being the feast of the dead, in
the hall of the embalmers. That was the plan, I know. So, now, child, set
your wise little woman's head to work, and devise something by which he
may be brought to his senses, and released from these crazy imaginings."

"The first thing to be done," Melissa exclaimed, "is to follow him and
talk to him.-Wait a moment; I must speak a word to the slaves. My
father's night-draught can be mixed in a minute. He might perhaps return
home before us, and I must leave his couch--I will be with you in a
minute."

CHAPTER III.

The brother and sister had walked some distance. The roads were full of
people, and the nearer they came to the Nekropolis the denser was the
throng.

As they skirted the town walls they took counsel together.

Being perfectly agreed that the girl who had touched Philip's hand could
certainly be no daimon who had assumed Korinna's form, they were inclined
to accept the view that a strong resemblance had deceived their brother.
They finally decided that Alexander should try to discover the maiden who
so strangely resembled the dead; and the artist was ready for the task,
for he could only work when his heart was light, and had never felt such
a weight on it before. The hope of meeting with a living creature who
resembled that fair dead maiden, combined with his wish to rescue his
brother from the disorder of mind which threatened him; and Melissa
perceived with glad surprise how quickly this new object in life restored
the youth's happy temper.

It was she who spoke most, and Alexander, whom nothing escaped that had
any form of beauty, feasted his ear on the pearly ring of her voice.

"And her face is to match," thought he as they went on in the darkness;
"and may the Charites who have endowed her with every charm, forgive my
father for burying her as he does his gold."

It was not in his nature to keep anything that stirred him deeply to
himself, when he was in the society of another, so he murmured to his
sister: "It is just as well that the Macedonian youths of this city
should not be able to see what a jewel our old man's house
contains.--Look how brightly Selene shines on us, and how gloriously the
stars burn! Nowhere do the heavens blaze more brilliantly than here. As
soon as we come out of the shadow that the great walls cast on the road
we shall be in broad light. There is the Serapeum rising out of the
darkness. They are rehearsing the great illumination