The tire-woman had not finished her work when Alexander returned, and Melissa dared not turn her head for fear of disturbing her in her task.  But when Alexander began his report with the exclamation, “Who knows what foolish gossip has driven him to this?” she sprang up, regardless of the slave’s warning cry.  And as her brother went on to relate how Diodoros had left the Serapeum, in spite of the physician’s entreaty to wait at least until next morning, but that Melissa need not take it greatly to heart, it was too much for the girl who had already that day gone through such severe and varied experiences.  The ground seemed to heave beneath her feet; sick and giddy she put out her hand to find some support, that she might not sink on her knees; in so doing, she caught the tall tripod which held the dish of coals.  It swayed and fell clattering to the ground, bringing the irons with it.  Its burning contents fell partly on the floor and partly on the festal robe which Melissa had thrown over a chair before loosening her hair.  Alexander caught her just in time to prevent her falling.

With her healthy nature, Melissa soon regained consciousness, and during the first few moments her distress over the spoiled garment threw every other thought into the background.  Shaking her head gravely over the black-edged holes which the coals had burned in the peplos and the under-robes, Euryale secretly rejoiced at the accident.  She remembered that when her heart was torn and bleeding, after the death of her only child, her thoughts were taken off herself by the necessary duty of providing mourning garments for herself, her husband, and the slaves.  This trivial task had at least helped her to forget for a few hours the bitterness of her grief.

Only anxious to lighten in some sort the fate of the sweet young creature whom she had learned to love, she made much of the difficulty of procuring a fresh dress for Melissa, though she was perfectly aware that her sister-in-law possessed many such.  Alexander was commissioned to take one of the emperor’s chariots—­which always stood ready for the use of the courtiers between the Serapeum and the springs on the east—­and to hasten to the lady Berenike.  The lady begged that he, as an artist, would assist in choosing the robe; and the less conspicuous and costly it was the better.

To this Melissa heartily agreed, and, after Alexander had gone, Euryale bore off her pale young charge to the eating-room, where she forced her to take some old wine and a little food, which she would not touch before.  As the attendant filled the wine-cup, the high-priest himself joined them, greeted Melissa briefly and with measured courtesy, and begged his wife to follow him for a moment into the tablinum.

The attendant, a slave who had grown gray in the service of Timotheus, now begged the young guest, as though he represented his mistress, to take a little food, and not to sip so timidly from the winecup.  But the lonely repast was soon ended, and Melissa, strengthened and refreshed, withdrew to the sleeping-apartment.  Only light curtains hung at the doors of the high-priest’s hurriedly furnished rooms, and no one noticed Melissa’s entrance into the adjoining chamber.