her fingers
+shook so much, that she could not immediately succeed.  Publius meanwhile
+was standing close by her side, and as he tried to help her his fingers
+touched hers.
+
+And when he--certainly not by mistake--laid his strong and yet trembling
+hand on hers, she let it stay for a moment, for she felt as if a tide of
+warm mist rose up in her bosom dimming her perceptions, and paralyzing
+her will and blurring her sight.
+
+"Klea," he repeated, and he tried to take her left hand in his own; but
+she, like a person suddenly aroused to consciousness after a short dream,
+immediately withdrew the hand on which his was resting, put the key into
+the lock, opened the door, and exclaimed in a voice of almost stern
+command, "Go in first."
+
+Publius obeyed and entered the spacious antechamber of the venerable
+cave, hewn out of the rock and now dimly lighted.  A curved passage of
+which he could not see the end lay before him, and on both sides, to the
+right and left of him, opened out the chambers in which stood the
+sarcophagi of the deceased sacred bulls.  Over each of the enormous stone
+coffins a lamp burnt day and night, and wherever a vault stood open their
+glimmer fell across the deep gloom of the cave, throwing a bright beam of
+light on the dusky path that led into the heart of the rock, like a
+carpet woven of rays of light.
+
+What place was this that Klea had chosen to speak with him in.
+
+But though her voice sounded firm, she herself was not cool and
+insensible as Orcus--which this place, which was filled with the fumes of
+incense and weighed upon his senses, much resembled--for he had felt her
+fingers tremble under his, and when he went up to her, to help her, her
+heart beat no less violently and rapidly than his own.  Ah! the man who
+should succeed in touching that heart of hard, but pure and precious
+crystal would indeed enjoy a glorious draught of the most perfect bliss.
+
+"This is our destination," said Klea; and then she went on in short
+broken sentences.  "Remain where you are.  Leave me this place near the
+door.  Now, answer me first one question.  My sister Irene has vanished
+from the temple.  Did you cause her to be carried off?"
+
+"I did," replied Publius eagerly.  "She desired me to greet you from her,
+and to tell you how much she likes her new friends.  When I shall have
+told you--"
+
+"Not now" interrupted Klea excitedly.  "Turn round--there where you see
+the lamp-light."  Publius did as he was desired, and a slight shudder
+shook even his bold heart, for the girl's sayings and doings seemed to
+him not solemn merely, but mysterious like those of a prophetess.  A
+violent crash sounded through the silent and sacred place, and loud
+echoes were tossed from side to side, ringing ominously throughout the
+grotto.  Publius turned anxiously round, and his eye, seeking Klea, found
+her no more; then, hurrying to the door of the cave, he heard her lock it
+on the outside.
+
+The water-bearer had escaped him, had flung the heavy door to, and
+imprisoned him; and this idea was to the Roman so degrading and
+unendurable that, lost to every feeling but rage, wounded pride, and the
+wild desire to be free, he kicked the door with all his might, and called
+out angrily to Klea:
+
+"Open this door--I command you.  Let me free this moment or, by all the
+gods--"
+
+He did not finish his threat, for in the middle of the right-hand panel
+of the door a small wicket was opened through which the priests were wont
+to puff incense into the tomb of the sacred bulls--and twice, thrice,
+finally, when he still would not be pacified, a fourth time, Klea called
+out to him:
+
+"Listen to me--listen to me, Publius."  Publius ceased storming, and she
+went on:
+
+"Do not threaten me, for you will certainly repent it when you have heard
+what I have to tell you.  Do not interrupt me; I may tell you at once
+this door is opened every day before sunrise, so your imprisonment will
+not last long; and you must submit to it, for I shut you in to save your
+life--yes, your life which was in danger.  Do you think my anxiety was
+folly?  No, Publius, it is only too well founded, and if you, as a man,
+are strong and bold, so am I as a woman.  I never was afraid of an
+imaginary nothing.  Judge yourself whether I was not right to be afraid
+for you.
+
+"King Euergetes and Eulaeus have bribed two hideous monsters to murder
+you.  When I went to seek out Irene I overheard all, and I have seen with
+my own eyes the two horrible wolves who are lurking to fall upon you, and
+heard with these ears their scheme for doing it.  I never wrote the note
+on the tile which was signed with my name; Eulaeus did it, and you took
+his bait and came out into the desert by night.  In a few minutes the
+ruffians will have stolen up to this place to seek their victim, but they
+will not find you, Publius, for I have saved you--I, Klea, whom you first
+met with smiles--whose sister you have stolen away--the same Klea that
+you a minute since were ready to threaten.  Now, at once, I am going into
+the desert, dressed like a traveller in a coat and hat, so that in the
+doubtful light of the moon I may easily be taken for you--going to give
+my weary heart as a prey to the assassins' knife."
+
+"You are mad!"  cried Publius, and he flung himself with his whole weight
+on the door, and kicked it with all his strength.  "What you purpose is
+pure madness open the door, I command you!  However strong the villains
+may be that Euergetes has bribed, I am man enough to defend myself."
+
+"You are unarmed, Publius, and they have cords and daggers."
+
+"Then open the door, and stay here with me till day dawns.  It is not
+noble, it is wicked to cast away your life.  Open the door at once, I
+entreat you, I command you!"
+
+At any other time the words would not have failed of their effect on
+Klea's reasonable nature, but the fearful storm of feeling which had
+broken over her during the last few hours had borne away in its whirl all
+her composure and self-command.  The one idea, the one resolution, the
+one desire, which wholly possessed her was to close the life that had
+been so full of self-sacrifice by the greatest sacrifice of all--that of
+life itself, and not only in order to secure Irene's happiness and to
+save the Roman, but because it pleased her--her father's daughter--
+to make a noble end; because she, the maiden, would fain show Publius
+what a woman might be capable of who loved him above all others;
+because, at this moment, death did not seem a misfortune; and her mind,
+overwrought by hours of terrific tension, could not free itself from the
+fixed idea that she would and must sacrifice herself.
+
+She no longer thought these things--she was possessed by them; they had
+the mastery, and as a madman feels forced to repeat the same words again
+and again to himself, so no prayer, no argument at this moment would have
+prevailed to divert her from her purpose of giving up her young life for
+Publius and Irene.  She contemplated this resolve with affection and
+pride as justifying her in looking up to herself as to some nobler
+creature.  She turned a deaf ear to the Roman's entreaty, and said in a
+tone of which the softness surprised him:
+
+"Be silent Publius, and hear me further.  You too are noble, and
+certainly you owe me some gratitude for having saved your life."
+
+"I owe you much, and I will pay it," cried Publius, "as long as there is
+breath in this body--but open the door, I beseech you, I implore you--"
+
+"Hear me to the end, time presses; hear me out, Publius.  My sister Irene
+went away with you.  I need say nothing about her beauty, but how bright,
+how sweet her nature is you do not know, you cannot know, but you will
+find out.  She, you must be told, is as poor as I am, but the child of
+freeborn and noble parents.  Now swear to me, swear--no, do not interrupt
+me--swear by the head of your father that you will never, abandon her,
+that you will never behave to her otherwise than as if she were the
+daughter of your dearest friend or of your own brother."
+
+"I swear it and I will keep my oath--by the life of the man whose head is
+more sacred to me than the names of all the gods.  But now I beseech you,
+I command you open this door, Klea--that I may not lose you--that I may
+tell you that my whole heart is yours, and yours alone--that I love you,
+love you unboundedly."
+
+"I have your oath," cried the girl in great excitement, for she could now
+see a shadow moving backwards and forwards at some distance in the
+desert.  "You have sworn by the head of your father.  Never let Irene
+repent having gone with you, and love her always as you fancy now, in
+this moment, that you love me, your preserver.  Remember both of you the
+hapless Klea who would gladly have lived for you, but who now gladly dies
+for you.  Do not forget me, Publius, for I have never but this once
+opened my heart to love, but I have loved you Publius, with pain and
+torment, and with sweet delight--as no other woman ever yet revelled in
+the ecstasy of love or was consumed in its torments."  She almost shouted
+the last words at the Roman as if she were chanting a hymn of triumph,
+beside herself, forgetting everything and as if intoxicated.
+
+Why was he now silent, why had he nothing to answer, since she had
+confessed to him the deepest secret of her breast, and allowed him to
+look into the inmost sanctuary of her heart?  A rush of burning words
+from his lips would have driven her off at once to the desert and to
+death; his silence held her back--it puzzled her and dropped like cool
+rain on the soaring flames of her pride, fell on the raging turmoil of
+her soul like oil on troubled water.  She could not part from him thus,
+and her lips parted to call him once more by his name.
+
+While she had been making confession of her love to the Roman as if
+it were her last will and testament, Publius felt like a man dying of
+thirst, who has been led to a flowing well only to be forbidden to
+moisten his lips with the limpid fluid.  His soul was filled with
+passionate rage approaching to despair, and as with rolling eyes he
+glanced round his prison an iron crow-bar leaning against the wall met
+his gaze; it had been used by the workmen to lift the sarcophagus of the
+last deceased Apis into its right place.  He seized upon this tool, as a
+drowning man flings himself on a floating plank: still he heard Klea's
+last words, and did not lose one of them, though the sweat poured from
+his brow as he inserted the metal lever like a wedge between the two
+halves of the door, just above the threshold.
+
+All was now silent outside; perhaps the distracted girl was already
+hurrying towards the assassins--and the door was fearfully heavy and
+would not open nor yield.  But he must force it--he flung himself on the
+earth and thrust his shoulder under the lever, pushing his whole body
+against the iron bar, so that it seemed to him that every joint
+threatened to give way and every sinew to crack; the door rose--once more
+he put forth the whole strength of his manly vigor, and now the seam in
+the wood cracked, the door flew open, and Klea, seized with terror, flew
+off and away--into the desert--straight towards the murderers.
+
+Publius leaped to his feet and flung himself out of his prison; as he saw
+Klea escape he flew after her with, hasty leaps, and caught her in a few
+steps, for her mantle hindered her in running, and when she would not
+obey his desire that she should stand still he stood in front of her and
+said, not tenderly but sternly and decidedly:
+
+"You do not go a step farther, I forbid it."
+
+"I am going where I must go," cried the girl in great agitation.  "Let me
+go, at once!"
+
+"You will stay here--here with me," snarled Publius, and taking both
+her hands by the wrists he clasped them with his iron fingers as with
+handcuffs.  "I am the man and you are the woman, and I will teach you
+who is to give orders here and who is to obey."
+
+Anger and rage prompted these quite unpremeditated words, and as Klea--
+while he spoke them with quivering lips--had attempted with the exertion
+of all her strength, which was by no means contemptible, to wrench her
+hands from his grasp, he forced her--angry as he still was, but
+nevertheless with due regard for her womanliness--forced her by a gentle
+and yet irresistible pressure on her arms to bend before him, and
+compelled her slowly to sink down on both knees.
+
+As soon as she was in this position, Publius let her free; she covered
+her eyes with her aching hands and sobbed aloud, partly from anger, and
+because she felt herself bitterly humiliated.
+
+"Now, stand up," said Publius in an altered tone as he heard her weeping.
+"Is it then such a hard matter to submit to the will of a man who will
+not and cannot let you go, and whom you love, besides?"  How gentle and
+kind the words sounded!  Klea, when she heard them, raised her eyes to
+Publius, and as she saw him looking down on her as a supplicant her anger
+melted and turned to grateful emotion--she went closer to him on her
+knees, laid her head against him and said:
+
+"I have always been obliged to rely upon myself, and to guide another
+person with loving counsel, but it must be sweeter far to be led by
+affection and I will always, always obey you."
+
+"I will thank you with heart and soul henceforth from this hour!" cried
+Publius, lifting her up.  "You were ready to sacrifice your life for me,
+and now mine belongs to you.  I am yours and you are mine--I your
+husband, you my wife till our life's end!"
+
+He laid his hands on her shoulders, and turned her face round to his; she
+resisted no longer, for it was sweet to her to yield her will to that of
+this strong man.  And how happy was she, who from her childhood had taken
+it upon herself to be always strong, and self-reliant, to feel herself
+the weaker, and to be permitted to trust in a stronger arm than her own.
+Somewhat thus a young rose-tree might feel, which for the first time
+receives the support of the prop to which it is tied by the careful
+gardener.
+
+Her eyes rested blissfully and yet anxiously on his, and his lips had
+just touched hers in a first kiss when they started apart in terror, for
+Klea's name was clearly shouted through the still night-air, and in the
+next instant a loud scream rang out close to them followed by dull cries
+of pain.
