and poking her fan-stick into the wool of the
carpet:

"I will visit you early to-morrow."

"After the first sacrifice," added Euergetes. "If I know you well,
something that you will then hear will please you greatly; very greatly
indeed, I should think. Bring the children with you; that I ask of you
as a birthday request."

CHAPTER XX.

The royal chariot in which Klea was standing, wrapped in the cloak and
wearing the hat of the captain of the civic guard, went swiftly and
without stopping through the streets of Memphis. As long as she saw
houses with lighted windows on each side of the way, and met riotous
soldiers and quiet citizens going home from the taverns, or from working
late in their workshops, with lanterns in their hands or carried by
their slaves--so long her predominant feeling was one of hatred to
Publius; and mixed with this was a sentiment altogether new to her--a
sentiment that made her blood boil, and her heart now stand still
and then again beat wildly--the thought that he might be a wretched
deceiver. Had he not attempted to entrap one of them--whether her sister
or herself it was all the same--wickedly to betray her, and to get her
into his power!

"With me," thought she, "he could not hope to gain his evil ends,
and when he saw that I knew how to protect myself he lured the poor
unresisting child away with him, in order to ruin her and to drag her
into shame and misery. Just like Rome herself, who seizes on one country
after another to make them her own, so is this ruthless man. No sooner
had that villain Eulaeus' letter reached him, than he thought himself
justified in believing that I too was spellbound by a glance from his
eyes, and would spread my wings to fly into his arms; and so he put
out his greedy hand to catch me too, and threw aside the splendor and
delights of a royal banquet to hurry by night out into the desert,
and to risk a hideous death--for the avenging deities still punish the
evildoer."

By this time she was shrouded in total darkness, for the moon was still
hidden by black clouds. Memphis was already behind her, and the chariot
was passing through a tall-stemmed palm-grove, where even at mid-day
deep shades intermingled with the sunlight. When, just at this spot,
the thought once more pierced her soul that the seducer was devoted to
death, she felt as though suddenly a bright glaring light had flashed up
in her and round her, and she could have broken out into