Serapeum; though not in these rooms, which my lord and master closes against you.  I told you of the time being fulfilled for each one of us, and when yours came you proved yourself to be the good tree of which our Lord speaks as bearing good fruit.  You look at me inquiringly; how indeed should you understand the words of a Christian?  But I shall find time enough in the next few days to explain them to you; for—­I say it again—­you shall remain near me while the emperor searches the city and half the world over for you.  Keep that firmly in your mind and let it help to give you courage in the Circus.”

“But my father?” cried Melissa, pointing to the curtain, through which Heron’s loud voice now became audible.

“Depend on me,” whispered the lady, hurriedly; “and rest assured that he will be warned in time.  Do not betray my promise.  If we were to take him into our confidence now, he would spoil all.  As soon as he is gone, and your brother has returned, you two shall hear—­”

They were interrupted by the steward, who, with a peculiar smile upon his clean-shaven lips, came to announce Heron’s visit.

The communicative gem-cutter had already confided to the servant what it was that agitated him so greatly, but Melissa was astonished at the change in her father’s manner.

The shuffling gait of the gigantic, unwieldy man, who had grown gray stooping over his work, had gained a certain majestic dignity.  His cheeks glowed, and the gray eyes, which had long since acquired a fixed look from straining over the gemcutting, now beamed with a blissful radiance.  Something wonderful must have happened to him, and, without waiting to be questioned by the lady, he poured out to her the news that he would have been overjoyed to have shouted in the market-place for all to hear.

The reception accorded to him at Caesar’s table, he declared, had been flattering beyond all words.  The godlike monarch had treated him more considerately, nay, sometimes with more reverence, than his own sons.  The best dishes had been put before him, and Caracalla had asked all sorts of questions about his future consort, and, on hearing that Melissa had sent him greetings, he had raised himself and drunk to him as if he were a friend.

His table-companions, too, had treated Heron with every distinction.  Immediately on his arrival the monarch had desired them to honor him as the father of the future empress.  They had all agreed with him in demanding that Zminis the Egyptian should be punished with death, and had even encouraged him to give the reins to his righteous anger.  He, if any one, was in the habit of being moderate in all things, if only as a good example to his sons; and he had proved in many a Dionysiac feast that the god could not easily overpower him.  The amount of wine he had drunk to-day would generally have had no more effect upon him than water, and yet he had felt now and then as if he were drunken, and the whole festal hall turned round with him.  Even now he would be quite incapable of walking forward in a given straight line.