of the women's
apartments there was a row of rooms looking out on the impluvium, and he
ventured to entreat her to spare one of them for the injured man. If she
had a brother or a child, she would forgive the boldness of his request.

So far she listened in silence; then she suddenly raised her head and
measured the petitioner's tall figure with a lurid fire in her eye.
Then she replied, while she looked into his handsome young face with a
half-scornful, half-indignant air: "Oh, yes! I know what it is to see
one we love suffer. I had an only child; she was the joy of my heart.
Death--death snatched her from me, and a few days later the sovereign
whom you serve commanded us to prepare a feast for him. It seemed to him
something new and delightful to hold a revel in a house of mourning. At
the last moment--all the guests were assembled--he sent us word that he
himself did not intend to appear. But his friends laughed and reveled
wildly enough! They enjoyed themselves, and no doubt praised our cook
and our wine. And now--another honor we can duly appreciate!--he
sends his praetorians to turn this house of mourning into a tavern, a
wine-shop, where they call creatures in from the street to dance and
sing. The rank to which you have risen while yet so young shows that you
are of good family, so you can imagine how highly we esteem the honor of
seeing your men trampling, destroying, and burning in their camp-fires
everything which years of labor and care had produced to make our
little garden a thing of beauty. 'Only look down on them!' Macrinus, who
commands you, promised me, moreover, that the women's apartments should
be respected. 'No praetorian, whether common soldier or commander,' and
here she raised her voice, 'shall set foot within them!' Here is his
writing. The prefect set the seal beneath it in Caesar's name."

"I know of the order, noble lady," interrupted Nemesianus, "and should
be the last to wish to act against it. I do not demand, I only appeal
humbly to the heart of a woman and a mother.'

"A mother!" broke in Berenike, scornfully; "yes! and one whose soul your
lord has pierced with daggers--a woman whose home has been dishonored
and made hateful to her. I have enjoyed sufficient honor now, and shall
stand firmly on my rights."

"Hear but one thing more," began the youth, timidly; but the lady
Berenike had already turned her back upon him, and returned with a proud
and stately carriage to Melissa in the a