+
+"The murderers!"  shrieked Klea, and trembling for herself and for him
+she clung closely to her lover's breast.  In one brief moment the self-
+reliant heroine--proud in her death-defying valor--had become a weak,
+submissive, dependent woman.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Created the world out of nothing for no other purpose
+Dreamless sleep after a day brimful of enjoyment
+Man must subjugate matter and not become subject to it
+No one believes anything that can diminish his self-esteem
+Praise out of all proportion to our merit
+Save them the trouble of thinking for themselves
+She no longer thought these things--she was possessed by them
+Taken it upon herself to be always strong, and self-reliant
+The most terrible of all the gods, are women
+The sun seems to move too slowly to those who long and wait
+We seek for truth; the Jews believe they possess it entirely
+Who always think at second-hand
+Why so vehement, sister?  So much zeal is quite unnecessary
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SISTERS
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 5.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+On the roof of the tower of the pylon by the gate of the Serapeum stood
+an astrologer who had mounted to this, the highest part of the temple, to
+observe the stars; but it seemed that he was not destined on this
+occasion to fulfil his task, for swiftly driving black clouds swept again
+and again across that portion of the heavens to which his observations
+were principally directed.  At last he impatiently laid aside his
+instruments, his waxed tablet and style, and desired the gate-keeper--
+the father of poor little Philo--whose duty it was to attend at night on
+the astrologers on the tower, to carry down all his paraphernalia, as the
+heavens were not this evening favorable to his labors.
+
+"Favorable!" exclaimed the gate-keeper, catching up the astrologer's
+words, and shrugging his shoulders so high that his head disappeared
+between them.
+
+"It is a night of horror, and some great disaster threatens us for
+certain.  Fifteen years have I been in my place, and I never saw such a
+night but once before, and the very next day the soldiers of Antiochus,
+the Syrian king, came and plundered our treasury.  Aye--and to-night is
+worse even than that was; when the dog-star first rose a horrible shape
+with a lion's mane flew across the desert, but it was not till midnight
+that the fearful uproar began, and even you shuddered when it broke out
+in the Apis-cave.  Frightful things must be coming on us when the sacred
+bulls rise from the dead and butt and storm at the door with their horns
+to break it open.  Many a time have I seen the souls of the dead
+fluttering and wheeling and screaming above the old mausoleums, and rock-
+tombs of ancient times.  Sometimes they would soar up in the air in the
+form of hawks with men's heads, or like ibises with a slow lagging
+flight, and sometimes sweep over the desert like gray shapeless shadows,
+or glide across the sand like snakes; or they would creep out of the
+tombs, howling like hungry dogs.  I have often heard them barking like
+jackals or laughing like hyenas when they scent carrion, but to-night is
+the first time I ever heard them shrieking like furious men, and then
+groaning and wailing as if they were plunged in the lake of fire and
+suffering horrible torments.
+
+"Look there--out there--something is moving again!  Oh!  holy father,
+exorcise them with some mighty bann.  Do you not see how they are growing
+larger?  They are twice the size of ordinary mortals."  The astronomer
+took an amulet in his hand, muttered a few sentences to himself, seeking
+at the same time to discover the figures which had so scared the gate-
+keeper.
+
+"They are indeed tall," he said when he perceived them.  "And now they
+are melting into one, and growing smaller and smaller--however, perhaps
+they are only men come to rob the tombs, and who happen to be
+particularly tall, for these figures are not of supernatural height."
+
+"They are twice as tall as you, and you are not short," cried the gate-
+keeper, pressing his lips devoutly to the amulet the astrologer held in
+his hand, "and if they are robbers why has no watchman called out to stop
+them?  How is it their screams and groans have not waked the sentinels
+that are posted there every night?  There--that was another fearful cry!
+Did you ever hear such tones from any human breast?  Great Serapis, I
+shall die of fright!  Come down with me, holy father, that I may look
+after my little sick boy, for those who have seen such sights do not
+escape unstricken."
+
+The peaceful silence of the Necropolis had indeed been disturbed, but the
+spirits of the departed had no share in the horrors which had been
+transacted this night in the desert, among the monuments and rocktombs.
+They were living men that had disturbed the calm of the sacred place,
+that had conspired with darkness in cold-blooded cruelty, greater than
+that of evil spirits, to achieve the destruction of a fellow-man; but
+they were living men too who, in the midst of the horrors of a most
+fearful night, had experienced the blossoming in their own souls of the
+divinest germ which heaven implants in the bosom of its mortal children.
+Thus in a day of battle amid blood and slaughter may a child be born that
+shall grow up blessed and blessing, the comfort and joy of his family.
+
+The lion-maned monster whose appearance and rapid disappearance in the
+desert had first alarmed the gate-keeper, had been met by several
+travellers on its way to Memphis, and each and all, horrified by its
+uncanny aspect, had taken to flight or tried to hide themselves--and yet
+it was no more than a man with warm pulses, an honest purpose, and a true
+and loving heart.  But those who met him could not see into his soul, and
+his external aspect certainly bore little resemblance to that of other
+men.
+
+His feet, unused to walking, moved but clumsily, and had a heavy body to
+carry, and his enormous beard and the mass of gray hair on his head--
+which he turned now this way and now that--gave him an aspect that might
+well scare even a bold man who should meet him unexpectedly.  Two stall-
+keepers who, by day, were accustomed to offer their wares for sale near
+the Serapeum to the pilgrims, met him close to the city.
+
+"Did you see that panting object?"  said one to the other as they looked
+after him.  "If he were not shut up fast in his cell I could declare it
+was Serapion, the recluse."
+
+"Nonsense," replied the other.  "He is tied faster by his oath than by
+chains and fetters.  It must be one of the Syrian beggars that besiege
+the temple of Astarte."
+
+"Perhaps," answered his companion with indifference.  "Let us get on now,
+my wife has a roast goose for supper this evening."
+
+Serapion, it is true, was fast tied to his cell, and yet the pedler had
+judged rightly, for he it was who hurried along the high-road frightening
+all he met.  After his long captivity walking was very painful to him;
+besides, he was barefoot, and every stone in the path hurt the soles of
+his feet which had grown soft; nevertheless he contrived to make a by no
+means contemptible pace when in the distance he caught sight of a woman's
+figure which he could fancy to be Klea.  Many a man, who in his own
+particular sphere of life can cut a very respectable figure, becomes a
+laughing-stock for children when he is taken out of his own narrow
+circle, and thrown into the turmoil of the world with all his
+peculiarities clinging to him.  So it was with Serapion; in the suburbs
+the street-boys ran after him mocking at him, but it was not till three
+smart hussys, who were resting from their dance in front of a tavern,
+laughed loudly as they caught sight of him, and an insolent soldier drove
+the point of his lance through his flowing mane, as if by accident, that
+he became fully conscious of his wild appearance, and it struck him
+forcibly that he could never in this guise find admission to the king's
+palace.
+
+With prompt determination he turned into the first barber's stall that he
+saw lighted up; at his appearance the barber hastily retreated behind his
+counter, but he got his hair and beard cut, and then, for the first time
+for many years, he saw his own face in the mirror that the barber held
+before him.  He nodded, with a melancholy smile, at the face--so much
+aged--that looked at him from the bright surface, paid what was asked,
+and did not heed the compassionate glance which the barber and his
+assistant sent after him.  They both thought they had been exercising
+their skill on a lunatic, for he had made no answer to all their
+questions, and had said nothing but once in a deep and fearfully loud
+voice:
+
+"Chatter to other people--I am in a hurry."
+
+In truth his spirit was in no mood for idle gossip; no, it was full of
+gnawing anxiety and tender fears, and his heart bled when he reflected
+that he had broken his vows, and forsworn the oath he had made to his
+dying mother.
+
+When he reached the palace-gate he begged one of the civic guard to
+conduct him to his brother, and as he backed his request with a gift of
+money he was led at once to the man whom he sought.  Glaucus was
+excessively startled to recognize Serapion, but he was so much engaged
+that he could only give up a few minutes to his brother, whose
+proceedings he considered as both inexplicable and criminal.
+
+Irene, as the anchorite now learned, had been carried off from the
+temple, not by Euergetes but by the Roman, and Klea had quitted the
+palace only a few minutes since in a chariot and would return about
+midnight and on foot from the second tavern to the temple.  And the poor
+child was so utterly alone, and her way lay through the desert where she
+might be attacked by dissolute soldiery or tomb-robbers or jackals and
+hyenas.  Her walk was to begin from the second tavern, and that was the
+very spot where low rioters were wont to assemble--and his darling was so
+young, so fair, and so defenceless!
+
+He was once more a prey to the same unendurable dread that had come over
+him, in his cell, after Klea had left the temple and darkness had closed
+in.  At that moment he had felt all that a father could feel who from his
+prison-window sees his beloved and defenceless child snatched away by
+some beast of prey.  All the perils that could threaten her in the palace
+or in the city, swarming with drunken soldiers, had risen before his mind
+with fearful vividness, and his powerful imagination had painted in
+glaring colors all the dangers to which his favorite--the daughter of a
+noble and respected man--might be exposed.
+
+He rushed up and down his cell like a wounded tiger, he flung himself
+against the walls, and then, with his body hanging far out of the window,
+had looked out to see if the girl--who could not possibly have returned
+yet--were not come back again.  The darker it grew, the more his anguish
+rose, and the more hideous were the pictures that stood before his fancy;
+and when, presently, a pilgrim in the Pastophorium who had fallen into
+convulsions screamed out loud, he was no longer master of himself--he
+kicked open the door which, locked on the outside and rotten from age,
+had been closed for years, hastily concealed about him some silver coins
+he kept in his chest, and let himself down to the ground.
+
+There he stood, between his cell and the outer wall of the temple, and
+now it was that he remembered his vows, and the oath he had sworn, and
+his former flight from his retreat.  Then he had fled because the
+pleasures and joys of life had tempted him forth--then he had sinned
+indeed; but now the love, the anxious care that urged him to quit his
+prison were the same as had brought him back to it.  It was to keep faith
+that he now broke faith, and mighty Serapis could read his heart, and his
+mother was dead, and while she lived she had always been ready and
+willing to forgive.
+
+He fancied so vividly that he could see her kind old face looking at him
+that he nodded at her as if indeed she stood before him.
+
+Then, he rolled an empty barrel to the foot of the wall, and with some
+difficulty mounted on it.  The sweat poured down him as he climbed up the
+wall built of loose unbaked bricks to the parapet, which was much more
+than a man's height; then, sliding and tumbling, he found himself in the
+ditch which ran round it on the outside, scrambled up its outer slope,
+and set out at last on his walk to Memphis.
+
+What he had afterwards learned in the palace concerning Klea had but
+little relieved his anxiety on her account; she must have reached the
+border of the desert so much sooner than he, and quick walking was so
+difficult to him, and hurt the soles of his feet so cruelly!  Perhaps he
+might be able to procure a staff, but there was just as much bustle
+outside the gate of the citadel as by day.  He looked round him, feeling
+the while in his wallet, which was well filled with silver, and his eye
+fell on a row of asses whose drivers were crowding round the soldiers and
+servants that streamed out of the great gate.
+
+He sought out the strongest of the beasts with an experienced eye, flung
+a piece of silver to the owner, mounted the ass, which panted under its
+load, and promised the driver two drachmm in addition if he would take
+him as quickly as possible to the second tavern on the road to the
+Serapeum.  Thus--he belaboring the sides of the unhappy donkey with his
+sturdy bare legs, while the driver, running after him snorting and
+shouting, from time to time poked him up from behind with a stick--
+Serapion, now going at a short trot, and now at a brisk gallop, reached
+his destination only half an hour later than Klea.
+
+In the tavern all was dark and empty, but the recluse desired no
+refreshment.  Only his wish that he had a staff revived in his mind, and
+he soon contrived to possess himself of one, by pulling a stake out of
+the fence that surrounded the innkeeper's little garden.  This was a
+somewhat heavy walking-stick, but it eased the recluse's steps, for
+though his hot and aching feet carried him but painfully the strength of
+his arms was considerable.
+
+The quick ride had diverted his mind, had even amused him, for he was
+easily pleased, and had recalled to him his youthful travels; but now, as
+he walked on alone in the desert, his thoughts reverted to Klea, and to
+her only.
+
+He looked round for her keenly and eagerly as soon as the moon came out
+from behind the clouds, called her name from time to time, and thus got
+as far as the avenue of sphinxes which connected the Greek and Egyptian
+temples; a thumping noise fell upon his ear from the cave of the Apis-
+tombs.  Perhaps they were at work in there, preparing for the approaching
+festival.  But why were the soldiers, which were always on guard here,
+absent from their posts to-night?  Could it be that they had observed
+Klea, and carried her off?
+
+On the farther side of the rows of sphinxes too, which he had now
+reached, there was not a man to be seen--not a watchman even though the
+white limestone of the tombstones and the yellow desert-sand shone as
+clear in the moonlight as if they had some internal light of their own.
+
+At every instant he grew more and more uneasy, he climbed to the top of a
+sand-hill to obtain a wider view, and loudly called Klea's name.
+
+There--was he deceived?  No--there was a figure visible near one of the
+ancient tomb-shrines--a form that seemed wrapped in a long robe, and when
+once more he raised his voice in a loud call it came nearer to him and to
+the row of sphinxes.  In greate haste and as fast as he could he got down
+again to the roadway, hurried across the smooth pavement, on both sides
+of which the long perspective of man-headed lions kept guard, and
+painfully clambered up a sand-heap on the opposite side.  This was in
+truth a painful effort, for the sand crumbled away again and again under
+his feet, slipping down hill and carrying him with it, thus compelling
+him to find a new hold with hand and foot.  At last he was standing on
+the outer border of the sphinx-avenue and opposite the very shrine where
+he fancied he had seen her whom he sought; but during his clamber it had
+become perfectly dark again, for a heavy cloud had once more veiled the
+moon.  He put both hands to his mouth, and shouted as loud as he could,
+"Klea!"--and then again, "Klea!"
