“I am not angry with you any more,” cried Melissa, eagerly and frankly, and the tribune thanked her in his own and his brother’s name.

He began trying to explain the unfortunate occurrence, but Berenike admonished him to lose no time.  The soldier withdrew, and the lady Berenike ordered her handmaiden to call the housekeeper and other serving-women.  Then she repaired quickly to the room she had destined for the wounded man and his brother.  But neither Melissa nor the other women could succeed in really lending her any help, for she herself put forth all her cleverness and power of head and hand, forgetting nothing that might be useful or agreeable in the nursing of the sick.  In that wealthy, well-ordered house everything stood ready to hand; and in less than a quarter of an hour the tribune Nemesianus was informed that the chamber was ready for the reception of his brother.

The lady then returned with Melissa to her own sleeping apartment, and took various little bottles and jars from a small medicine-chest, begging the girl at the same time to excuse her, as she intended to undertake the nursing of the wounded man herself.  Here were books, and there Korinna’s lute.  Johanna would attend to the evening meal.  Tomorrow morning they could consult further as to what was necessary to be done; then she kissed her guest and left the room.

Left to herself, Melissa gave herself up to varying thoughts, till Johanna brought her repast.  While she hardly nibbled at it, the Christian told her that matters looked ill with the tribune, and that the wound in the forehead especially caused the physician much anxiety.  Many questions were needed to draw this much from the freedwoman, for she spoke but little.  When she did speak, however, it was with great kindliness, and there lay something so simple and gentle in her whole manner that it awakened confidence.  Having satisfied her appetite, Melissa returned to the lady Berenike’s apartment; but there her heart grew heavy at the thought of what awaited her on the morrow.  When, at the moment of leaving, Johanna inquired whether she desired anything further, she asked her if she knew a saying of her fellow-believers, which ran, “The fullness of time was come.”

“Yes, surely,” returned the other; “our Lord himself spoke them, and Paul wrote them to the Galatians.”

“Who is this Paul?” Melissa asked; and the Christian replied that of all the teachers of her faith he was the one she most dearly loved.  Then, hesitating a little, she asked if Melissa, being a heathen, had inquired the meaning of this saying.

“Andrew, the freedman of Polybius and the lady Euryale, explained it to me.  Did the moment ever come to you in which you felt assured that for you the time was fulfilled?”

“Yes,” replied Johanna, with decision; “and that moment comes, sooner or later, in every life.”

“You are a maiden like myself,” began Melissa, simply.  “A heavy task lies before me, and if you would confide to me—­”