“And we, sensible folk, refuse to believe in miracles!” cried Dion, holding out his wan hand to the architect.  “How shall I thank you, you dear, clever, most loyal of friends to your male friends, though your heart is so faithless to fair ones?  Add that malicious speech to the former ones, for which I now crave your pardon.  What you intend to accomplish for Barine and me gives you a right to do and say to me whatever ill you choose all the rest of my life.  Anxiety for her would surely have bound me to this house and the city when the time came to make the escape, for without her my life would now be valueless.  But when I think that she might follow me to Pyrrhus’s cliff—­”

“Don’t flatter yourself with this hope,” pleaded Gorgias.  “Serious obstacles may interpose.  I am to have another talk with the Nubian later.  With no offence to others, I believe her advice will be the best.  She knows how matters stand with the lofty, and yet herself belongs to the lowly.  Besides, through Charmian the way to the Queen lies open, and nothing which happens at court escapes her notice.  She showed me that we must consider Barine’s delivery to Alexas a piece of good fortune.  How easily jealousy might have led to a fatal crime one whose wish promptly becomes action, unless she curbs the undue zeal of her living tools!  Those on whom Fate inflicts so many blows rarely are in haste to spare others.  Would the anxieties which weigh upon her like mountains interpose between the Queen and the jealous rancour which is too petty for her great soul?”

“What is great or petty to the heart of a loving woman?” asked Dion.  “In any case you will do what you can to remove Barine from the power of the enraged princess—­I know.”

Gorgias pressed his friend’s hand closely, then, yielding to a sudden impulse, kissed him on the forehead and hurried to the door.

On the threshold a faint moan from the wounded man stopped him.  Would he be strong enough to follow the long passage leading to the sea?

Dion protested that he confidently expected to do so, but his deeply flushed face betrayed that the fever which had once been conquered had returned.

Gorgias’s eyes sought the floor in deep thought.  Many sick persons were borne to the temple in the hope of cure; so Dion’s appearance would cause no special surprise.  On the other hand, to have strangers carry him through the passage seemed perilous.  He himself was strong, but even the strongest person would have found it impossible to support the heavy burden of a grown man to the sea, for the gallery was low and of considerable length.  Still, if necessary, he would try.  With the comforting exclamation, “If your strength does not suffice, another way will be found,” he took his leave, gave Barine’s maid and the wounded man’s body-slave the necessary directions, commanded the door-keeper to admit no one save the physician, and stepped into the open air.