, gentle, and attractive.

Alexander never took his gaze off Agatha, and his artist-eye reveled
in her elastic step and her slender, shapely form. Above all, he was
bewitched by the way her head was set, with a little forward bend; and
as long as the way led through the silent lanes he was never weary of
comparing her with lovely images-with a poppy, whose flower bows the
stem; with a willow, whose head leans over the water; with the huntress
Artemis, who, chasing in the moonlight, bends to mark the game.

Thus, unwearied and unseen, he had followed them as far as the street of
Hermes; there his task became more difficult, for the road was swarming
with people. The older men were walking in groups of five or six, going
to or coming from some evening assembly, and talking as they walked; or
priests and temple servants on their way home, tired from night services
and ceremonies; but the greater number were young men and boys, some
wearing wreaths, and all more or less intoxicated, with street-wenches
on the lookout for a companion or surrounded by suitors, and trying to
attract a favorite or dismiss the less fortunate.

The flare of the torches which illuminated the street was mirrored in
eager eyes glowing with wine and passion, and in the glittering weapons
of the Roman soldiery. Most of these were attached to Caesar's train. As
in the field, so in the peaceful town, they aimed at conquest, and many
a Greek sulkily resigned his claims to some fickle beauty in favor of an
irresistible tribune or centurion. Where the courteous Alexandrians
made way, they pushed in or thrust aside whatever came in their
path, securely confident of being Caesar's favorite protectors, and
unassailable while he was near. Their coarse, barbaric tones shook the
air, and reduced the Greeks to silence; for, even in his drunken and
most reckless moods, the Greek never lost his subtle refinement. The
warriors rarely met a friendly glance from the eye of a native; still,
the gold of these lavish revelers was as welcome to the women as that of
a fellow-countryman.

The blaze of light shone, too, on many a fray, such as flared up in
an instant whenever Greek and Roman came into contact. The lictors and
townwatch could generally succeed in parting the combatants, for the
orders of the authorities were that they should in every case side with
the Romans.

The shouts and squabbling of men, the laughing and singing of women,
mingled with the word of