But Melissa was as little in the humor to admire all the lavish magnificence which surrounded her as Alexander had been a few days since.  Still veiled, she modestly took a place among the choir who stood on each side of the hall ready to welcome Caesar with singing and music.  Argutis stopped to speak with his friend.  She dimly felt that the whispering and giggling all about her was at her expense; and when an elderly, man, the choir-master, asked her what she wanted, and desired her to remove her veil, she obeyed at once, saying:  “Pray let me stand here, the Lady Berenike will send for me.”

“Very well,” replied the musician; and he silenced the singers, who were hazarding various impertinent guesses as to the arrival of so pretty a girl just when Caesar was expected.

As Melissa dropped her veil the splendor of the scene, lighted up by numberless tapers and lamps, forced itself on her attention.  She now perceived that the porphyry columns of the great hall were wreathed with flowers, and that garlands swung in graceful curves from the open roof; while at the farther end, statues had been placed of Septimus Severus and Julia Domna, Caracalla’s parents.  On each side of these works of art stood bowers of plants, in which gay-plumaged birds were fluttering about, excited by the lights.  But all these glories swam before her eyes, and the first question which the artist’s daughter was wont to ask herself, “is it really beautiful or no?” never occurred to her mind.  She did not even notice the smell of incense, until some fresh powder was thrown on, and it became oppressive.

She was fully conscious only of two facts, when at last Argutis returned:  that she was the object of much curious examination and that every one was wondering what detained Caesar so long.

At last, after she had waited many long minutes, the door-keeper approached her with a young woman in a rich but simple dress, in whom she recognized Johanna, the Christian waiting-maid of whom Alexander had spoken.  She did not speak, but beckoned her to come.

Breathing anxiously, and bending her head low, Melissa, following her guide, reached a handsome impluvium, where a fountain played in the midst of a bed of roses.  Here the moon and starlight mingled with that of lamps without number, and the ruddy glare of a blaze; for all round the basin, from which the playing waters danced skyward, stood marble genii, carrying in their hands or on their heads silver dishes, in which the leaping flames consumed cedar chips and aromatic resins.

At the back of this court, where it was as light as day, at the top of three steps, stood the statues of Alexander the Great and Caracalla.  They were of equal size; and the artist, who had wrought the second in great haste out of the slightest materials, had been enjoined to make Caesar as like as possible in every respect to the hero he most revered.  Thus they looked like brothers.  The figures were lighted up by the fires which burned on two altars of ivory and gold.  Beautiful boys, dressed as armed Erotes, fed the flames.