+
+Then, close at his feet he heard a rustle in the sand, and saw a figure
+moving before him as though it had risen out of the ground.  This could
+not be Klea, it was a man--still, perhaps, he might have seen his
+darling--but before he had time to address him he felt the shock of a
+heavy blow that fell with tremendous force on his back between his
+shoulders.  The assassin's sand-bag had missed the exact spot on the nape
+of the neck, and Serapion's strongly-knit backbone would have been able
+to resist even a stronger blow.
+
+The conviction that he was attacked by robbers flashed on his
+consciousness as immediately as the sense of pain, and with it the
+certainty that he was a lost man if he did not defend himself stoutly.
+
+Behind him he heard another rustle in the sand.  As quickly as he could
+he turned round with an exclamation of "Accursed brood of vipers!" and
+with his heavy staff he fell upon the figure before him like a smith
+beating cold iron, for his eye, now more accustomed to the darkness,
+plainly saw it to be a man.  Serapion must have hit straight, for his foe
+fell at his feet with a hideous roar, rolled over and over in the sand,
+groaning and panting, and then with one shrill shriek lay silent and
+motionless.
+
+The recluse, in spite of the dim light, could see all the movements of
+the robber he had punished so severely, and he was bending over the
+fallen man anxiously and compassionately when he shuddered to feel two
+clammy hands touching his feet, and immediately after two sharp pricks in
+his right heel, which were so acutely painful that he screamed aloud, and
+was obliged to lift up the wounded foot.  At the same time, however, he
+did not overlook the need to defend himself.  Roaring like a wounded
+bull, cursing and raging, he laid about him on all sides with his staff,
+but hit nothing but the ground.  Then as his blows followed each other
+more slowly, and at last his wearied arms could no longer wield the heavy
+stake, and he found himself compelled to sink on his knees, a hoarse
+voice addressed him thus:
+
+"You have taken my comrade's life, Roman, and a two-legged serpent has
+stung you for it.  In a quarter of an hour it will be all over with you,
+as it is with that fellow there.  Why does a fine gentleman like you go
+to keep an appointment in the desert without boots or sandals, and so
+make our work so easy?  King Euergetes and your friend Eulaeus send you
+their greetings.  You owe it to them that I leave you even your ready
+money; I wish I could only carry away that dead lump there!"
+
+During this rough speech Serapion was lying on the ground in great agony;
+he could only clench his fists, and groan out heavy curses with his lips
+which were now getting parched.  His sight was as yet undimmed, and he
+could distinctly see by the light of the moon, which now shone forth from
+a broad cloudless opening in the sky, that the murderer attempted to
+carry away his fallen comrade, and then, after raising his head to listen
+for a moment sprang off with flying steps away into the desert.  But the
+recluse now lost consciousness, and when some minutes later he once more
+opened his eyes his head was resting softly in the lap of a young girl,
+and it was the voice of his beloved Klea that asked him tenderly.
+
+"You poor dear father!  How came you here in the desert, and into the
+hands of these murderers?  Do you know me--your Klea?  And he who is
+looking for your wounds--which are not visible at all--he is the Roman
+Publius Scipio.  Now first tell us where the dagger hit you that I may
+bind it up quickly--I am half a physician, and understand these things as
+you know."
+
+The recluse tried to turn his head towards Klea's, but the effort was in
+vain, and he said in a low voice: "Prop me up against the slanting wall
+of the tomb shrine yonder; and you, child, sit down opposite to me, for I
+would fain look at you while I die.  Gently, gently, my friend Publius,
+for I feel as if all my limbs were made of Phoenician glass, and might
+break at the least touch.  Thank you, my young friend--you have strong
+arms, and you may lift me a little higher yet.  So--now I can bear it;
+nay, I am well content, I am to be envied--for the moon shows me your
+dear face, my child, and I see tears on your cheeks, tears for me, a
+surly old man.  Aye, it is good, it is very good to die thus."
+
+"Oh, father, father!"  cried Klea.  "You must not speak so.  You must
+live, you must not die; for see, Publius here asks me to be his wife, and
+the Immortals only can know how glad I am to go with him, and Irene is to
+stay with us, and be my sister and his.  That must make you happy,
+father.--But tell us, pray tell us where the wound hurts that the
+murderer gave you?"
+
+"Children,  children,"  murmured  the  anchorite, and a happy smile
+parted his lips.  "The gracious gods are merciful in permitting me to see
+that--aye, merciful to me, and to effect that end I would have died
+twenty deaths."
+
+Klea pressed his now cold hand to her lips as he spoke and again asked,
+though hardly able to control her voice for tears:
+
+"But the wound, father--where is the wound?"  "Let be, let be," replied
+Serapion.  "It is acrid poison, not a dagger or dart that has undone my
+strength.  And I can depart in peace, for I am no longer needed for
+anything.  You, Publius, must now take my place with this child, and will
+do it better than I.  Klea, the wife of Publius Scipio!  I indeed have
+dreamt that such a thing might come to pass, and I always knew, and have
+said to myself a thousand times that I now say to you my son: This girl
+here, this Klea is of a good sort, and worthy only of the noblest.  I
+give her to you, my son Publius, and now join your hands before me here
+--for I have always been like a father to her."
+
+That you have indeed," sobbed Klea.  "And it was no doubt for my sake,
+and to protect me, that you quitted your retreat, and have met your
+death."
+
+"It was fate, it was fate," stammered the old man.
+
+"The assassins were in ambush for me," cried Publius, seizing Serapion's
+hand, "the murderers who fell on you instead of me.  Once more, where is
+your wound?"
+
+"My destiny fulfils itself," replied the recluse.  "No locked-up cell,
+no physician, no healing herb can avail against the degrees of Fate.
+I am dying of a serpent's sting as it was foretold at my birth; and if I
+had not gone out to seek Klea a serpent would have slipped into my cage,
+and have ended my life there.  Give me your hands, my children, for a
+deadly chill is creeping over me, and its cold hand already touches my
+heart."
+
+For a few minutes his voice failed him, and then he said softly:
+
+"One thing I would fain ask of you.  My little possessions, which were
+intended for you and Irene, you will now use to bury me.  I do not wish
+to be burnt, as they did with my father--no, I should wish to be finely
+embalmed, and my mummy to be placed with my mother's.  If indeed we may
+meet again after death--and I believe we shall--I would rather see her
+once more than any one, for she loved me so much--and I feel now as if I
+were a child again, and could throw my arms round her neck.  In another
+life, perhaps, I may not be the child of misfortune that I have been in
+this--in another life--now it grips my heart--in another----Children
+whatever joys have smiled on me in this, children, it was to you I have
+owed it--Klea, to you--and there is my little Irene too----"
+
+These were the last words of Serapion the recluse; he fell back with a
+deep sigh and was dead.  Klea and Publius tenderly closed his faithful
+eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+The unwonted tumult that had broken the stillness of the night had not
+been unobserved in the Greek Serapeum any more than in the Egyptian
+temple adjoining the Apis-tombs; but perfect silence once more reigned in
+the Necropolis, when at last the great gate of the sanctuary of Osiris-
+Apis was thrown open, and a little troop of priests arranged in a
+procession came out from it with a vanguard of temple servants, who had
+been armed with sacrificial knives and axes.
+
+Publius and Klea, who were keeping faithful watch by the body of their
+dead friend, saw them approaching, and the Roman said:
+
+"It would have been even less right in such a night as this to let you
+proceed to one of the temples with out my escort than to have let our
+poor friend remain unwatched."
+
+"Once more I assure you," said Klea eagerly "that we should have thrown
+away every chance of fulfilling Serapion's last wish as he intended, if
+during our absence a jackal or a hyena had mutilated his body, and I am
+happy to be able at least to prove to my friend, now he is dead, how
+grateful I am for all the kindness he showed us while he lived.  We ought
+to be grateful even to the departed, for how still and blissful has this
+hour been while guarding his body.  Storm and strife brought us
+together--"
+
+"And here," interrupted Publius, "we have concluded a happy and permanent
+treaty of peace for the rest of our lives."
+
+"I accept it willingly," replied Klea, looking down, "for I am the
+vanquished party."
+
+"But you have already confessed," said Publius, "that you were never so
+unhappy as when you thought you had asserted your strength against mine,
+and I can tell you that you never seemed to me so great and yet so
+lovable as when in the midst of your triumph, you gave up the battle for
+lost.  Such an hour as that, a man experiences but once in his lifetime.
+I have a good memory, but if ever I should forget it, and be angry and
+passionate--as is sometimes my way--remind me of this spot, or of this
+our dead friend, and my hard mood will melt, and I shall remember that
+you once were ready to give your life for mine.  I will make it easy for
+you, for in honor of this man, who sacrificed his life for yours and who
+was actually murdered in my stead, I promise to add his name of Serapion
+to my own, and I will confirm this vow in Rome.  He has behaved to us as
+a father, and it behoves me to reverence his memory as though I had been
+his son.  An obligation was always unendurable to me, and how I shall
+ever make full restitution to you for what you have done for me this
+night I do not yet know--and yet I should be ready and willing every day
+and every hour to accept from you some new gift of love.  'A debtor,'
+says the proverb, 'is half a prisoner,' and so I must entreat you to deal
+mercifully with your conquerer."
+
+He took her hand, stroked back the hair from her forehead, and touched it
+lightly with his lips.  Then he went on:
+
+"Come with me now that we may commit the dead into the hands of these
+priests."
+
+Klea once more bent over the remains of the anchorite, she hung the
+amulet he had given her for her journey round his neck, and then silently
+obeyed her lover.  When they came up with the little procession Publius
+informed the chief priest how he had found Serapion, and requested him to
+fetch away the corpse, and to cause it to be prepared for interment in
+the costliest manner in the embalming house attached to their temple.
+Some of the temple-servants took their places to keep watch over the
+body, and after many questions addressed to Publius, and after examining
+too the body of the assassin who had been slain, the priests returned to
+the temple.
+
+As soon as the two lovers were left alone again Klea seized the Roman's
+hand, and said passionately: "You have spoken many tender words to me,
+and I thank you for them; but I am wont always to be honest, and less
+than any one could I deceive you.  Whatever your love bestows upon me
+will always be a free gift, since you owe me nothing at all and I owe you
+infinitely much; for I know now that you have snatched my sister from the
+clutches of the mightiest in the land while I, when I heard that Irene
+had gone away with you, and that murder threatened your life, believed
+implicitly that on the contrary you had lured the child away to become
+your sweetheart, and then--then I hated you, and then--I must confess it\
+--in my horrible distraction I wished you dead!"
+
+"And you think that wish can offend me or hurt me?"  said Publius.  "No,
+my child; it only proves to me that you love me as I could wish to be
+loved.  Such rage under such circumstances is but the dark shadow cast by
+love, and is as inseparable from love as from any tangible body.  Where
+it is absent there is no such thing as real love present--only an airy
+vision, a phantom, a mockery.  Such an one as Klea does not love nor hate
+by halves; but there are mysterious workings in your soul as in that of
+every other woman.  How did the wish that you could see me dead turn into
+the fearful resolve to let yourself be killed in my stead?"
+
+"I saw the murderers," answered Klea, "and I was overwhelmed with horror
+of them and of their schemes, and of all that had to do with them; I
+would not destroy Irene's happiness, and I loved you even more deeply
+than I hated you; and then--but let us not speak of it."
+
+"Nay-tell me all."
+
+"Then there was a moment--"
+
+"Well, Klea?"
+
+"Then--in these last hours, while we have been sitting hand in hand by
+the body of poor Serapion, and hardly speaking, I have felt it all over
+again--then the midnight hymn of the priests fell upon my heart, and as I
+lifted up my soul in prayer at their pious chant I felt as if all my
+inmost heart had been frozen and hardened, and was reviving again to new
+life and tenderness and warmth.  I could not help thinking of all that is
+good and right, and I made up my mind to sacrifice myself for you and for
+Irene's happiness far more quickly and easily than I could give it up
+afterwards.  My father was one of the followers of Zeno--"
+
+"And you," interrupted Publius, "thought you were acting in accordance
+with the doctrine of the Stoa.  I also am familiar with it, but I do not
+know the man who is so virtuous and wise that he can live and act, as
+that teaching prescribes, in the heat of the struggle of life, or who is
+the living representative in flesh and blood of the whole code of ethics,
+not sinning against one of its laws and embodying it in himself.  Did you
+ever hear of the peace of mind, the lofty indifference and equanimity of
+the Stoic sages?  You look as if the question offended you, but you did
+not by any means know how to attain that magnanimity, for I have seen you
+fail in it; indeed it is contrary to the very nature of woman, and--
+the gods be thanked--you are not a Stoic in woman's dress, but a woman
+--a true woman, as you should be.  You have learned nothing from Zeno and
+Chrysippus but what any peasant girl might learn from an honest father,
+to be true I mean and to love virtue.  Be content with that; I am more
+than satisfied."
