t looking, as beseemed an emperor's bride.

At this Melissa drew her kerchief more closely over her face; but it was
a comfort to her when the soldier's wife, after describing to her what
she herself had worn, added that Caracalla's choice had fallen on
a modest and well-conducted maiden, for, if she had not been, the
high-priest's wife would never have been so kind to her. And the lady
Euryale was sister-in-law to the master she herself served, and she had
known her all her life.

Then, when Melissa, to change the subject, asked why the public were
forbidden to approach the Serapeum, her companion told her that
since his return from the Circus Caesar had been devoting himself to
astrology, soothsaying, and other abstruse matters, and that the noise
of the city disturbed him. He was very learned in such things, and if
she only had time she could have told Melissa wonderful things. Thus
conversing, they crossed the square, and when it lay behind them and
they were under the shadow of the stadium, Melissa thanked her lively
companion for her escort, while she, on her part, declared that it had
been a pleasure to do the friendly painter a service.

The western side of the immense temple stood quite detached from the
town. There were on that side but few bronze doors, and these, which
were opened only to the inhabitants of the building, had long since
been locked for the night and needed no guard. As the inhabitants were
forbidden to cross the space dividing the stadium from the Serapeum,
all was perfectly still. Dark shadows lay on the road, and the high
structures which shut it in like cliffs seemed to tower to the sky. The
lonely girl's heart beat fast with fears as she stole along, close under
the wall, from which a warm vapor breathed on her after the recent
rain. The black circles which seemed to stare at her like dark, hollow
eye-sockets from the wall of the stadium, were the windows of the
stables.

If a runaway slave, an escaped wild beast, or a robber were to rush out
upon her! The owls swept across over her head on silent wings, and bats
flitted to and fro, from one building to the other, almost touching the
frightened girl. Her terrors increased at every step, and the wall which
she must follow to the end was so long--so endlessly long!

Supposing, too, that the lady Euryale had been tired of waiting and had
given her up! There would then be nothing for it but to make her way
back to the town past the guard