As soon as the litter had to be carried up or down steps, she kept an eye on the bearers, and gave such help as was needed when the sleeper’s position was changed.  Whenever she looked in his handsome face, flushed as it was by fever and framed in tumbled curls, her heart swelled, and she felt that she had much to thank the gods for, seeing that her lover was so full of splendid youth and in no respect resembled the prematurely decrepit and sickly wearer of the purple.  Nevertheless, she thought a good deal of Caracalla, and it even occurred to her once that if it were he who was being carried instead of Diodoros, she would tend him no less carefully than her betrothed.  Caesar, who had been as far out of her ken as a god, and of whose overwhelming power she had heard, had suddenly come down to her.  She involuntarily thought of him as one of those few with whom she had come into personal contact, and in whose weal or woe she had some sympathetic interest.  He could not be altogether evil and hardened.  If he could only know what pain it caused her to see him suffer, he would surely command Zminis to abandon the pursuit of her brother.

Just as they were reaching the end of their walk, the trumpets rang out once more, reminding her that she was under the same roof with him.  She was so close to him—­and yet how far he was from guessing the desires of a heart which beat with compassion for him!

Several sick persons, eager for some communication from the gods, and some who, without being sick, had slept in the Serapeum, had by this time left their beds, and were taking counsel in the great hall with interpreters and physicians.  The bustle was like that of a market-place, and there was one old man with unkempt hair and fiery eyes who repeated again and again in a loud voice, “It was the god himself who appeared to me, and his three-headed dog licked my cheeks.”  And presently a hideous old woman plucked at Melissa’s robe, whispering:  “A healing draught for your lover; tears from the eyes of the infant Horus.  I have them from Isis herself.  The effect is rapid and certain.  Come to Hezron, the dealer in balsams in the street of the Nekropolis.  Your lover’s recovery—­for five drachmae.”

But Melissa, who was no stranger here since her mother’s last sickness, went on without pausing, following the litter down the long hall full of beds, a room with a stone roof resting on two rows of tall columns.  Familiar to her too was the aromatic scent of kyphi,—­[incense]—­which filled the hall, although fresh air was constantly pouring in from outside through the high windows.  Red and green curtains hung in front of them, and the subdued light which came through fell in tinted twilight on the colored pictures in relief of the history of the gods, which covered the walls.  Speech was forbidden here, and their steps fell noiseless on the thick, heavy mats.