s no gainsaying so definite an order from her lord and master.
"The moment she is missed, they will search her father's house; and, if
she takes advantage of Berenike's ship, it will soon be discovered that
it was your brother's wife who helped her to escape from Caracalla."

"Berenike will know what to do," answered Timotheus, composedly. "She, if
any one, knows how to take care of herself. She has the protection of her
influential brother-in-law, Coeranus; and just now there is nothing she
would not do to strike a blow at her hated enemy."

"How sorrow and revenge have worked upon that strange woman!" exclaimed
the lady, sadly. "Caracalla has injured her, it is true--"

"He has, and to-day he has added a further, deeper insult, for he forces
her to appear in the Amphitheater, with the wives of the other citizens
who bear the cost of this performance. I was there, and heard him say to
Seleukus, who was acting as spokesman, that he counted on seeing his
wife, of whom he had heard so much, in her appointed place this evening.

"This will add fuel to the fire of her hatred. If she only does not allow
her anger to carry her away, and to show it in a manner that she will
afterward regret!--But my time is short. I have to walk before the sacred
images in full ceremonial vestments, and accompanied by the priest of
Alexander. You, unfortunately, take no pleasure in such spectacles. Once
more, then--if the girl is determined to fly, she must not return here. I
repeat, if any one can help her to get away, it is Berenike. Our
sister-in-law must take the consequences. Caesar can not accuse her of
treason, at any rate, and her interference in the matter will clear us of
all suspicion of complicity."

No word of this conversation had escaped Melissa. She learned nothing new
from it, but it affected her deeply.

Warm-hearted as she was, she fully realized the debt of gratitude she
owed to the lady Euryale; and she could not blame the high-priest, whom
prudence certainly compelled to close his doors against her. And yet she
was wounded by his words. She had struggled so hard in these last days to
banish all thought of her own happiness, and shield her dear ones from
harm, that such selfishness appeared doubly cruel to her. Did it not seem
as if this priest of the great Deity to whom she had been taught to pray,
cared little what became of his nearest relatives, so long as he and his
wife were unmolested? That was the opposite of w