“I know, I know,” murmured Mary, as though all this were of minor importance in her eyes; and then for some little time she remained silent.  At last she looked up and exclaimed in a voice that betrayed the struggle still going on in her soul: 

“What have I to care for but my child’s happiness?  In the sight of God we are all equal—­great and small alike; and I myself am but a weak woman, full of defects and sins—­but for all that I could have wished that the only son of a noble house might have chosen differently.  All I can say is that I must look upon this marriage as a humiliation laid upon me by the Almighty—­still, I give it my sanction and blessing, and I will do freely and with my whole heart if my son’s bride brings as her marriage-portion the one thing which is the first and last aim of all my desires:  The everlasting glory of Apelles.  The martyr’s crown will open the gates of Heaven to him—­who was your father, too, Demetrius.  Gain that and I myself will lead the singer to my son’s arms.”

“That is a bargain!” cried Demetrius—­and soon after midnight he had retired to rest, after seeing Mary fulfil her promise to give a parental blessing to the betrothed pair.

A few weeks later Dada and Gorgo were both baptized, and both by the name of Cecilia; and then, at Mary’s special entreaty, Marcus’ marriage was solemnized with much pomp by the Bishop himself.

Still, and in spite of the lavish demonstrations of more than motherly affection which the widow showered her daughter-in-law, Dada felt a stranger, and ill at ease in the great house in the Canopic way.  When Demetrius, a few weeks after their marriage, proposed Marcus that he should undertake the management of family estates in Cyrenaica, she jumped at the suggestion; and Marcus at once decided to act upon it when his brother promised to remain with him for the first year or two, helping him with his advice and instructions.

Their fears lest Mary should oppose the project, proved unfounded; for, though the widow declared that life would be a burden to her without her children, she soon acceded to her son’s wishes and admitted that they were kind and wise.  She need not fear isolation, for, as the widow of the martyred Apelles, she was the recognized leader of the Christian sisterhood in the town, and preferred working in a larger circle than that of the family.  She always spoke with enthusiasm to her visitors of her daughter-in-law Cecilia, of her beauty, her piety and her gentleness; in fact, she did all she could to make it appear that she herself had chosen her son’s wife.  But she did not care to keep this “beloved daughter” with her in Alexandria, for the foremost position in every department of social life was far more certain to be conceded to the noble widow of a “martyred witness” in the absence of the pretty little converted singer.

So the young couple moved to Cyrenaica, and Dada was happy in learning to govern her husband’s large estates with prudence and good sense.  The gay singing-girl became a capable housewife, and the idle horse-loving Marcus a diligent farmer.  For three years Demetrius staid with them as adviser and superintendent; even afterwards he frequently visited them, and for months at a time, and he was wont to say: