onal height and strength, was acquainted
with the philosopher.

Caracalla had given orders that no one was to be admitted till the
negotiations with the Parthian ambassadors, which had begun an hour ago,
were brought to a conclusion. Philostratus well knew that the emperor
would interrupt the most important business if Melissa were announced,
but there was much that he would have the maiden lay to heart before he
led her to the monarch; while she wished for nothing so earnestly as that
the door which separated her from her terrible wooer might remain closed
to the end of time. When the chamberlain Adventus looked out from the
imperial apartments, she begged him to give her a little time before
announcing her.

The old man blinked consent with his dim eyes, but the philosopher took
care that Melissa should not be left to herself and the terrors of her
heart. He employed all the eloquence at his command to make her
comprehend what it meant to be an empress and the consort of the ruler of
the world. In flaming colors he painted to her the good she might do in
such a position, and the tears she might wipe away. Then he reminded her
of the healing and soothing influence she had over Caracalla, and that
this influence came doubtless from the gods, since it passed the bounds
of nature and acted so beneficently. No one might reject such a gift from
the immortals merely to gratify an ordinary passion. The youth whose love
she must give up would be able to comfort himself with the thought that
many others had had much worse to bear, and he would find no difficulty
in getting a substitute, though not so beautiful a one. On the other
hand, she was the only one among millions whose heart, obedient to a
heaven-sent impulse, had turned in pity toward Caracalla. If she fled,
she would deprive the emperor of the only being on whose love he felt he
had some claim. If she listened to the wooing of her noble lover, she
would be able to tame this ungovernable being and soothe his fury, and
would gain in return for a sacrifice such as many had made before her,
the blissful consciousness of having rendered an inestimable service to
the whole world. For by her means and her love, the imperial tyrant would
be transformed into a beneficent ruler. The blessing of the thousands
whom she could protect and save would make the hardest task sweet and
endurable.

Here Philostratus paused, and gazed inquiringly at her; but she only
shook her head gen