ok his leave, for they had reached the vestibule leading
to the high-priest's lodgings, and a few minutes later Melissa found
herself with Euryale, to whom she related all that she had seen and
felt. When she told her older friend what Philostratus had advised,
the lady stroked her hair, and said: "Try to follow the advice of so
experienced a man. It can not be very difficult. When a woman's heart
has once been attached to a man--and pity is one of the strongest of
human ties--the bond may be strained and worn, but a few threads must
always remain."

But Melissa hastily broke in:

"There is not a spider's thread left which binds me to that cruel man.
The murder of Titianus has snapped them all."

"Not so," replied the lady, confidently. "Pity is the only form of love
which even the worst crime can not eradicate from a kind heart. You
prayed for Caesar before you knew him, and that was out of pure human
charity. Exercise now a wider compassion, and reflect that Fate has
called you to take care of a hapless creature raving in fever and
hard to deal with. How many Christian women, especially such as call
themselves deaconesses, voluntarily assume such duties! and good
is good, right is right for all, whether they pray to one God or to
several. If you keep your heart pure, and constantly think of the
time which shall be fulfilled for each of us, to our ruin or to our
salvation, you will pass unharmed through this great peril. I know it, I
feel it."

"But you do not know him," exclaimed Melissa, "and how terrible he can
be! And Diodoros! When he is well again, if he hears that I am with
Caesar, in obedience to his call whenever he sends for me, and if evil
tongues tell him dreadful things about me, he, too, will condemn me!"

"No, no," the matron declared, kissing her brow and eyes. "If he loves
you truly, he will trust you."

"He loves me," sobbed Melissa; "but, even if he does not desert me when
I am thus branded, his father will come between us."

"God forbid!" cried Euryale. "Remain what you are, and I will always be
the same to you, come what may; and those who love you will not refuse
to listen to an old woman who has grown gray in honor."

And Melissa believed her motherly, kind, worthy friend; and, with the
new confidence which revived in her, her longing for her lover began to
stir irresistibly. She wanted a fond glance from the eyes of the youth
who loved her, and to whom, for another man's sake, she could