Quite the best view, she declared, had been obtained from the third tier of places.  Caesar’s bride, too, had been pointed out to her.  Poor thing!  She would pay dearly for the splendor of the purple.  No one could dispute Caracalla’s taste, however, for the girl was lovely beyond description; and as she spoke she paused to look at Melissa, for she fancied she resembled Caesar’s sweetheart.  But she went on again quicker than before, remarking that Melissa was not so tall, and that the other was more brilliant looking, as beseemed an emperor’s bride.

At this Melissa drew her kerchief more closely over her face; but it was a comfort to her when the soldier’s wife, after describing to her what she herself had worn, added that Caracalla’s choice had fallen on a modest and well-conducted maiden, for, if she had not been, the high-priest’s wife would never have been so kind to her.  And the lady Euryale was sister-in-law to the master she herself served, and she had known her all her life.

Then, when Melissa, to change the subject, asked why the public were forbidden to approach the Serapeum, her companion told her that since his return from the Circus Caesar had been devoting himself to astrology, soothsaying, and other abstruse matters, and that the noise of the city disturbed him.  He was very learned in such things, and if she only had time she could have told Melissa wonderful things.  Thus conversing, they crossed the square, and when it lay behind them and they were under the shadow of the stadium, Melissa thanked her lively companion for her escort, while she, on her part, declared that it had been a pleasure to do the friendly painter a service.

The western side of the immense temple stood quite detached from the town.  There were on that side but few bronze doors, and these, which were opened only to the inhabitants of the building, had long since been locked for the night and needed no guard.  As the inhabitants were forbidden to cross the space dividing the stadium from the Serapeum, all was perfectly still.  Dark shadows lay on the road, and the high structures which shut it in like cliffs seemed to tower to the sky.  The lonely girl’s heart beat fast with fears as she stole along, close under the wall, from which a warm vapor breathed on her after the recent rain.  The black circles which seemed to stare at her like dark, hollow eye-sockets from the wall of the stadium, were the windows of the stables.

If a runaway slave, an escaped wild beast, or a robber were to rush out upon her!  The owls swept across over her head on silent wings, and bats flitted to and fro, from one building to the other, almost touching the frightened girl.  Her terrors increased at every step, and the wall which she must follow to the end was so long—­so endlessly long!