parting. Their common destiny was but for a moment, and that moment had
come and gone. All that now retrained for them was death--destruction,
with all things living; and she looked forward to this, as a man watches
for the dawn after a sleepless night. Marianne stood aside; she dimly
perceived that something vital was going on, that something inevitable
had happened which would admit of no interference. Gorgo, as she freed
herself from Constantine's embrace, stood strangely solemn and
unapproachable. To the simple matron she was an inscrutable riddle to
which she could find no clue; but she was pleased, nevertheless, when
Gorgo came up to her and kissed her hand. She could not utter a word, for
she felt that whatever she might say, it would not be the right thing;
and it was a real relief to her to busy herself over the removal of the
body, in which she could be helpful.

Gorgo had covered the dead face; and when old Damia had been carried down
to the thalamos and laid in state on the bridal bed, she strewed the
couch with flowers.

Meanwhile, the priest of Saturn had been found, and he declared in all
confidence that no power on earth could have recalled this departed soul.
Damia's sudden end and the girl's great grief went to his faithful heart,
and he gladly acceded to Gorgo's request that he would wait for her by
the garden-gate and escort her to the Serapeum. When he had left them she
gave the keys of her grandmother's chests and cupboards into Marianne's
keeping; then she went into the adjoining room, where Constantine had
been waiting while she decked the bed of death, and bid him a solemn, but
apparently calm, farewell. He put out his arm to clasp her to his heart,
but this she would not permit; and when he besought her to go home with
them she answered sadly, "No, my dearest . . . I must not; I have other
duties to fulfil."

"Yes," he replied emphatically, "and I, too--I have mine. But you have
given yourself to me. You are my very own; you belong to me only, and not
to yourself; and I desire, I command you to yield to my first request. Go
with my mother, or stay here, if you will, with the dead. Wherever your
father may be, it is not, cannot be, the right place for you--my
betrothed bride. I can guess where he is. Oh! Gorgo, be warned.

"The fate of the old gods is sealed. We are the stronger and to-morrow,
yes to-morrow--by your own head, by all I hold dear and sacred!--Serapis
will fall!"

"I know it,