claim to her love and gratitude!  Could she have any other emotion than thankfulness if the plan of escape succeeded?  Yet she was reluctant to perform the task of making Barine’s beautiful, symmetrical figure resemble the hunch-backed Nubian’s, or to dip her fingers into the pomade intended for Cleopatra; and it grieved her to mar the beauty of Barine’s luxuriant tresses by cutting off part of her thick fair braids.

True, these things could not be avoided, if the flight was to succeed, and the further Anukis advanced in her story, the fewer became her mistress’s objections to the plan.

The conversation between Iras and Alexas, which had been overheard by the maid, already made it appear necessary to withdraw Barine and her lover from the power of such foes.  The faithful man whom Anukis had found with Dion, whose name she did not mention and of whose home she said only that no safer hiding-place could be found, even by the mole which burrowed in the earth, really seemed to have been sent with Gorgias to Dion’s couch by Fate itself.  The control of the subterranean chambers in the Temple of Isis which had been bestowed on the architect, also appeared like a miracle.

Upon a small tablet, which the wise Aisopion had intentionally delayed handing to her mistress until now, were the lines:  “Archibius greets his sister Charmian.  If I know your heart, it will be as hard for you as for me to share this plot, yet it must be done for the sake of her father, to save the life and happiness of his child.  So it must fall to your lot to bring Barine to the Temple of Isis at the Corner of the Muses.  She will find her lover there and, if possible, be wedded to him.  As the sanctuary is so near, you need leave the palace only a short time.  Do not tell Barine what we have planned.  The disappointment would be too great if it should prove impracticable.”

This letter and the arrangement it proposed transformed the serious scruples which shadowed Charmian’s good-will into a joyous, nay, enthusiastic desire to render assistance.  Barine’s marriage to the man who possessed her heart was close at hand, and she was the daughter of Leonax, who had once been dear to her.  Fear and doubt vanished as if scattered to the four winds, and when Aisopion’s work of transformation was completed and Barine stood before her as the high-shouldered, dark-visaged, wrinkled maid, she could not help admitting that it would be easy to escape from the palace in that disguise.

She now told Barine that she intended to accompany her herself; and though the former’s stained face forced her to refrain from kissing her friend, she plainly expressed to her and the faithful freedwoman the overflowing gratitude which filled her heart.

Anukis was left alone.  After carefully removing all the traces of her occupation, as habit dictated, she raised her arms in prayer, beseeching the gods of her native land to protect the beautiful woman to whom she had loaned her own misshapen form, which had now been of genuine service, and who had gone forth to meet so many dangers, but also a happiness whose very hope had been denied to her.