+
+"Oh, Publius," exclaimed the girl, grasping her friend's hand.
+"I understand you, and I know that you are right.  A woman must be
+miserable so long as she fancies herself strong, and imagines and feels
+that she needs no other support than her own firm will and determination,
+no other counsel than some wise doctrines which she accepts and adheres
+to.  Before I could call you mine, and went on my own way, proud of my
+own virtue, I was--I cannot bear to think of it--but half a soul, and
+took it for a whole; but now--if now fate were to snatch you from me, I
+should still know where to seek the support on which I might lean in need
+and despair.  Not in the Stoa, not in herself can a woman find such a
+stay, but in pious dependence on the help of the gods."
+
+"I am a man," interrupted Publius, "and yet I sacrifice to them and yield
+ready obedience to their decrees."
+
+"But," cried Klea, "I saw yesterday in the temple of Serapis the meanest
+things done by his ministers, and it pained me and disgusted me, and I
+lost my hold on the divinity; but the extremest anguish and deepest love
+have led me to find it again.  I can no longer conceive of the power that
+upholds the universe as without love nor of the love that makes men happy
+as other than divine.  Any one who has once prayed for a being they love
+as I prayed for you in the desert can never again forget how to pray.
+Such prayers indeed are not in vain.  Even if no god can hear them there
+is a strengthening virtue in such prayer itself.
+
+"Now I will go contentedly back to our temple till you fetch me, for I
+know that the discreetest, wisest, and kindest Beings will watch over our
+love."
+
+"You will not accompany me to Apollodorus and Irene?"  asked Publius in
+surprise.
+
+"No," answered Klea firmly.  "Rather take me back to the Serapeum.  I
+have not yet been released from the duties I undertook there, and it will
+be more worthy of us both that Asclepiodorus should give you the daughter
+of Philotas as your wife than that you should be married to a runaway
+serving-maid of Serapis."
+
+Publius considered for a moment, and then he said eagerly:
+
+"Still I would rather you should come with me.  You must be dreadfully
+tired, but I could take you on my mule to Apollodorus.  I care little for
+what men say of me when I am sure I am doing right, and I shall know how
+to protect you against Euergetes whether you wish to be readmitted to the
+temple or accompany me to the sculptor.  But do come--it will be hard on
+me to part from you again.  The victor does not lay aside the crown when
+he has just won it in hard fight."
+
+"Still I entreat you to take me back to the Serapeum," said Klea, laying
+her hand in that of Publius.
+
+"Is the way to Memphis too long, are you utterly tired out?"
+
+"I am much wearied by agitation and terror, by anxiety and happiness,
+still I could very well bear the ride; but I beg of you to take me back
+to the temple,"
+
+"What--although you feel strong enough to remain with me, and in spite of
+my desire to conduct you at once to Apollodorus and Irene?"  asked
+Publius astonished, and he withdrew his hand.  "The mule is waiting out
+there.  Lean on my arm.  Come and do as I request you."
+
+"No, Publius, no.  You are my lord and master, and I will always obey you
+unresistingly.  In one thing only let me have my own way, now and in the
+future.  As to what becomes a woman I know better than you, it is a thing
+that none but a woman can decide."
+
+Publius made no reply to these words, but he kissed her, and threw his
+arm round her; and so, clasped in each other's embrace, they reached the
+gate of the Serapeum, there to part for a few hours.
+
+Klea was let into the temple, and as soon as she had learned that little
+Philo was much better, she threw herself on her humble bed.
+
+How lonely her room seemed, how intolerably empty without Irene.  In
+obedience to a hasty impulse she quitted her own bed, lay herself down on
+her sister's, as if that brought her nearer to the absent girl, and
+closed her eyes; but she was too much excited and too much exhausted to
+sleep soundly.  Swiftly-changing visions broke in again and again on her
+sincerely devotional thoughts and her restless half-sleep, painting to
+her fancy now wondrously bright images, and now most horrible ones--now
+pictures of exquisite happiness, and again others of dismal melancholy.
+And all the time she imagined she heard distant music and was being
+rocked up and down by unseen hands.
+
+Still the image of the Roman overpowered all the rest.
+
+At last a refreshing sleep sealed her eyes more closely, and in her dream
+she saw her lover's house in Rolne, his stately father, his noble mother
+--who seemed to her to bear a likeness to her own mother--and the figures
+of a number of tall and dignified senators.  She felt herself much
+embarrassed among all these strangers, who looked enquiringly at her, and
+then kindly held out their hands to her.  Even the dignified matron came
+to meet her with effusion, and clasped her to her breast; but just as
+Publius had opened his to her and she flew to his heart, and she fancied
+she could feel his lips pressed to hers, the woman, who called her every
+morning, knocked at her door and awoke her.
+
+This time she had been happy in her dream and would willingly have slept
+again; but she forced herself to rise from her bed, and before the sun
+was quite risen she was standing by the Well of the Sun and, not to
+neglect her duty, she filled both the jars for the altar of the god.
+
+Tired and half-overcome by sleep, she set the golden vessels in their
+place, and sat down to rest at the foot of a pillar, while a priest
+poured out the water she had brought, as a drink-offering on the ground.
+
+It was now broad daylight as she looked out into the forecourt through
+the many-pillared hall of the temple; the early sunlight played round the
+columns, and its slanting rays, at this hour, fell through the tall
+doorway far into the great hall which usually lay in twilight gloom.
+
+The sacred spot looked very solemn in her eyes, sublime, and as it were
+reconsecrated, and obeying an irresistible impulse she leaned against a
+column, and lifting up her arms, and raising her eyes, she uttered her
+thankfulness to the god for his loving kindness, and found but one thing
+to pray for, namely that he would preserve Publius and Irene, and all
+mankind, from sorrow and anxiety and deception.
+
+She felt as if her heart had till now been benighted and dark, and had
+just disclosed some latent light--as if it had been withered and dry, and
+was now blossoming in fresh verdure and brightly-colored flowers.
+
+To act virtuously is granted even to those who, relying on themselves.
+earnestlv strive to lead moral, just and honest lives; but the happy
+union of virtue and pure inner happiness is solemnized only in the heart
+which is able to seek and find a God--be it Serapis or Jehovah.
+
+At the door of the forecourt Klea was met by Asclepiodorus, who desired
+her to follow him.  The high-priest had learned that she had secretly
+quitted the temple: when she was alone with him in a quiet room he asked
+her gravely and severely, why she had broken the laws and left the
+sanctuary without his permission.  Klea told him, that terror for her
+sister had driven her to Memphis, and that she there had heard that
+Publics Cornelius Scipio, the Roman who had taken up her father's cause,
+had saved Irene from king Euergetes, and placed her in safety, and that
+then she had set out on her way home in the middle of the night.
+
+The high-priest seemed pleased at her news, and when she proceeded to
+inform him that Serapion had forsaken his cell out of anxiety for her,
+and had met his death in the desert, he said:
+
+"I knew all that, my child.  May the gods forgive the recluse, and may
+Serapis show him mercy in the other world in spite of his broken oath!
+His destiny had to be fulfilled.  You, child, were born under happier
+stars than he, and it is within my power to let you go unpunished.  This
+I  do willingly; and  Klea, if my daughter Andromeda grows up, I can only
+wish that she may resemble you; this is the highest praise that a father
+can bestow on another man's daughter.  As head of this temple I command
+you to fill your jars to-day, as usual, till one who is worthy of you
+comes to me, and asks you for his wife.  I suspect he will not be long to
+wait for."
+
+"How do you know, father,--" asked Klea, coloring.
+
+"I can read it in your eyes," said Asclepiodorus, and he gazed kindly
+after her as, at a sign from him, she quitted the room.
+
+As soon as he was alone he sent for his secretary and said:
+
+"King Philometor has commanded that his brother Euergetes' birthday shall
+be kept to-day in Memphis.  Let all the standards be hoisted, and the
+garlands of flowers which will presently arrive from Arsinoe be fastened
+up on the pylons; have the animals brought in for sacrifice, and arrange
+a procession for the afternoon.  All the dwellers in the temple must be
+carefully attired.  But there is another thing; Komanus has been here,
+and has promised us great things in Euergetes' name, and declares that he
+intends to punish his brother Philometor for having abducted a girl--
+Irene--attached to our temple.  At the same time he requests me to send
+Klea the water-bearer, the sister of the girl who was carried off, to
+Memphis to be examined--but this may be deferred.  For to-day we will
+close the temple gates, solemnize the festival among ourselves, and allow
+no one to enter our precincts for sacrifice and prayer till the fate of
+the sisters is made certain.  If the kings themselves make their
+appearance, and want to bring their troops in, we will receive them
+respectfully as becomes us, but we will not give up Klea, but consign her
+to the holy of holies, which even Euergetes dare not enter without me;
+for in giving up the girl we sacrifice our dignity, and with that
+ourselves."
+
+The secretary bowed, and then announced that two of the prophets of
+Osiris-Apis desired to speak with Asclepiodorus.
+
+Klea had met these men in the antechamber as she quitted the high-priest,
+and had seen in the hand of one of them the key with which she had opened
+the door of the rock-tomb.  She had started, and her conscience urged her
+to go at once to the priest-smith, and tell him how ill she had fulfilled
+her errand.
+
+When she entered his room Krates was sitting at his work with his feet
+wrapped up, and he was rejoiced to see her, for his anxiety for her and
+for Irene had disturbed his night's rest, and towards morning his alarm
+had been much increased by a frightful dream.
+
+Klea, encouraged by the friendly welcome of the old man, who was usually
+so surly, confessed that she had neglected to deliver the key to the
+smith in the city, that she had used it to open the Apis-tombs, and had
+then forgotten to take it out of the new lock.  At this confession the
+old man broke out violently, he flung his file, and the iron bolt at
+which he was working, on to his work-table, exclaiming:
+
+"And this is the way you executed your commission.  It is the first time
+I ever trusted a woman, and this is my reward!  All this will bring evil
+on you and on me, and when it is found out that the sanctuary of Apis has
+been desecrated through my fault and yours, they will inflict all sorts
+of penance on me, and with very good reason--as for you, they will punish
+you with imprisonment and starvation."
+
+"And yet, father," Klea calmly replied, "I feel perfectly guiltless, and
+perhaps in the same fearful situation you might not have acted
+differently."
+
+"You think so--you dare to believe such a thing?"  stormed the old man.
+"And if the key and perhaps even the lock have been stolen, and if I
+have done all that beautiful and elaborate work in vain?"
+
+"What thief would venture into the sacred tombs?"  asked Klea doubtfully.
+
+"What!  are they so unapproachable?" interrupted Krates.  "Why, a
+miserable creature like you even dared to open them.  But only wait--only
+wait; if only my feet were not so painful--"
+
+"Listen to me," said the girl, going closer up to the indignant smith.
+"You are discreet, as you proved to me only yesterday; and if I were to
+tell you all I went through and endured last night you would certainly
+forgive me, that I know."
+
+"If you are not altogether mistaken!" shouted the smith.  "Those must be
+strange things indeed which could induce me to let such neglect of duty
+and such a misdemeanor pass unpunished."
+
+And strange things they were indeed which the old man now had to hear,
+for when Klea had ended her narrative of all that had occurred during the
+past night, not her eyes only but those of the old smith too were wet
+with tears.
+
+"These accursed legs!"  he muttered, as his eyes met the enquiring glance
+of the young girl, and he wiped the salt dew from his cheeks with the
+sleeve of his coat.  "Aye-a swelled foot like mine is painful, child, and
+a cripple such as I am is not always strong-minded.  Old women grow like
+men, and old men grow like women.  Ah! old age--it is bad to have such
+feet as mine, but what is worse is that memory fades as years advance.
+I believe now that I left the key myself in the door of the Apis-tombs
+last evening, and I will send at once to Asclepiodorus, so that he may
+beg the Egyptians up there to forgive me--they are indebted to me for
+many small jobs."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+All the black masses of clouds which during the night had darkened the
+blue sky and hidden the light of the moon had now completely disappeared.
+The north-east wind which rose towards morning had floated them away, and
+Zeus, devourer of the clouds, had swallowed them up to the very last.  It
+was a glorious morning, and as the sun rose in the heavens, and pierced
+and burnt up with augmenting haste the pale mist that hovered over the
+Nile, and the vapor that hung--a delicate transparent veil of bluish-grey
+bombyx-gauze--over the eastern slopes, the cool shades of night vanished
+too from the dusky nooks of the narrow town which lay, mile-wide, along
+the western bank of the river.  And the intensely brilliant sunlight
+which now bathed the streets and houses, the palaces and temples, the
+gardens and avenues, and the innumerable vessels in the harbor of
+Memphis, was associated with a glow of warmth which was welcome even
+there in the early morning of a winter's day.
+
+Boats' captains and sailors--were hurrying down to the shore of the Nile
+to avail themselves of the northeast breeze to travel southwards against
+the current, and sails were being hoisted and anchors heaved, to an
+accompaniment of loud singing.  The quay was so crowded with ships that
+it was difficult to understand how those that were ready could ever
+disentangle themselves, and find their way through those remaining
+behind; but each somehow found an outlet by which to reach the navigable
+stream, and ere long the river was swarming with boats, all sailing
+southwards, and giving it the appearance of an endless perspective of
+camp tents set afloat.
