he poor--you understand me, children."

"I will not take part in the procession," said Selene resolutely, but
Arsinoe interrupted her.

"It is inconvenient and horrible to be poor, but it certainly is no
disgrace! The most powerful Romans of ancient times, regarded it as
honorable to die poor. Our Macedonian descent remains to us even if the
state should pay for our costumes."

"Silence," cried the steward. "This is not the first time that I have
detected this low vein of feeling in you. Even the noble may submit to
the misfortunes entailed by poverty, but the advantages it brings with
it he can never enjoy unless he resigns himself to being so no longer."

It had cost the steward much trouble to give due expression to this
idea, which he did not recollect to have heard from another, which
seemed new to him, and which nevertheless fully represented what he
felt; and he slowly sank, with all the signs of exhaustion, into a couch
which formed a divan round a side recess in the spacious sitting-room.

In this room Cleopatra might have held with Antony those banquets of
which the unequalled elegance and refinement had been enhanced by every
grace of art and wit. On the very spot where Keraunus now reclined the
dining-couch of the famous lovers had probably stood; for, though the
whole hall had a carefully-laid pavement, in this recess there was a
mosaic of stones of various colors of such beauty and delicacy of finish
that Keraunus had always forbidden his children to step upon it. This,
it is true, was less out of regard for the fine work of art than because
his father had always prohibited his doing so, and his father again
before him. The picture represented the marriage of Peleus and Thetis,
and the divan only covered the outer border of the picture, which was
decorated with graceful little Cupids.

Keraunus desired his daughter to fetch him a cup of wine, but she mixed
the juice of the grape with a judicious measure of water. After he
had half drunk the diluted contents of the goblet, with many faces of
disgust, he said:

"Would you like to know what each of your dresses will cost if it is to
be in no respect inferior to those of the others?"

"Well," said Arsinoe anxiously.

"About seven hundred drachmae;--[$115 in 1880]--Philinus, the tailor,
who is working for the theatre, tells me it will be impossible to do
anything well for less."

"And you are really thinking of such insane extravagance," cried Selene