ntercourse bore an aspect of coolness, which was easily worked
up to an outbreak of hostile speeches. Hundreds of times they would go
to bed without wishing each other 'good-night,' and still more often
would they avoid any morning greeting when they first met in the day.

Arsinoe liked talking, but in Selene's presence she was taciturn;
there were few things in which Selene took pleasure, while her sister
delighted in every thing which can charm youth. It was the steward's
eldest daughter who attended to the daily needs of the children, their
food and clothes; it was the second who superintended their games,
and their dolls. The eldest watched and taught them with anxious care,
detecting in every little fault the germ of some evil tendency in the
future, while the other enticed them into follies, it is true, but
opened their minds to joyous impressions, and attained more by kisses
and kind words than Selene could by fault-finding. The children would
call Selene when they wanted her, but would fly to Arsinoe as soon as
they saw her. Their hearts were hers, and Selene felt this bitterly; it
seemed to her to be unjust, for she saw clearly that her sister could
reap, from mere frivolous play in her idle hours, a sweeter reward than
she could earn by the anxiety, trouble and exhausting toil, in which she
often spent her nights.

But children are not unjust in this way. It is true that they keep an
account in their heart and not in their head. Those who give them the
warmth of affection they pay back most honestly.

On this particular night it was not, it is certain, with very sisterly
feelings that Selene looked at the sleeping Arsinoe, and the words on
the girl's lips as she had dropped asleep, had sounded very unkind;
but, nevertheless, they felt warmly towards each other, and any one who
should have attempted to say a word against the one in the presence of
the other would soon have found out how close a bond held together these
two hearts, dissimilar as they were. But no girl of nineteen can pass a
night altogether without sleeping, however sadly she may turn and turn
over and over again in her bed. So slumber overmastered Selene every
now and then for a quarter of an hour, and each time she dreamed of her
sister.

Once she saw Arsinoe dressed out like a queen, followed by beggar
children and pelted with bad words--then she saw her on the rotunda
below the balcony romping with Pollux, and in their bold sport they
br