“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.”