There I promised him a delicious, real Alexandrian feast, and you know how gladly Polybius will seize the opportunity to share it with him.  No doubt, too, some golden means may be found to bind his tongue; for woe to you if Caracalla discovers prematurely that you are promised to another, and woe then to your betrothed!  After sundown, when every one here has gone to the Circus, I will take Diodoros to a place of safety.  Farewell, child, and may our heavenly Father defend you!”

He laid his right hand upon her head as if in blessing; but Melissa cried, wringing her hands:  “Oh, let me go to him once more!  How can I leave him and go far away without one word of farewell or of forgiveness?”

But Andreas interrupted her, saying:  “You can not.  His life is at stake as well as your own.  I shall make it my business to look after his safety.  The wife of Seleukus will assist you in your flight.”

“And you will persuade him to trust me?” urged Melissa, clinging convulsively to his arm.

“I will try,” answered the freedman, gloomily.  Melissa, dropped his arm, for loud, manly voices were approaching down the stairs near which they stood.

It was Heron and Alexander, returning from their audience with the emperor.  Instantly the Christian went to meet them, and dismissed the temple servant who accompanied them.

In the half-darkness of the corridor, Melissa threw herself weeping into her father’s arms.  But he stroked her hair lovingly, and kissed her more tenderly on brow and eyes than he had ever clone before, whispering gayly to her:  “Dry your tears, my darling.  You have been a brave maiden, and now comes your reward.  Fear and sorrow will now be changed into happiness and power, and all the glories of the world.  I have not even told Alexander yet what promises to make our fortunes, for I know my duty.”  Then, raising his voice, he said to the freedman, “If I have been rightly informed, we shall find the son of Polybius in one of the apartments close at hand.”

“Quite right,” answered the freedman, gravely, and then went on to explain to the gem-cutter that he could not see Diodoros just now, but must instantly leave the country with his son and daughter on Berenike’s ship.  Not a moment was to be lost.  Melissa would tell him all on the way.

But Heron laughed scornfully:  “That would be a pretty business!  We have plenty of time, and, with the greatness that lies before us, everything must be done openly and in the right way.  My first thought, you see, was to come here, for I had promised the girl to Diodoros, and he must be informed before I can consent to her betrothal to another.”

“Father!” cried Melissa, scarcely able to command her voice.  But Heron took no notice of her, and continued, composedly:  “Diodoros would have been dear to me as a son-in-law.  I shall certainly tell him so.  But when Caesar, the ruler of the world, condescends to ask a plain man for his daughter, every other consideration must naturally be put aside.  Diodoros is sensible, and is sure to see it in the right light.  We all know how Caesar treats those who are in his way; but I wish the son of Polybius no ill, so I forbore to betray to Caesar what tie had once bound you, my child, to the gallant youth.”