emperor had ordered them to cast her nativity.

Soon after dinner she had gone, accompanied by the lady Berenike, who
had found her at the chief priest's house, to visit her lover in the
sick-rooms of the Serapeum. Thankful and happy, she had found him
with fully recovered consciousness, but the physician and the freedman
Andreas, whom she met at the door of the chamber, had impressed on her
the importance of avoiding all excitement. So it had not been possible
for her to tell him what had happened to her people, or of the perilous
step she had taken in order to save them. But Diodoros had talked of
their wedding, and Andreas could confirm the fact that Polybius wished
to see it celebrated as soon as possible.

Several pleasant subjects were discussed; but between whiles Melissa
had to dissemble and give evasive answers to Diodoros's questions as to
whether she had already arranged with her brother and friends who should
be the youths and maidens to form the wedding procession, and sing the
hymeneal song.

As the two whispered to one another and looked tenderly at each
other--for Diodoros had insisted on her allowing him to kiss not only
her hands but also her sweet red lips--Berenike had pictured her dead
daughter in Melissa's place. What a couple they would have been! How
proudly and gladly she would have led them to the lovely villa at
Kanopus, which her husband and she had rebuilt and decorated with the
idea that some day Korinna, her husband, and--if the gods should grant
it--their children, might inhabit it! But even Melissa and Diodoros made
a fine couple, and she tried with all her heart not to grudge her all
the happiness that she had wished for her own child.

When it was time to depart, she joined the hands of the betrothed pair,
and called down a blessing from the gods.

Diodoros accepted this gratefully.

He only knew that this majestic lady had made Melissa's acquaintance
through Alexander, and had won her affection, and he encouraged the
impression that this woman, whose Juno-like beauty haunted him, had
visited him on his bed of sickness in the place of his long-lost mother.

Outside the sick-room Andreas again met Melissa, and, after she had
told him of her visit to the emperor, he impressed on her eagerly on no
account to obey the tyrant's call again. Then he had promised to hide
her securely, either on Zeno's estate or else in the house of another
friend, which was difficult of access. When Dam