To see a being so dear to her thus utterly broken down cut her to the heart.  Oh, that she could help him!  If she did not succeed, or if he never found strength to rouse himself, he, too, would be one of Caesar’s victims.  Corrupted and ruined lives marked the path of this terrible being, and, with a shudder, she asked herself when her turn would come.

Her hair had become disordered, and as she smoothed it she looked in the mirror, and could not but observe that in the simple but costly white robe of the dead Korinna she looked like a maiden of noble birth rather than the lowly daughter of an artist.  She would have liked to tear it off and replace it by another, but her one modest festival robe had been left behind at the house of the lady Berenike.  To appear in broad daylight before the neighbors or to walk in the streets clad in this fashion seemed to her impossible after her brother’s unjust suspicion, and she bade Argutis fetch her a litter.

When they parted, Dido could see distinctly that Philip had wounded her.  And she could guess how, so she withheld any questions, that she might not hurt her.  Over the fire, however, she stabbed fiercely into the fowl destined for the philosopher, but cooked it, nevertheless, with all possible care.

On the way to the Serapeum, Melissa’s anxiety increased.  Till now, eagerness for the fray, fear, hope, and the joyful consciousness of right-doing, had alternated in her mind.  Now, for the first time, she was seized with a premonition of misfortune.  Fate itself had turned against her.  Even should she succeed in escaping, she could not hope to regain her lost peace of mind.

Philip’s biting words had shown her what most of them must think of her; and, though the ship should bear her far away, would it be right to bring Diodoros away from his old father to follow her?  She must see her lover, and if possible tell him all.  The rose, too, which the Christian had given her for him, and which lay in her lap, she wished so much to carry to him herself.  She could not go alone to the chamber of the convalescent, and the attendance of a slave counted for nothing in the eyes of other people.  It was even doubtful if a bondsman might be admitted into the inner apartments of the sanctuary.  However, she would, she must see Diodoros and speak to him; and thus planning ways and means by which to accomplish this, looking forward joyfully to the meeting with her father, and wondering how Agatha, the Christian, had received Alexander, she lost the feeling of deep depression which had weighed on her when she had left the house.

The litter stopped, and Argutis helped her to descend.  He was breathless, for it had been most difficult to open a way for her through the dense crowds that were already thronging to the Circus, where the grand evening performance in honor of the emperor was to begin as soon as it was dark.  Just as she was entering the house, she perceived Andreas coming toward them along the street of Hermes, and she at once bade the slave call him.  He was soon at her side, and declared himself willing to accompany her to Diodoros.