+
+Long strings of camels with high packs, of more lightly laden asses, and
+of dark-colored slaves, were passing down the road to the harbor; these
+last were singing, as yet unhurt by the burden of the day, and the
+overseers' whips were still in their girdles.
+
+Ox-carts were being laden or coming down to the landing-place with goods,
+and the ship's captains were already beginning to collect round the
+different great merchants--of whom the greater number were Greeks, and
+only a few dressed in Egyptian costume--in order to offer their freight
+for sale, or to hire out their vessels for some new expedition.
+
+The greatest bustle and noise were at a part of the quay where, under
+large tents, the custom-house officials were busily engaged, for most
+vessels first cast anchor at Memphis to pay duty or Nile-toll on the
+"king's table."  The market close to the harbor also was a gay scene;
+there dates and grain, the skins of beasts, and dried fish were piled in
+great heaps, and bleating and bellowing herds of cattle were driven
+together to be sold to the highest bidder.
+
+Soldiers on foot and horseback in gaudy dresses and shining armor,
+mingled with the busy crowd, like peacocks and gaudy cocks among the
+fussy swarm of hens in a farm yard; lordly courtiers, in holiday dresses
+of showy red, blue and yellow stuffs, were borne by slaves in litters or
+standing on handsome gilt chariots; garlanded priests walked about in
+long white robes, and smartly dressed girls were hurrying down to the
+taverns near the harbor to play the flute or to dance.
+
+The children that were playing about among this busy mob looked
+covetously at the baskets piled high with cakes, which the bakers' boys
+were carrying so cleverly on their heads.  The dogs innumerable, put up
+their noses as the dealers in such dainties passed near them, and many of
+them set up longing howls when a citizen's wife came by with her slaves,
+carrying in their baskets freshly killed fowls, and juicy meats to roast
+for the festival, among heaps of vegetables and fruits.
+
+Gardeners' boys and young girls were bearing garlands of flowers,
+festoons and fragrant nosegays, some piled on large trays which they
+carried two and two, some on smaller boards or hung on cross poles for
+one to carry; at that part of the quay where the king's barge lay at
+anchor numbers of workmen were busily employed in twining festoons of
+greenery and flowers round the flag-staffs, and in hanging them with
+lanterns.
+
+Long files of the ministers of the god-representing the five phyla or
+orders of the priesthood of the whole country--were marching, in holiday
+attire, along the harbor-road in the direction of the palace, and the
+jostling crowd respectfully made way for them to pass.  The gleams of
+festal splendor seemed interwoven with the laborious bustle on the quay
+like scraps of gold thread in a dull work-a-day garment.
+
+Euergetes, brother of the king, was keeping his birthday in Memphis to-
+day, and all the city was to take part in the festivities.
+
+At the first hour after sunrise victims had been sacrificed in the temple
+of Ptah, the most ancient, and most vast of the sanctuaries of the
+venerable capital of the Pharaohs; the sacred Apis-bull, but recently
+introduced into the temple, was hung all over with golden ornaments;
+early in the morning Euergetes had paid his devotions to the sacred
+beast--which had eaten out of his hand, a favorable augury of success for
+his plans; and the building in which the Apis lived, as well as the
+stalls of his mother and of the cows kept for him, had been splendidly
+decked with flowers.
+
+The citizens of Memphis were not permitted to pursue their avocations or
+ply their trades beyond the hour of noon; then the markets, the booths,
+the workshops and schools were to be closed, and on the great square in
+front of the temple of Ptah, where the annual fair was held, dramas both
+sacred and profane, and shows of all sorts were to be seen, heard and
+admired by men, women and children--provided at the expense of the two
+kings.
+
+Two men of Alexandria, one an AEolian of Lesbos, and the other a Hebrew
+belonging to the Jewish community, but who was not distinguishable by
+dress or accent from his Greek fellow-citizens, greeted each other on the
+quay opposite the landing-place for tho king's vessels, some of which
+were putting out into the stream, spreading their purple sails and
+dipping their prows inlaid with ivory and heavily gilt.
+
+"In a couple of hours," said the Jew, "I shall be travelling homewards.
+May I offer you a place in my boat, or do you propose remaining here to
+assist at the festival and not starting till to-morrow morning?  There
+are all kinds of spectacles to be seen, and when it is dark a grand
+illumination is to take place."
+
+"What do I care for their barbarian rubbish?"  answered the Lesbian.
+"Why, the Egyptian music alone drives me to distraction.  My business is
+concluded.  I had inspected the goods brought from Arabia and India by
+way of Berenice and Coptos, and had selected those I needed before the
+vessel that brought them had moored in the Mariotic harbor, and other
+goods will have reached Alexandria before me.  I will not stay an hour
+longer than is necessary in this horrible place, which is as dismal as it
+is huge.  Yesterday I visited the gymnasium and the better class of
+baths--wretched, I call them!  It is an insult to the fish-market and the
+horse-ponds of Alexandria to compare them with them."
+
+"And the theatre!"  exclaimed the Jew.  "The exterior one can bear to
+look at--but the acting!  Yesterday they gave the 'Thals' of Menander,
+and I assure you that in Alexandria the woman who dared to impersonate
+the bewitching and cold-hearted Hetaira would have been driven off the
+stage--they would have pelted her with rotten apples.  Close by me there
+sat a sturdy, brown Egyptian, a sugar-baker or something of the kind, who
+held his sides with laughing, and yet, I dare swear, did not understand a
+word of the comedy.  But in Memphis it is the fashion to know Greek, even
+among the artisans.  May I hope to have you as my guest?"
+
+"With pleasure, with pleasure!"  replied the Lesbian.  "I was about to
+look out for a boat.  Have you done your business to your satisfaction?"
+
+"Tolerably!"  answered the Jew.  "I have purchased some corn from Upper
+Egypt, and stored it in the granaries here.  The whole of that row yonder
+were to let for a mere song, and so we get off cheaply when we let the
+wheat lie here instead of at Alexandria where granaries are no longer to
+be had for money."
+
+"That is very clever!"  replied the Greek.  "There is bustle enough here
+in the harbor, but the many empty warehouses and the low rents prove how
+Memphis is going down.  Formerly this city was the emporium for all
+vessels, but now for the most part they only run in to pay the toll and
+to take in supplies for their crews.  This populous place has a big
+stomach, and many trades drive a considerable business here, but most of
+those that fail here are still carried on in Alexandria."
+
+"It is the sea that is lacking," interrupted the Jew; "Memphis trades
+only with Egypt, and we with the whole world.  The merchant who sends his
+goods here only load camels, and wretched asses, and flat-bottomed Nile-
+boats, while we in our harbors freight fine seagoing vessels.  When the
+winter-storms are past our house alone sends twenty triremes with
+Egyptian wheat to Ostia and to Pontus; and your Indian and Arabian goods,
+your imports from the newly opened Ethiopian provinces, take up less
+room, but I should like to know how many talents your trade amounted to
+in the course of the past year.  Well then, farewell till we meet again
+on my boat; it is called the Euphrosyne, and lies out there, exactly
+opposite the two statues of the old king--who can remember these stiff
+barbarian names?  In three hours we start.  I have a good cook on board,
+who is not too particular as to the regulations regarding food by which
+my countrymen in Palestine live, and you will find a few new books and
+some capital wine from Byblos."
+
+"Then we need not dread a head-wind," laughed the Lesbian.  "We meet
+again in three hours."
+
+The Israelite waved his hand to his travelling companion, and proceeded
+at first along the shore under the shade of an alley of sycamores with
+their broad unsymmetrical heads of foliage, but presently he turned aside
+into a narrow street which led from the quay to the city.  He stood still
+for a moment opposite the entrance of the corner house, one side of which
+lay parallel to the stream while the other--exhibiting the front door,
+and a small oil-shop--faced the street; his attention had been attracted
+to it by a strange scene; but he had still much to attend to before
+starting on his journey, and he soon hurried on again without noticing a
+tall man who came towards him, wearing a travelling-hat and a cloak such
+as was usually adapted only for making journeys.
+
+The house at which the Jew had gazed so fixedly was that of Apollodorus,
+the sculptor, and the man who was so strangely dressed for a walk through
+the city at this hour of the day was the Roman, Publius Scipio.  He
+seemed to be still more attracted by what was going on in the little
+stall by the sculptor's front door, than even the Israelite had been; he
+leaned against the fence of the garden opposite the shop, and stood for
+some time gazing and shaking his head at the strange things that were to
+be seen within.
+
+A wooden counter supported by the wall of the house-which was used by
+customers to lay their money on and which generally held a few oil-jars-
+projected a little way into the street like a window-board, and on this
+singular couch sat a distinguished looking youth in a light blue,
+sleeveless chiton, turning his back on the stall itself, which was not
+much bigger than a good sized travelling-chariot.  By his side lay a
+"Himation"--[A long square cloak, and an indispensable part of the dress
+of the Greeks.]--of fine white woolen stuff with a blue border.  His legs
+hung out into the street, and his brilliant color stood out in wonderful
+contrast to the dark skin of a naked Egyptian boy, who crouched at his
+feet with a cage full of doves.
+
+The young Greek sitting on the window-counter had a golden fillet on his
+oiled and perfumed curls, sandals of the finest leather on his feet, and
+even in these humble surroundings looked elegant--but even more merry
+than elegant--for the whole of his handsome face was radiant with smiles
+while he tied two small rosy-grey turtle doves with ribands of rose-
+colored bombyx-silk to the graceful basket in which they were sitting,
+and then slipped a costly gold bracelet over the heads of the frightened
+birds, and attached it to their wings with a white silk tie.
+
+When he had finished this work he held the basket up, looked at it with a
+smile of satisfaction, and he was in the very act of handing it to the
+black boy when he caught sight of Publius, who went up to him from the
+garden-fence.
+
+"In the name of all the gods, Lysias," cried the Roman, without greeting
+his friend, what fool's trick are you at there again!  Are you turned
+oil-seller, or have you taken to training pigeons?"
+
+"I am the one, and I am doing the other," answered the Corinthian with a
+laugh, for he it was to whom the Roman's speech was addressed.  "How do
+you like my nest of young doves?  It strikes me as uncommonly pretty, and
+how well the golden circlet that links their necks becomes the little
+creatures!"
+
+"Here, put out your claws, you black crocodile," he continued, turning to
+his little assistant, "carry the basket carefully into the house, and
+repeat what I say, 'From the love-sick Lysias to the fair Irene'--Only
+look, Publius, how the little monster grins at me with his white teeth.
+You shall hear that his Greek is far less faultless than his teeth.
+Prick up your ears, you little ichneumon--now once more repeat what you
+are to say in there--do you see where I am pointing with my finger?--to
+the master or to the lady who shall take the doves from you."
+
+With much pitiful stammering the boy repeated the Corinthian's message to
+Irene, and as he stood there with his mouth wide open, Lysias, who was an
+expert at "ducks and drakes" on the water, neatly tossed into it a silver
+drachma.  This mouthful was much to the little rascal's taste, for after
+he had taken the coin out of his mouth he stood with wide-open jaws
+opposite his liberal master, waiting for another throw; Lysias however
+boxed him lightly on his ears, and chucked him under the chin, saying as
+he snapped the boy's teeth together:
+
+"Now carry up the birds and wait for the answer."  "This offering is to
+Irene, then?"  said Publius.  "We have not met for a long time; where
+were you all day yesterday?"
+
+"It will be far more entertaining to hear what you were about all the
+night long.  You are dressed as if you had come straight here from Rome.
+Euergetes has already sent for you once this morning, and the queen
+twice; she is over head and ears in love with you."
+
+"Folly!  Tell me now what you were doing all yesterday."
+
+"Tell me first where you have been."
+
+"I had to go some distance and will tell you all about it later, but not
+now; and I encountered strange things on my way--aye, I must say
+extraordinary things.  Before sunrise I found a bed in the inn yonder,
+and to my own great surprise I slept so soundly that I awoke only two.
+hours since."
+
+"That is a very meagre report; but I know of old that if you do not
+choose to speak no god could drag a syllable from you.  As regards myself
+I should do myself an injury by being silent, for my heart is like an
+overloaded beast of burden and talking will relieve it.  Ah!  Publius, my
+fate to-day is that of the helpless Tantalus, who sees juicy pears
+bobbing about under his nose and tempting his hungry stomach, and yet
+they never let him catch hold of them, only look-in there dwells Irene,
+the pear, the peach, the pomegranate, and my thirsting heart is consumed
+with longing for her.  You may laugh--but to-day Paris might meet Helen
+with impunity, for Eros has shot his whole store of arrows into me.  You
+cannot see them, but I can feel them, for not one of them has he drawn
+out of the wound.  And the darling little thing herself is not wholly
+untouched by the winged boy's darts.  She has confessed so much to me
+myself.  It is impossible for me to refuse her any thing, and so I was
+fool enough to swear a horrible oath that I would not try to see her till
+she was reunited to her tall solemn sister, of whom I am exceedingly
+afraid.  Yesterday I lurked outside this house just as a hungry wolf in
+cold weather sneaks about a temple where lambs are being sacrificed, only
+to see her, or at least to hear a word from her lips, for when she speaks
+it is like the song of nightingales--but all in vain.  Early this morning
+I came back to the city and to this spot; and as hanging about forever
+was of no use, I bought up the stock of the old oil-seller, who is asleep
+there in the corner, and settled myself in his stall, for here no one can
+escape me, who enters or quits Apollodorus' house--and, besides, I am
+only forbidden to visit Irene; she herself allows me to send her
+greetings, and no one forbids me, not even Apollodorus, to whom I spoke
+an hour ago."
