o pray and sacrifice for
him must be a pious deed, pleasing to the gods. Melissa besought the
marble images over the altar from the very bottom of her heart, never
even asking herself why she was bestowing on this stranger, this cruel
tryant, in whose name her own brother was in danger of the law, an
emotion which nothing but her care for those dearest to her had ever
stirred. But she did not feel that he was a stranger, and never thought
how far apart they were. Her prayers came easily, too, in this spot; the
bonds that linked her to these beautiful marble beings were familiar and
dear to her. While she gazed up into the face of Asklepios, imploring him
to be gracious to the imperial youth, and release him from the pain but
for which he might have been humane and beneficent, the stony features
seemed to live before her eyes, and the majesty and dignity that beamed
on the brow assured her that the god's power and wisdom were great enough
to heal every disease. The tender smile which played on his features
filled her soul with the certainty that he would vouchsafe to be
gracious; nay, she could believe that he moved those marble lips and
promised to grant her prayer. And when she turned to the statue of Hygeia
she fancied the beautiful, kind face nodded to her with a pledge of
fulfillment.

She raised her beseeching arms higher still, and addressed her sculptured
friends aloud, as though they could hear her:

"I know that nothing is hidden from you, eternal gods," she began, "and
when it was your will that my mother should be taken from me my foolish
heart rebelled. But I was then a child without understanding, and my soul
lay as it were asleep. Now it is different. You know that I have learned
to love a man; and many things, and, the certainty that the gods are
good, have come to me with that love. Forgive the maid the sins of the
child, and make my lover whole, as he lies under the protection and in
the sanctuary of the great Serapis, still needing your aid too. He is
mending, and the greatest of thy ministers, O Asklepios, says he will
recover, so it must be true. Yet without thee even the skill of Galenus
is of little avail; wherefore I beseech you both, Heal Diodoros, whom I
love!--But I would fain entreat you for another. You will wonder,
perhaps--for it is Bassianus Antoninus, whom they call Caracalla and
Caesar.

"Thou, Asklepios, dost look in amazement, and great Hygeia shakes her
head. And it is hard to say