l as if we were standing already roofless in the open
street. What is there that I can do with a happy mind? I certainly am not
idle, still I envy the woman who can sit with her hands in her lap and be
waited on by slaves, and if a golden treasure fell into my possession, I
would never stir a finger again, and would sleep every day till the sun
was high and make slaves look after my father and the children. My life
is sheer misery. If ever we see better days I shall be astonished, and
before I have got over my astonishment it will all be over."

The sculptor felt a cold chill, and his heart which had opened wide to
his old playfellow shrank again within him. Before he could find the
right words of encouragement which he sought, they heard in the hall,
where the workmen and slaves were sleeping, the blast of a trumpet
intended to awake them. Selene started, drew her mantle more closely
round her, begged Pollux to take care of her father, and to hide the
wine-jar which was standing near him from the work-people and then,
forgetting her lamp, she went hastily toward the door by which she had
entered. Pollux hurried after her to light the way and while he
accompanied her as far as the door of her rooms, by his warm and urgent
words which appealed wonderfully to her heart, he extracted from her a
promise to stand once more in her mantle as his model.

A quarter of an hour later the steward was safe in bed and still sleeping
soundly, while Pollux, who had stretched himself on a mattress behind his
screen, could not for a long time cease to think of the pale girl with
her benumbed soul. At last sleep overcame him too, and a sweet dream
showed him pretty little Arsinoe, who but for him must infallibly have
been killed by the Numidian's restive horse, taking away her sister
Selene's almond-cake and giving it to him. The pale girl submitted
quietly to the robbery and only smiled coldly and silently to herself.

CHAPTER VI.

Alexandria was in the greatest excitement.

The Emperor's visit now immediately impending had tempted the busy hive
of citizens away from the common round of life in which, day after
day,--swarming, hurrying, pushing each other on, or running each other
down--they raced for bread and for the means of filling their hours of
leisure with pleasures and amusements. The unceasing wheel of industry
to-day had pause in the factories, workshops, storehouses and courts of
justice, for all sorts and conditions