+
+"And that basket of birds that your dusky errand-boy carried into the
+house just now, was such a 'greeting?"
+
+"Of course--that is the third already.  First I sent her a lovely nosegay
+of fresh pomegranate-blossoms, and with it a few verses I hammered out in
+the course of the night; then a basket of peaches which she likes very
+much, and now the doves.  And there lie her answers--the dear, sweet
+creature!  For my nosegay I got this red riband, for the fruit this peach
+with a piece bitten out.  Now I am anxious to see what I shall get for my
+doves.  I bought that little brown scamp in the market, and I shall take
+him with me to Corinth as a remembrance of Memphis, if he brings me back
+something pretty this time.  There, I hear the door, that is he; come
+here youngster, what have you brought?"  Publius stood with his arms
+crossed behind his back, hearing and watching the excited speech and
+gestures of his friend who seemed to him, to-day more than ever, one of
+those careless darlings of the gods, whose audacious proceedings give us
+pleasure because they match with their appearance and manner, and we feel
+they can no more help their vagaries than a tree can help blossoming.  As
+soon as Lysias spied a small packet in the boy's hand he did not take it
+from him but snatched up the child, who was by no means remarkably small,
+by the leather belt that fastened up his loin-cloth, tossed him up as if
+he were a plaything, and set him down on the table by his side,
+exclaiming:
+
+"I will teach you to fly, my little hippopotamus!  Now, show me what you
+have got."
+
+He hastily took the packet from the hand of the youngster, who looked
+quite disconcerted, weighed it in his hand and said, turning to Publius:
+
+"There is something tolerably heavy in this--what can it contain?"
+
+"I am quite inexperienced in such matters," replied the Roman.
+
+"And I much experienced," answered Lysias.  "It might be, wait-it might
+be the clasp of her girdle in here.  Feel, it is certainly something
+hard."
+
+Publius carefully felt the packet that the Corinthian held out to him,
+with his fingers, and then said with a smile:
+
+"I can guess what you have there, and if I am right I shall be much
+pleased.  Irene, I believe, has returned you the gold bracelet on a
+little wooden tablet."
+
+"Nonsense!"  answered Lysias.  "The ornament was prettily wrought and of
+some value, and every girl is fond of ornaments."
+
+"Your Corinthian friends are, at any rate.  But look what the wrapper
+contains."
+
+"Do you open it," said the Corinthian.
+
+Publius first untied a thread, then unfolded a small piece of white
+linen, and came at last to an object wrapped in a bit of flimsy, cheap
+papyrus.  When this last envelope was removed, the bracelet was in fact
+discovered, and under it lay a small wax tablet.
+
+Lysias was by no means pleased with this discovery, and looked
+disconcerted and annoyed at the return of his gift; but he soon mastered
+his vexation, and said turning to his friend, who was not in the least
+maliciously triumphant, but who stood looking thoughtfully at the ground.
+
+"Here is something on the little tablet--the sauce no doubt to the
+peppered dish she has set before me."
+
+"Still, eat it," interrupted Publius.  "It may do you good for the
+future."
+
+Lysias took the tablet in his hand, and after considering it carefully on
+both sides he said:
+
+"It belongs to the sculptor, for there is his name.  And there--why she
+has actually spiced the sauce or, if you like it better the bitter dose,
+with verses.  They are written more clearly than beautifully, still they
+are of the learned sort."
+
+"Well?"  asked the Roman with curiosity, as Lysias read the lines to
+himself; the Greek did not look up from the writing but sighed softly,
+and rubbing the side of his finely-cut nose with his finger he replied:
+
+"Very pretty, indeed, for any one to whom they are not directly
+addressed.  Would you like to hear the distich?"
+
+"Read it to me, I beg of you."
+
+"Well then," said the Corinthian, and sighing again he read aloud;
+
+         'Sweet is the lot of the couple whom love has united;
+          But gold is a debt, and needs must at once be restored.'
+
+"There, that is the dose.  But doves are not human creatures, and I know
+at once what my answer shall be.  Give me the fibula, Publius, that
+clasps that cloak in which you look like one of your own messengers.  I
+will write my answer on the wax."
+
+The Roman handed to Lysias the golden circlet armed with a strong pin,
+and while he stood holding his cloak together with his hands, as he was
+anxious to avoid recognition by the passers-by that frequented this
+street, the Corinthian wrote as follows:
+
+         "When doves are courting the lover adorns himself only;
+          But when a youth loves, he fain would adorn his beloved."
+
+"Am I allowed to hear it?"  asked Publius, and his friend at once read
+him the lines; then he gave the tablet to the boy, with the bracelet
+which he hastily wrapped up again, and desired him to take it back
+immediately to the fair Irene.  But the Roman detained the lad, and
+laying his hand on the Greek's shoulder, he asked him: "And if the young
+girl accepts this gift, and after it many more besides--since you are
+rich enough to make her presents to her heart's content--what then,
+Lysias?"
+
+"What then?"  repeated the other with more indecision and embarrassment
+than was his wont.  "Then I wait for Klea's return home and--Aye! you may
+laugh at me, but I have been thinking seriously of marrying this girl,
+and taking her with me to Corinth.  I am my father's only son, and for
+the last three years he has given me no peace.  He is bent on my mother's
+finding me a wife or on my choosing one for myself.  And if I took him
+the pitch-black sister of this swarthy lout I believe he would be glad.
+I never was more madly in love with any girl than with this little Irene,
+as true as I am your friend; but I know why you are looking at me with a
+frown like Zeus the Thunderer.  You know of what consequence our family
+is in Corinth, and when I think of that, then to be sure--"
+
+"Then to be sure?"  enquired the Roman in sharp, grave tone.
+
+"Then I reflect that a water-bearer--the daughter of an outlawed man, in
+our house--"
+
+"And do you consider mine as being any less illustrious in Rome than your
+own is in Corinth?" asked Publius sternly.
+
+"On the contrary, Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica.  We are important by
+our wealth, you by your power and estates."
+
+"So it is--and yet I am about to conduct Irene's sister Klea as my lawful
+wife to my father's house."
+
+"You are going to do that!" cried Lysias springing from his seat, and
+flinging himself on the Roman's breast, though at this moment a party of
+Egyptians were passing by in the deserted street.  "Then all is well,
+then--oh!  what a weight is taken off my mind!--then Irene shall be my
+wife as sure as I live!  Oh Eros and Aphrodite and Father Zeus and
+Apollo!  how happy I am!  I feel as if the biggest of the Pyramids yonder
+had fallen off my heart.  Now, you rascal, run up and carry to the fair
+Irene, the betrothed of her faithful Lysias--mark what I say--carry her
+at once this tablet and bracelet.  But you will not say it right; I will
+write here above my distich: 'From the faithful Lysias to the fair Irene
+his future wife.'  There--and now I think she will not send the thing
+back again, good girl that she is!  Listen, rascal, if she keeps it you
+may swallow cakes to-day out on the Grand Square till you burst--and yet
+I have only just paid five gold pieces for you.  Will she keep the
+bracelet, Publius--yes or no?"
+
+"She will keep it."
+
+A few minutes later the boy came hurrying back, and pulling the Greek
+vehemently by his dress, he cried:
+
+"Come, come with me, into the house."  Lysias with a light and graceful
+leap sprang right over the little fellow's head, tore open the door, and
+spread out his arms as he caught sight of Irene, who, though trembling
+like a hunted gazelle, flew down the narrow ladder-like stairs to meet
+him, and fell on his breast laughing and crying and breathless.
+
+In an instant their lips met, but after this first kiss she tore herself
+from his arms, rushed up the stairs again, and then, from the top step,
+shouted joyously:
+
+"I could not help seeing you this once! now farewell till Klea comes,
+then we meet again," and she vanished into an upper room.
+
+Lysias turned to his friend like one intoxicated, he threw himself down
+on his bench, and said:
+
+"Now the heavens may fall, nothing can trouble me!  Ye immortal gods, how
+fair the world is!"
+
+"Strange boy!" exclaimed the Roman, interrupting his friend's rapture.
+"You can not stay for ever in this dingy stall."
+
+"I will not stir from this spot till Klea comes.  The boy there shall
+fetch me victuals as an old sparrow feeds his young; and if necessary I
+will lie here for a week, like the little sardines they preserve in oil
+at Alexandria."
+
+"I hope you will have only a few hours to wait; but I must go, for I am
+planning a rare surprise for King Euergetes on his birthday, and must go
+to the palace.  The festival is already in full swing.  Only listen how
+they are shouting and calling down by the harbor; I fancy I can hear the
+name of Euergetes."
+
+"Present my compliments to the fat monster!  May we meet again soon--
+brother-in-law!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+King Euergetes was pacing restlessly up and down the lofty room which his
+brother had furnished with particular magnificence to be his reception-
+room.  Hardly had the sun risen on the morning of his birthday when he
+had betaken himself to the temple of Ptah with a numerous suite--before
+his brother Philometor could set out--in order to sacrifice there, to win
+the good graces of the high-priest of the sanctuary, and to question of
+the oracle of Apis.  All had fallen out well, for the sacred bull had
+eaten out of his hand; and yet be would have been more glad--though it
+should have disdained the cake he offered it, if only Eulaeus had brought
+him the news that the plot against the Roman's life had been successful.
+
+Gift after gift, addresses of congratulation from every district of the
+country, priestly decrees drawn up in his honor and engraved on tablets
+of hard stone, lay on every table or leaned against the walls of the vast
+ball which the guests had just quitted.  Only Hierax, the king's friend,
+remained with him, supporting himself, while he waited for some sign from
+his sovereign, on a high throne made of gold and ivory and richly
+decorated with gems, which had been sent to the king by the Jewish
+community of Alexandria.
+
+The great commander knew his master well and knew too that it was not
+prudent to address him when he looked as he did now.  But Euergetes
+himself was aware of the need for speech, and he began, without pausing
+in his walk or looking at his dignified friend:
+
+"Even the Philobasilistes have proved corrupt; my soldiers in the citadel
+are more numerous and are better men too than those that have remained
+faithful to Philometor, and there ought to be nothing more for me to do
+but to stir up a brief clatter of swords on shields, to spring upon the
+throne, and to have myself proclaimed king; but I will never go into the
+field with the strongest division of the enemy in my rear.  My brother's
+head is on my sister's shoulders, and so long as I am not certain
+of her--"
+
+A chamberlain rushed into the room as the king spoke, and interrupted him
+by shouting out:
+
+"Queen Cleopatra."
+
+A smile of triumph flashed across the features of the young giant; he
+flung himself with an air of indifference on to a purple divan, and
+desired that a magnificent lyre made of ivory, and presented to him by
+his sister, should be brought to him; on it was carved with wonderful
+skill and delicacy a representation of the first marriage, that of Cadmus
+with Harmonia, at which all the gods had attended as guests.
+
+Euergetes grasped the chords with wonderful vigor and mastery, and began
+to play a wedding march, in which eager triumph alternated with tender
+whisperings of love and longing.
+
+The chamberlain, whose duty it was to introduce the  queen to her
+brother's presence, wished to interrupt this performance of his
+sovereign's; but Cleopatra held him back, and stood listening at the
+door with her children till Euergetes had brought the air to a rapid
+conclusion with a petulant sweep of the strings, and a loud and ear-
+piercing discord; then he flung his lute on the couch and rose with well-
+feigned surprise, going forward to meet the queen as if, absorbed in
+playing, he had not heard her approach.
+
+He greeted his sister affectionately, holding out both his hands to her,
+and spoke to the children--who were not afraid of him, for he knew how to
+play madcap games with them like a great frolicsome boy--welcoming them
+as tenderly as if he were their own father.
+
+He could not weary of thanking Cleopatra for her thoughtful present--so
+appropriate to him, who like Cadmus longed to boast of having mastered
+Harmonia, and finally--she not having found a word to say--he took her by
+the hand to exhibit to her the presents sent him by her husband and from
+the provinces.  But Cleopatra seemed to take little pleasure in all these
+things, and said:
+
+"Yes, everything is admirable, just as it has always been every year for
+the last twenty years; but I did not come here to see but to listen."
+
+Her brother was radiant with satisfaction; she on the contrary was pale
+and grave, and, could only now and then compel herself to a forced smile.
+
+"I fancied," said Euergetes, "that your desire to wish me joy was the
+principal thing that had brought you here, and, indeed, my vanity
+requires me to believe it.  Philometor was with me quite early, and
+fulfilled that duty with touching affection.  When will he go into the
+banqueting-hall?"
