“Then you can accuse those whose existence you disbelieve in?” retorted Melissa with angry zeal.  “Is this your much-belauded logic?  What becomes of your dogmas, in the face of the first misfortune—­dogmas which enjoin a reserve of decisive judgment, that you may preserve your equanimity, and not overburden your soul, in addition to the misfortune itself, with the conviction that something monstrous has befallen you?  I remember how much that pleased me the first time I heard it.  For your own sake—­for the sake of us all—­cease this foolish raving, and do not merely call yourself a skeptic—­be one; control the passion that is rending you.  For love of me—­for love of us all—­”

And as she spoke she laid her hand on his shoulder, for he had sat down again; and although he pushed her away with some petulance, she went on in a tone of gentle entreaty:  “If we are not to be altogether too late in the field, let us consider the situation calmly.  I am but a girl, and this fresh disaster will fall more hardly on me than on you; for what would become of me without my father?”

“Life with him has at any rate taught you patient endurance,” her brother broke in with a sullen shrug.

“Yes, life,” she replied, firmly:  “life, which shows us the right way better than all your books.  Who can tell what may have detained Argutis?  I wilt wait no longer.  The sun will have set before long, and this evening Caesar is to sup with Seleukus, the father of Korinna.  I happen to know it from Samonicus, who is one of the guests.  Seleukus and his wife have a great regard for Alexander, and will do for him all that lies in their power.  The lady Berenike, he told me, is a noble dame.  It should be your part to entreat her help for our father and brother; but you must not venture where Caesar is.  So I will go, and I shall have no rest till Korinna’s mother listens to me and promises to aid us.”

At this Philip exclaimed, in horror:  “What! you will dare to enter the house where Caracalla is feasting with the rabble he calls his friends?  You, an inexperienced girl, young, beautiful, whose mere appearance is enough to stir their evil passions?  Sooner than allow that, I will myself find my way into the house of Seleukus, and among the spies who surround the tyrant.”

“That my father may lose another son, and I my only remaining brother?” Melissa observed, with grave composure.  “Say no more, Philip.  I am going, and you must wait for me here.”

The philosopher broke out at this in despotic wrath: 

“What has come over you, that you have suddenly forgotten how to obey?  But I insist; and rather than allow you to bring on us not trouble merely, but shame and disgrace, I will lock you into your room!”

He seized her hand to drag her into the adjoining room.  She struggled with all her might; but he was the stronger, and he had got her as far as the door, when the Gaul Argutis rushed, panting and breathless, into the work-room through the anteroom, calling out to the struggling couple: