xious sovereign meditating
on the welfare of his people.

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Galenus--What I like is bad for me, what I loathe is wholesome

A THORNY PATH

By Georg Ebers

Volume 6.

CHAPTER XVII.

The philosopher announced the visitor to Caesar, and as some little time
elapsed before Melissa came in, Caracalla forgot his theatrical
assumption, and sat with a drooping head; for, in consequence, no doubt,
of the sunshine which beat on the top of his head, the pain had suddenly
become almost unendurably violent.

Without vouchsafing a glance at Melissa, he swallowed one of the
alleviating pills left him by Galenus, and hid his face in his hands. The
girl came forward, fearless of the lion, for Philostratos had assured her
that he was tamed, and most animals were willing to let her touch them.
Nor was she afraid of Caesar himself, for she saw that he was in pain,
and the alarm with which she had crossed the threshold gave way to pity.
Philostratus kept at her side, and anxiously watched Caracalla.

The courage the simple girl showed in the presence of the ferocious
brute, and the not less terrible man, struck him favorably, and his hopes
rose as a sunbeam fell on her shining hair, which the lady Berenike had
arranged with her own hand, twining it with strands of white Bombyx. She
must appear, even to this ruthless profligate, as the very type of pure
and innocent grace.

Her long robe and peplos, of the finest white wool, also gave her an air
of distinction which suited the circumstances. It was a costly garment,
which Berenike had had made for Korinna, and she had chosen it from among
many instead of the plainer robe in which old Dido had dressed her young
mistress. With admirable taste the matron had aimed at giving Melissa a
simple, dignified aspect, unadorned and almost priestess-like in its
severity. Nothing should suggest the desire to attract, and everything
must exclude the idea of a petitioner of the poorer and commoner sort.

Philostratus saw that her appearance had been judiciously cared for; but
Caesar's long silence, of which he knew the reason, began to cause him
some uneasiness: for, though pain sometimes softened the despot's mood,
it more often prompted him to revenge himself, as it were, for his own
sufferings, by brutal attacks on the comfort and happiness of others.
And, at last, even Melissa seemed to be losing the presence of mind he
had admired, for he