+
+"In half an hour; and till then tell me, I entreat you, what yesterday
+you--"
+
+"The best events are those that are long in preparing," interrupted her
+brother.  "May I ask you to let the children, with their attendants,
+retire for a few minutes into the inner rooms?"
+
+"At once!" cried Cleopatra eagerly, and she pushed her eldest boy, who
+clamorously insisted on remaining with his uncle, violently out of the
+door without giving his attendant time to quiet him or take him in her
+arms.
+
+While she was endeavoring, with angry scolding and cross words, to hasten
+the children's departure, Eulaeus came into the room.  Euergetes, as soon
+as he saw him, set every limb with rigid resolve, and drew breath so
+deeply that his broad chest heaved high, and a strong respiration parted
+his lips as he went forward to meet the eunuch, slowly but with an
+enquiring look.
+
+Eulaeus cast a significant glance at Hierax and Cleopatra, went quite
+close up to the king, whispered a few words into his ear, and answered
+his brief questions in a low voice.
+
+"It is well," said Euergetes at last, and with a decisive gesture of his
+hand he dismissed Eulaeus and his friend from the room.
+
+Then he stood, as pale as death, his teeth set in his under-lip, and
+gazing blankly at the ground.
+
+He had his will, Publius Cornelius Scipio lived no more; his ambition
+might reach without hindrance the utmost limits of his desires, and yet
+he could not rejoice; he could not escape from a deep horror of himself,
+and he struck his broad forehead with his clenched fists.  He was face to
+face with his first dastardly murder.
+
+"And what news does Eulaeus bring?"  asked Cleopatra in anxious
+excitement, for she had never before seen her brother like this; but he
+did not hear these words, and it was not till she had repeated them with
+more insistence that he collected himself, stared at her from head to
+foot with a fixed, gloomy expression, and then, letting his hand fall on
+her shoulder so heavily that her knees bent under her and she gave a
+little cry, asked her in a low but meaning tone:
+
+"Are you strong enough to bear to hear great news?"
+
+"Speak," she said in a low voice, and her eyes were fixed on his lips
+while she pressed her hand on her heart.  Her anxiety to hear fettered
+her to him, as with a tangible tie, and he, as if he must burst it by the
+force of his utterance, said with awful solemnity, in his deepest tones
+and emphasizing every syllable:
+
+"Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica is dead."
+
+At these words Cleopatra's pale cheeks were suddenly dyed with a crimson
+glow, and clenching her little hands she struck them together, and
+exclaimed with flashing eyes:
+
+"I hoped so!"
+
+Euergetes withdrew a step from his sister, and said: "You were right.
+It is not only among the race of gods that the most fearful of all are
+women!"
+
+"What have you to say?"  retorted Cleopatra.  "And am I to believe that a
+toothache has kept the Roman away from the banquet yesterday, and again
+from coming to see me to-day?  Am I to repeat, after you, that he died of
+it?  Now, speak out, for it rejoices my heart to hear it; where and how
+did the insolent hypocrite meet his end?"
+
+"A serpent stung him," replied Euergetes, turning from his sister.  "It
+was in the desert, not far from the Apis-tombs."
+
+"He had an assignation in the Necropolis at midnight--it would seem to
+have begun more pleasantly than it ended?"
+
+Euergetes nodded assent to the question, and added gravely:
+
+"His fate overtook him--but I cannot see anything very pleasing in the
+matter."
+
+"No?"  asked the queen.  "And do you think that I do not know the asp
+that ended that life in its prime?  Do you think that I do not know, who
+set the poisoned serpent on the Roman?  You are the assassin, and Eulaeus
+and his accomplices have helped you!  Only yesterday I would have given
+my heart's blood for Publius, and would rather have carried you to the
+grave than him; but to-day, now that I know the game that the wretch has
+been playing with me, I would even have taken on myself the bloody deed
+which, as it is, stains your hands.  Not even a god should treat your
+sister with such contempt--should insult her as he has done--and go
+unpunished!  Another has already met the same fate, as you know--
+Eustorgos, Hipparchon of Bithynia, who, while he seemed to be dying of
+love for me, was courting Kallistrata my lady in waiting; and the wild
+beasts and serpents exercised their dark arts on him too.  Eulaeus'
+intelligence has fallen on you, who are powerful, like a cold hand on
+your heart; in me, the weak woman, it rouses unspeakable delight.  I gave
+him the best of all a woman has to bestow, and he dared to trample it in
+the dust; and had I no right to require of him that he should pour out
+the best that he had, which was his life, in the same way as he had dared
+to serve mine, which is my love?  I have a right to rejoice at his death.
+Aye!  the heavy lids now close those bright eyes which could be falser
+than the stern lips that were so apt to praise truth.  The faithless
+heart is forever still which could scorn the love of a queen--and for
+what?  For whom?  Oh, ye pitiful gods!"
+
+With these words the queen sobbed aloud, hastily lifting her hands to
+cover her eyes, and ran to the door by which she had entered her
+brother's rooms.
+
+But Euergetes stood in her way, and said sternly and positively:
+
+"You are to stay here till I return.  Collect yourself, for at the next
+event which this momentous day will bring forth it will be my turn to
+laugh while your blood shall run cold."  And with a few swift steps he
+left the hall.
+
+Cleopatra buried her face in the soft cushions of the couch, and wept
+without ceasing, till she was presently startled by loud cries and the
+clatter of arms.  Her quick wit told her what was happening.  In frantic
+haste she flew to the door but it was locked; no shaking, no screaming,
+no thumping seemed to reach the ears of the guard whom she heard
+monotonously walking up and down outside her prison.
+
+And now the tumult and clang of arms grew louder and louder, and the
+rattle of drums and blare of trumpets began to mingle with the sound.
+She rushed to the window in mortal fear, and looked down into the palace-
+yard; at that same instant the door of the great banqueting-hall was
+flung open, and a flying crowd streamed out in distracted confusion--then
+another, and a third--all troops in King Philometor's uniform.  She ran
+to the door of the room into which she had thrust her children; that too
+was locked.  In her desperation she once more sprang to the window,
+shouted to the flying Macedonians to halt and make a stand--threatening
+and entreating; but no one heard her, and their number constantly
+increased, till at length she saw her husband standing on the threshold
+of the great hall with a gaping wound on his forehead, and defending
+himself bravely and stoutly with buckler and sword against the body-guard
+of his own brother, who were pressing him sorely.  In agonized excitement
+she shouted encouraging words to him, and he seemed to hear her, for with
+a strong sweep of his shield he struck his nearest antagonist to the
+earth, sprang with a mighty leap into the midst of his flying adherents,
+and vanished with them through the passage which led to the palace-
+stables.
+
+The queen sank fainting on her knees by the window, and, through the
+gathering shades of her swoon her dulled senses still were conscious of
+the trampling of horses, of a shrill trumpet-blast, and at last of a
+swelling and echoing shout of triumph with cries of, "Hail: hail to the
+son of the Sun--Hail to the uniter of the two kingdoms; Hail to the King
+of Upper and Lower Egypt, to Euergetes the god."
+
+But at the last words she recovered consciousness entirely and started
+up.  She looked down into the court again, and there saw her brother
+borne along on her husband's throne-litter by dignitaries and nobles.
+Side by side with the traitor's body-guard marched her own and
+Philometor's Philobasilistes and Diadoches.
+
+The magnificent train went out of the great court of the palace, and
+then--as she heard the chanting of priests--she realized that she had
+lost her crown, and knew whither her faithless brother was proceeding.
+
+She ground her teeth as her fancy painted all that was now about to
+happen.  Euergetes was being borne to the temple of Ptah, and proclaimed
+by its astonished chief-priests, as King of Upper and Lower Egypt, and
+successor to Philometor.  Four pigeons would be let fly in his presence
+to announce to the four quarters of the heavens that a new sovereign had
+mounted the throne of his fathers, and amid prayer and sacrifice a golden
+sickle would be presented to him with which, according to ancient custom,
+he would cut an ear of corn.
+
+Betrayed by her brother, abandoned by her husband, parted from her
+children, scorned by the man she had loved, dethroned and powerless,
+too weak and too utterly crushed to dream of revenge--she spent two
+interminably long hours in the keenest anguish of mind, shut up in her
+prison which was overloaded with splendor and with gifts.  If poison had
+been within her reach, in that hour she would unhesitatingly have put an
+end to her ruined life.  Now she walked restlessly up and down, asking
+herself what her fate would be, and now she flung herself on the couch
+and gave herself up to dull despair.
+
+There lay the lyre she had given to her brother; her eye fell on the
+relievo of the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, and on the figure of a
+woman who was offering a jewel to the bride.  The bearer of the gift was
+the goddess of love, and the ornament she gave--so ran the legend--
+brought misfortune on those who inherited it.  All the darkest hours of
+her life revived in her memory, and the blackest of them all had come
+upon her as the outcome of Aphrodite's gifts.  She thought with a shudder
+of the murdered Roman, and remembered the moment when Eulaeus had told
+her that her Bithynian lover had been killed by wild beasts.  She rushed
+from one door to another--the victim of the avenging Eumenides--shrieked
+from the window for rescue and help, and in that one hour lived through a
+whole year of agonies and terrors.
+
+At last--at last, the door of the room was opened, and Euergetes came
+towards her, clad in the purple, with the crown of the two countries on
+his grand head, radiant with triumph and delight.
+
+"All hail to you, sister!"  he exclaimed in a cheerful tone, and lifting
+the heavy crown from his curling hair.  "You ought to be proud to-day,
+for your own brother has risen to high estate, and is now King of Upper
+and Lower Egypt."
+
+Cleopatra turned from him, but he followed her and tried to take her
+hand.  She however snatched it away, exclaiming:
+
+"Fill up the measure of your deeds, and insult the woman whom you have
+robbed and made a widow.  It was with a prophecy on your lips that you
+went forth just now to perpetrate your greatest crime; but it falls on
+your own head, for you laugh over our misfortune--and it cannot regard
+me, for my blood does not run cold; I am not overwhelmed nor hopeless,
+and I shall--"
+
+"You," interrupted Euergetes, at first with a loud voice, which presently
+became as gentle as though he were revealing to her the prospect of a
+future replete with enjoyment, "You shall retire to your roof-tent with
+your children, and there you shall be read to as much as you like, eat as
+many dainties as you can, wear as many splendid dresses as you can
+desire, receive my visits and gossip with me as often as my society may
+seem agreeable to you--as yours is to me now and at all times.  Besides
+all this you may display your sparkling wit before as many Greek and
+Jewish men of letters or learning as you can command, till each and all
+are dazzled to blindness.  Perhaps even before that you may win back your
+freedom, and with it a full treasury, a stable full of noble horses, and
+a magnificent residence in the royal palace on the Bruchion in gay
+Alexandria.  It depends only on how soon our brother Philometor--who
+fought like a lion this morning--perceives that he is more fit to be a
+commander of horse, a lute-player, an attentive host of word-splitting
+guests--than the ruler of a kingdom.  Now, is it not worthy of note to
+those who, like you and me, sister, love to investigate the phenomena of
+our spiritual life, that this man--who in peace is as yielding as wax,
+as week as a reed--is as tough and as keen in battle as a finely tempered
+sword?  We hacked bravely at each other's shields, and I owe this slash
+here on my shoulder to him.  If Hierax--who is in pursuit of him with his
+horsemen--is lucky and catches him in time, he will no doubt give up the
+crown of his own free will."
+
+"Then he is not yet in your power, and he had time to mount a horse!"
+cried Cleopatra, her eyes sparkling with satisfaction; "then all is not
+yet lost for us.  If Philometor can but reach Rome, and lay our case
+before the Senate--"
+
+"Then he might certainly have some prospect of help from the Republic,
+for Rome does not love to see a strong king on the throne of Egypt," said
+Euergetes.  "But you have lost your mainstay by the Tiber, and I am about
+to make all the Scipios and the whole gens Cornelia my stanch allies, for
+I mean to have the deceased Roman burnt with the finest cedar-wood and
+Arabian spices; sacrifices shall be slaughtered at the same time as if he
+had been a reigning king, and his ashes shall be sent to Ostia and Rome
+in the costliest specimen of Vasa murrina that graces my treasure-house,
+and on a ship specially fitted, and escorted by the noblest of my
+friends.  The road to the rampart of a hostile city lies over corpses,
+and I, as general and king--"
+
+Euergetes suddenly broke off in his sentence, for a loud noise and
+vehement talking were heard outside the door.  Cleopatra too had not
+failed to observe it, and listened with alert attention; for on such a
+day and in these apartments every dialogue, every noise in the king's
+antechamber might be of grave purport.
+
+Euergetes did not deceive himself in this matter any more than his
+sister, and he went towards the door holding the sacrificial sickle,
+which formed part of his regalia, in his right hand.  But he had not
+crossed the room when Eulaeus rushed in, as pale as death, and calling
+out to his sovereign:
+
+"The murderers have betrayed us; Publius Scipio is alive, and insists on
+being admitted to speak with you."
+
+The king's armed hand fell by his side, and for a moment he gazed blankly
+into vacancy, but the next instant he had recovered himself, and roared
+in a voice which filled the room like rolling thunder:
+
+"Who dares to hinder the entrance of my friend Publius Cornelius Scipio?
