“Only think, my lord!  Here is a messenger come from the inn kept by Sostratus with this tablet for you.—­It is open, so I read it.  Only think! it is hardly credible!  The Senator Justinus is here with his wife, the noble Martina—­here in Memphis, and they beg you to visit them at once to speak of matters of importance.  They came last night, the messenger tells me, and now—­what joy!  Think of all the hospitality you enjoyed in their house.  Can we leave them in an inn?  So long as hospitality endures, it would be a crime!”

“Impossible, quite impossible!” cried Orion, who had cast aside the lute, and was now reading the letter himself.  “It is true indeed! his own handwriting.  And that immovable pair are in Egypt—­in Memphis!  By Zeus!”—­for this was still the favorite oath of the golden youth of Alexandria and Constantinople, even in these Christian times.—­“By Zeus, I ought to receive them here like princes!—­Wait!—­of course you must tell the messenger that I am coming at once—­have the four new Pannonians harnessed to the silver-plated chariot.  I must go to my mother; but there is time enough for that.  Desire Sebek to have the guest-chambers prepared for distinguished guests—­those sick people are out of them, thank God!  Take my present room for them too; I will go back to the old one.  Of course they have a numerous suite.  Set twenty or thirty slaves to work.  Everything must be ready in two hours at furthest.  The two sitting-rooms are particularly handsome, but where anything is lacking, place everything in the house at Sebek’s command.—­Justinus in Egypt!—­But make haste, man!  Nay, stay!  One thing more.  Carry these maps and scrolls—­no; they are too heavy for you.  Desire a slave to fetch them, and take them to Rufinus; he must keep them till I come.  Tell him I meant to use them on the way—­he knows.”

The secretary rushed off; Orion performed a rapid toilet and had his mourning dress rearranged in fresh folds; then he went to his mother.  She had often heard of the cordial reception that her son, and her husband, too, in former days, had met with in the senator’s house, and she took it quite as a matter of course that the strangers’ rooms, and among them that which had been Paula’s, should be prepared for the travellers; all she asked was that it should be explained that she was suffering, so that she might not have to trouble herself to entertain them.

She advised Orion to put off his journey and to devote himself to his friends; but he explained that even their arrival must not delay him.  He had entire confidence in Sebek and the upper housekeeper, and the emperor himself would remit the duties of hostess to a sick woman.  Once, at any rate, she would surely allow the illustrious guests to pay their respects to her,—­but even this Neforis refused It would be quite enough if her visitors received messages and greetings daily in her name, with offerings of choice fruit and flowers, and on the last day some costly gift.  Orion thought this proposal quite worthy of them both, and presently drove off behind his Pannonians to the hostelry.