, and there was something jerky in his quick movements; still,
their grave decisiveness made up for the lack of grace. He paid no heed
to the bystanders, but threw himself forward rather than bent over the
patient, felt him, and with a light hand renewed his bandages; and
then he looked round the room, examining it as curiously as though he
proposed to take up his abode there, ending by fixing his prominent,
round eyes on Melissa. There was something so ruthlessly inquisitive in
that look that it might, under other circumstances, have angered her.
However, as it was, she submitted to it, for she saw that it was shrewd,
and she would have called the wisest physician on earth to her lover's
bedside if she had had the power.

When Ptolemaeus--for so he was called--had, in reply to the question,
"who is that?" learned who she was, he hastily murmured: "Then she can
do nothing but harm here. A man in a fever wants but one thing, and that
is perfect quiet."

And he beckoned Andreas to the window, and asked him shortly, "Has the
girl any sense?"

"Plenty," replied the freedman, decisively.

"As much, at any rate, as she can have at her age," the other retorted.
"Then it is to be hoped that she will go without any leave-taking or
tears. That fine lad is in a bad way. I have known all along what might
do him good, but I dare not attempt it alone, and there is no one in
Alexandria.... But Galen has come to join Caesar. If he, old as
he is--But it is not for the likes of us to intrude into Caesar's
quarters--Still--"

He paused, laying his hand on his brow, and rubbing it thoughtfully with
his short middle finger. Then he suddenly exclaimed: "The old man would
never come here. But the Serapeum, where the sick lie awaiting divine
or diabolical counsel in dreams--Galen will go there. If only we could
carry the boy thither."

"His nurse here would hardly allow that," said Andreas, doubtfully.

"He is a heathen." replied the leech, hotly. "Besides, what has faith to
do with the injury to the body? How many Caesars have employed Egyptian
and Jewish physicians? The lad would get the treatment he needs, and,
Christian as I am, I would, if necessary, convey him to the Serapeum,
though it is of all heathen temples the most heathen. I will find out by
hook or by crook at what time Galen is to visit the cubicles. To-morrow,
or next day at latest; and to-night, or, better still, to-morrow morning
before sunrise, I will have the youth