“That office is already bestowed on me by the Lady Thyone,” Daphne quietly replied.

“And you think that, in this case, obedience is the husband’s duty?” cried the other, with a sneering laugh.

“It would only be the confirmation of a wise choice,” replied Philippus, who disliked the Thracian’s fawning manner.

Thyone, too, did not favour her, and had glanced indignantly at her when Althea made her rude remark.  Now she turned to Daphne, and her plain face regained its pleasant expression as she exclaimed:  “We really promised your father to let him show us the way, child; but, unfortunately, we are not yet in Alexandria and the Paneum.”

“But you would set out to-morrow,” Hermon protested, “if we could succeed in fitly describing what now awaits you there.  There is only one Alexandria, and no city in the world can offer a more beautiful scene than is visible from the mountain in the Paneum gardens.”

“Certainly not,” protested the young hipparch, who had studied in Athens.  “I stood on the Acropolis; I was permitted to visit Rhodes and Miletus—­”

“And you saw nothing more beautiful there,” cried Proclus.  “The aristocratic Roman envoys, who left us a short time ago, admitted the same thing.  They are just men, for the view from the Capitol of their growing city is also to be seen.  When the King’s command led me to the Tiber, many things surprised me; but, as a whole, how shall I compare the two cities?  The older Rome, with her admirable military power:  a barbarian who is just beginning to cultivate more refined manners—­Alexandria:  a rich, aristocratic Hellene who, like you, my young friend, completed her education in Ilissus, and unites to the elegant taste and intellect of the Athenian the mysterious thoughtfulness of the Egyptian, the tireless industry of the Jew, and the many-sided wisdom and brilliant magnificence of the other Oriental countries.”

“But who disdains to dazzle the eyes with Asiatic splendour,” interrupted Philotas.

“And yet what do we not hear about the unprecedented luxury in the royal palace!” growled the gray-haired warrior.

“Parsimony—­the gods be praised!—­no one need expect from our royal pair,” Althea broke in; “but King Ptolemy uses his paternal wealth for very different purposes than glittering gems and golden chambers.  If you disdain my guidance, honoured hero, at least accept that of some genuine Alexandrian.  Then you will understand Proclus’s apt simile.  You ought to begin with the royal palaces in the Brucheium.”

“No, no-with the harbour of Eunostus!” interrupted the grammateus.

“With the Soma!” cried the young hipparch, while Daphne wished to have the tour begin in the Paneum gardens.

“They were already laid out when we left Alexandria,” said Thyone.