together and
fetch them ourselves from the harbor."
Alexander raised his eyes and arms to heaven in rapture, and Melissa
imitated him; and thus, without words, though with fervent devotion, they
with one accord thanked the gods for their merciful ruling.
They then set out together, and Alexander said: "I feel as if nothing but
gratitude flowed through all my veins. At any rate, I have learned for
the first time what fear is. That evil guest certainly haunts this place.
Let us go now. On the way you shall tell me everything."
"Only one moment's patience," she begged, cheerfully, and hurried into
the chief priest's rooms. The lady Euryale was still expecting her, and
as she kissed her she looked with sincere pleasure into her bright but
tearful eyes.
At first she was bent on making Melissa rest; for she would yet require
all her strength. But she saw that the girl's wish to go and meet her
father was justifiable; she placed her own mantle over her shoulders--for
the air was cool before sunrise--and at last accompanied her into the
anteroom. Directly the girl had disappeared, she turned to her
sister-in-law's slave, who had waited there the whole night by order of
his mistress, and desired him to go and report to her what he had learned
about Melissa.
The brother and sister met the slave Argutis outside the Serapeum. He had
heard at Seleukus's house where his young mistress was staying, and had
made friends with the chief priest's servants.
When, late in the evening, he heard that Melissa was still with Caesar,
he had become so uneasy that he had waited the whole night through, first
on the steps of a staircase, then walking up and down outside the
Serapeum. With a light heart he now accompanied the couple as far as the
Aspendia quarter of the town, and he then only parted from them in order
that he might inform poor old Dido of his good news, and make
preparations for the reception of the home-comers.
After that Melissa hurried along, arm in arm with her brother, through
the quiet streets.
Youth, to whom the present belongs entirely, only cares to know the
bright side of the future; and even Melissa in her joy at being able to
restore liberty to her beloved relations, hardly thought at all of the
fact that, when this was done and Caesar should send for her again, there
would be new dangers to surmount.
Delighted with her grand success, she first told her brother what her
experiences had been with the
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