“Possibly,” Philip replied, coldly.  “As justice is blind, Injustice has no doubt all the sharper eyes.”

“Well said,” laughed the Egyptian.  “A pinch of the salt which they give you at the Museum with your porridge—­for nothing.”

Argutis had witnessed this scene; and when, half an hour later, the men-at-arms had left the house without discovering Melissa’s hiding-place, he informed her that Alexander had, as they feared, given himself up of his own free-will to procure Heron’s release; but the villains had kept the son, without liberating the father.  Both were now in prison, loaded with chains.  The slave had ended his tale some minutes, and Melissa still stood, pale and tearless, gazing on the ground as though she were turned to stone; but suddenly she shivered, as if with the chill of fever, and looked up, out through the windows into the garden, now dim in the twilight.  The sun had set, night was falling, and again the words of the Christian preacher recurred to her mind:  “The fullness of the time is come.”

To her and hers a portion of life had come to an end, and a new one must grow out of it.  Should the free-born race of Heron perish in captivity and death?

The evening star blazed out on the distant horizon, seeming to her as a sign from the gods; and she told herself that it must be her part, as the last of the family who remained free, to guard the others from destruction in this new life.

The heavens were soon blazing with stars.  The banquet in Seleukus’s house, at which Caesar was to appear, would begin in an hour.  Irresolution and delay would ruin all; so she drew herself up resolutely and called to Argutis, who had watched her with faithful sympathy: 

“Take my father’s blue cloak, Argutis, to make you more dignified; and disguise yourself, for you must escort me, and we may be followed.  You, Dido, come and help me.  Take my new dress, that I wore at the Feast of Adonis, out of my trunk; and with it you will see my mother’s blue fillet with the gems.  My father used to say I should first wear it at my wedding, but—­Well, you must bind my hair with it to-night.  I am going to a grand house, where no one will be admitted who does not look worthy of people of mark.  But take off the jewel; a supplicant should make no display.”

ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS: 

Begun to enjoy the sound of his own voice
Cast off their disease as a serpent casts its skin

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