The Rhodian Chrysippus, her leech and trusted counsellor, also possessed great influence over the Queen.

“The noble lady,” whispered Althea, “needs the faithful devotion of every well-disposed subject, for perhaps you have already learned how cruelly the King embitters the life of the mother of his three children.  Many a caprice can be forgiven the suffering Ptolemy, who recently expressed a wish that he could change places with the common workmen whom he saw eating their meal with a good appetite, and who is now tortured by the gout; yet he watches the hapless woman with the jealousy of a tiger, though he himself is openly faithless to her.  What is the Queen to him, since the widow of Lysimachus returned from Thrace—­no, from Cassandrea, Ephesus, and sacred Samothrace, or whatever other places there are which would no longer tolerate the murderess?”

“The King’s sister—­the object of his love?” cried Hermon incredulously.  “She must be forty years old now.”

“Very true,” Althea assented.  “But we are in Egypt, where marriages between brothers and sisters are pleasing to gods and men; and besides, we make our own moral laws here.  Her age!  We women are only as old as we look, and the leeches and tiring women of this beauty of forty practise arts which give her the appearance of twenty-five, yet perhaps the King values her intellect more than her person, and the wisdom of a hundred serpents is certainly united in this woman’s head.  She will make our poor Queen suffer unless real friends guard her from the worst.  The three most trustworthy ones are here:  Amyntas, the leech Chrysippus, and the admirable Proclus.  Let us hope that you will make this three-leaved clover the luck-promising four-leaved one.  Your uncle, too, has often with praiseworthy generosity helped Arsinoe in many an embarrassment.  Only make the acquaintance of this beautiful royal lady, and the last drop of your blood will not seem too precious to shed for her!  Besides—­Proclus told me so in confidence—­you have little favour to expect from the King.  How long he kept you waiting for the first word concerning a work which justly transported the whole city with delight!  When he did finally summon you, he said things which must have wounded you.”

“That is going too far,” replied Hermon.

“Then he kept back his real opinion,” Althea protested.  “Had I not made it a rule to maintain absolute silence concerning everything I hear in conversation from those with whom I am closely associated—­”

Here she was interrupted by Chrysippus, who asked if Althea had told her neighbour about his Rhodian eye-salve.

He winked at her and made a significant gesture as he spoke, and then informed the blind artist how graciously Arsinoe had remembered him when she heard of the remedy by whose aid many a wonderful cure of blind eyes had been made in Rhodes.  The royal lady had inquired about him and his sufferings with almost sisterly interest, and Althea eagerly confirmed the statement.