+And are you still here, Eulaeus--you scoundrel and you villain!  The
+first case that I, as King of Upper and Lower Egypt, shall open for trial
+will be that which this man--who is your foe and my friend--proposes to
+bring against you.  Welcome! most welcome on my birthday, my noble
+friend!"
+
+The last words were addressed to Publius, who now entered the room with
+stately dignity, and clad in the ample folds of the white toga worn by
+Romans of high birth.  He held a sealed roll or despatch in his right
+hand, and, while he bowed respectfully to Cleopatra, he seemed entirely
+to overlook the hands King Euergetes held out in welcome.  After his
+first greeting had been disdained by the Roman, Euergetes would not have
+offered him a second if his life had depended on it.  He crossed his arms
+with royal dignity, and said:
+
+"I am grieved to receive your good wishes the last of all that have been
+offered me on this happy day."
+
+"Then you must have changed your mind," replied Publius, drawing up his
+slight figure, which was taller than the king's, "You have no lack of
+docile instruments, and last night you were fully determined to receive
+my first congratulations in the realm of shades."
+
+"My sister," answered Euergetes, shrugging his shoulders, "was only
+yesterday singing the praises of your uncultured plainness of speech; but
+to-day it is your pleasure to speak in riddles like an Egyptian oracle."
+
+"They cannot, however, be difficult to solve by you and your minions,"
+replied Publius coldly, as he pointed to Eulaeus.  "The serpents which
+you command have powerful poisons and sharp fangs at their disposal; this
+time, however, they mistook their victim, and have sent a poor recluse of
+Serapis to Hades instead of one of their king's guests."
+
+"Your enigma is harder than ever," cried the king.  "My intelligence at
+least is unequal to solve it, and I must request you to speak in less
+dark language or else to explain your meaning."
+
+"Later, I will," said Publius emphatically, "but these things concern
+myself alone, and I stand here now commissioned by the State of Rome
+which I serve.  To-day Juventius Thalna will arrive here as ambassador
+from the Republic, and this document from the Senate accredits me as its
+representative until his arrival."
+
+Euergetes took the sealed roll which Publius offered to him.  While he
+tore it open, and hastily looked through its contents, the door was again
+thrown open and Hierax, the king's trusted friend, appeared on the
+threshold with a flushed face and hair in disorder.
+
+"We have him!"  he cried before he came in.  "He fell from his horse near
+Heliopolis."
+
+"Philometor?"  screamed Cleopatra, flinging herself upon Hierax.  "He
+fell from his horse--you have murdered him?"
+
+The tone in which the words were said, so full of grief and horror that
+the general said compassionately:
+
+"Calm yourself, noble lady; your husband's wound in the forehead is not
+dangerous.  The physicians in the great hall of the temple of the Sun
+bound it up, and allowed me to bring him hither on a litter."
+
+Without hearing Hierax to the end Cleopatra flew towards the door, but
+Euergetes barred her way and gave his orders with that decision which
+characterized him, and which forbade all contradiction:
+
+"You will remain here till I myself conduct you to him.  I wish to have
+you both near me."
+
+"So that you may force us by every torment to resign the throne!"  cried
+Cleopatra.  "You are in luck to-day, and we are your prisoners."
+
+"You are free, noble queen," said the Roman to the poor woman, who was
+trembling in every limb.  "And on the strength of my plenipotentiary
+powers I here demand the liberty of King Philometor, in the name of the
+Senate of Rome."
+
+At these words the blood mounted to King Euergetes' face and eyes, and,
+hardly master of himself, he stammered out rather than said:
+
+"Popilius Laenas drew a circle round my uncle Antiochus, and threatened
+him with the enmity of Rome if he dared to overstep it.  You might excel
+the example set you by your bold countryman--whose family indeed was far
+less illustrious than yours--but I--I--"
+
+"You are at liberty to oppose the will of Rome," interrupted Publius with
+dry formality, "but, if you venture on it, Rome, by me, will withdraw her
+friendship.  I stand here in the name of the Senate, whose purpose it is
+to uphold the treaty which snatched this country from the Syrians, and by
+which you and your brother pledged yourselves to divide the realm of
+Egypt between you.  It is not in my power to alter what has happened
+here; but it is incumbent on me so to act as to enable Rome to distribute
+to each of you that which is your due, according to the treaty ratified
+by the Republic.
+
+"In all questions which bear upon that compact Rome alone must decide,
+and it is my duty to take care that the plaintiff is not prevented from
+appearing alive and free before his protectors.  So, in the name of the
+Senate, King Euergetes, I require you to permit King Philometor your
+brother, and Queen Cleopatra your sister, to proceed hence, whithersoever
+they will."  Euergetes, breathing hard in impotent fury, alternately
+doubling his fists, and extending his quivering fingers, stood opposite
+the Roman who looked enquiringly in his face with cool composure; for a
+short space both were silent.  Then Euergetes, pushing his hands through
+his hair, shook his head violently from side to side, and exclaimed:
+
+"Thank the Senate from me, and say that I know what we owe to it, and
+admire the wisdom which prefers to see Egypt divided rather than united
+in one strong hand--Philometor is free, and you also Cleopatra."
+
+For a moment he was again silent, then he laughed loudly, and cried to
+the queen:
+
+"As for you sister--your tender heart will of course bear you on the
+wings of love to the side of your wounded husband."
+
+Cleopatra's pale cheeks had flushed scarlet at the Roman's speech; she
+vouchsafed no answer to her brother's ironical address, but advanced
+proudly to the door.  As she passed Publius she said with a farewell wave
+of her pretty hand.
+
+"We are much indebted to the Senate."
+
+Publius bowed low, and she, turning away from him, quitted the room.
+
+"You have forgotten your fan, and your children!" the king called after
+her; but Cleopatra did not hear his words, for, once outside her
+brother's apartment, all her forced and assumed composure flew to the
+winds; she clasped her hands on her temples, and rushed down the broad
+stairs of the palace as if she were pursued by fiends.
+
+When the sound of her steps had died away, Euergetes turned to the Roman
+and said:
+
+"Now, as you have fulfilled what you deem to be your duty, I beg of you
+to explain the meaning of your dark speeches just now, for they were
+addresed to Euergetes the man, and not the king.  If I understood you
+rightly you meant to imply that your life had been attempted, and that
+one of those extraordinary old men devoted to Serapis had been murdered
+instead of you."
+
+"By your orders and those of your accomplice Eulaeus," answered Publius
+coolly.
+
+"Eulaeus, come here!" thundered the king to the trembling courtier, with
+a fearful and threatening glare in his eyes.  "Have you hired murderers
+to kill my friend--this noble guest of our royal house--because he
+threatened to bring your crimes to light?"
+
+"Mercy!" whimpered Eulaeus sinking on his knees before the king.
+
+"He confesses his crime!" cried Euergetes; he laid his hand on the girdle
+of his weeping subordinate, and commanded Hierax to hand him over without
+delay to the watch, and to have him hanged before all beholders by the
+great gate of the citadel.  Eulaeus tried to pray for mercy and to speak,
+but the powerful officer, who hated the contemptible wretch, dragged him
+up, and out of the room.
+
+"You were quite right to lay your complaint before me," said Euergetes
+while Eulaeus cries and howls were still audible on the stairs.  "And you
+see that I know how to punish those who dare to offend a guest."
+
+"He has only met with the portion he has deserved for years," replied
+Publius.  "But now that we stand face to face, man to man, I must close
+my account with you too.  In your service and by your orders Eulaeus set
+two assassins to lie in wait for me--"
+
+"Publius Cornelius Scipio!" cried the king, interrupting his enemy in an
+ominous tone; but the Roman went on, calmly and quietly:
+
+"I am saying nothing that I cannot support by witnesses; and I have truly
+set forth, in two letters, that king Euergetes during the past night has
+attempted the life of an ambassador from Rome.  One of these despatches
+is addressed to my father, the other to Popilius Lamas, and both are
+already on their way to Rome.  I have given instructions that they are to
+be opened if, in the course of three months reckoned from the present
+date, I have not demanded them back.  You see you must needs make it
+convenient to protect my life, and to carry out whatever I may require of
+you.  If you obey my will in everything I may demand, all that has
+happened this night shall remain a secret between you and me and a third
+person, for whose silence I will be answerable; this I promise you, and I
+never broke my word."
+
+"Speak," said the king flinging himself on the couch, and plucking the
+feathers from the fan Cleopatra had forgotten, while Publius went on
+speaking.
+
+"First I demand a free pardon for Philotas of Syracuse, 'relative of the
+king,' and president of the body of the Chrematistes, his immediate
+release, with his wife, from their forced labor, and their return from
+the mines."
+
+"They both are dead," said Euergetes, "my brother can vouch for it."
+
+"Then I require you to have it declared by special decree that Philotas
+was condemned unjustly, and that he is reinstated in all the dignities he
+was deprived of.  I farther demand that you permit me and my friend
+Lysias of Corinth, as well as Apollodorus the sculptor, to quit Egypt
+without let or hindrance, and with us Klea and Irene, the daughters of
+Philotas, who serve as water-bearers in the temple of Serapis.--Do you
+hesitate as to your reply?"
+
+"No," answered the king, and he tossed up his hand.  "For this once I
+have lost the game."
+
+"The daughters of Philotas, Klea and Irene," continued Publius with
+imperturbable coolness, "are to have the confiscated estates of their
+parents restored to them."
+
+"Then your sweetheart's beauty does not satisfy you!" interposed
+Euergetes satirically.
+
+"It amply satisfies me.  My last demand is that half of this wealth shall
+be assigned to the temple of Serapis, so that the god may give up his
+serving-maidens willingly, and without raising any objections.  The other
+half shall be handed over to Dicearchus, my agent in Alexandria, because
+it is my will that Klea and Irene shall not enter my own house or that of
+Lysias in Corinth as wives, without the dowry that beseems their rank.
+Now, within one hour, I must have both the decree and the act of
+restitution in my hands, for as soon as Juventius Thalna arrives here--
+and I expect him, as I told you this very day--we propose to leave
+Memphis, and to take ship at Alexandria."
+
+"A strange conjuncture!" cried Euergetes.  "You deprive me alike of my
+revenge and my love, and yet I see myself compelled to wish you a
+pleasant journey.  I must offer a sacrifice to Poseidon, to the Cyprian
+goddess, and to the Dioscurides that they may vouchsafe your ship a
+favorable voyage, although it will carry the man who in the future, can
+do us more injury at Rome by his bitter hostility, than any other."
+
+"I shall always take the part of which ever of you has justice on his
+side."
+
+Publius quitted the room with a proud wave of his hand, and Euergetes,
+as soon as the door had closed behind the Roman, sprang from his couch,
+shook his clenched fist in angry threat, and cried:
+
+You, you obstinate fellow and your haughty patrician clan may do me
+mischief enough by the Tiber; and yet perhaps I may win the game in spite
+of you!
+
+"You cross my path in the name of the Roman Senate.  If Philometor waits
+in the antechambers of consuls and senators we certainly may chance to
+meet there, but I shall also try my luck with the people and the
+tribunes.
+
+"It is very strange!  This head of mine hits upon more good ideas in an
+hour than a cool fellow like that has in a year, and yet I am beaten by
+him--and if I am honest I can not but confess that it was not his luck
+alone, but his shrewdness that gained the victory.  He may be off as soon
+as he likes with his proud Hera--I can find a dozen Aphrodites in
+Alexandria in her place!
+
+"I resemble Hellas and he Rome, such as they are at present.  We flutter
+in the sunshine, and seize on all that satisfies our intellect or
+gratifies our senses: they gaze at the earth, but walk on with a firm
+step to seek power and profit.  And thus they get ahead of us, and yet--
+I would not change with them."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A debtor, says the proverb, is half a prisoner
+Old women grow like men, and old men grow like women
+They get ahead of us, and yet--I would not change with them
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE SISTERS, COMPLETE:
+
+A subdued tone generally provokes an equally subdued answer
+A mere nothing in one man's life, to another may be great
+A debtor, says the proverb, is half a prisoner
+Air of a professional guide
+And what is great--and what is small
+Before you serve me up so bitter a meal (the truth)
+Behold, the puny Child of Man
+Blind tenderness which knows no reason
+By nature she is not and by circumstances is compelled to be
+Deceit is deceit
+Desire to seek and find a power outside us
+Evolution and annihilation
+Flattery is a key to the heart
+Hold pleasure to be the highest good
+If you want to catch mice you must waste bacon
+Inquisitive eyes are intrusive company
+Man is the measure of all things
+Man works with all his might for no one but himself
+Many a one would rather be feared than remain unheeded
+Museum of Alexandria and the Library
+Not yet fairly come to the end of yesterday
+Nothing permanent but change
+Nothing so certain as that nothing is certain
+Old women grow like men, and old men grow like women
+One hand washes the other
+Prefer deeds to words
+Priests that they should instruct the people to be obedient
+The altar where truth is mocked at
+They get ahead of us, and yet--I would not change with them
+Virtues are punished in this world
+What are we all but puny children?
+Who can be freer than he who needs nothing
+Who only puts on his armor when he is threatened
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SISTERS, BY EBERS, COMPLETE ***
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