word, the weapon of the great Antony, perhaps the very
one with which he pierced his own breast.--Where can Selene be?"

An hour, an hour and a half had slipped by, and when the fourth
half-hour was well begun, and still his eldest daughter did not return,
the steward announced that they must set out, for that it would not
do to keep the ship-builder's wife waiting. It was a sincere grief to
Arsinoe to be obliged to go without Selene. She had made her sister's
dress look as nice as her own, and had laid it carefully on the divan
near the mosaic pavement. She had taken a great deal of trouble. Never
before had she been out in the streets alone, and it seemed impossible
to enjoy anything without the companionship and supervision of her
absent sister. But her father's assertion, that Selene would have a
place gladly found for her, even later, among the maidens, reassured the
girl who was overflowing with joyful expectation.

Finally she perfumed herself a little with the fragrant extract which
Keraunus was accustomed to use before going to the council, and begged
her father to order the old slave-woman to go and buy the promised cakes
for the little ones during her absence. The children had all gathered
round her, admiring her with loud ohs! and ahs! as if she were some
wondrous incarnation, not to be too nearly approached, and on no account
to be touched. The elaborate dressing of her hair would not allow of her
stooping over them as usual. She could only stroke little Helios' curls,
saying: "Tomorrow you shall have a ride in the air, and perhaps Selene
will tell you a pretty story by-and-bye."

Her heart beat faster than usual as she stepped into the litter, which
was waiting for her just in front of the gate-house. Old Doris looked at
her from a distance with pleasure, and while Keraunus stepped out into
the street to call a litter for himself, the old woman hastily cut the
two finest roses from her bush, and pressing her fingers to her lips
with a sly smile, put them into the girl's hand.

Arsinoe felt as if it were in a dream that she went to the
ship-builder's house, and from thence to the theatre, and on her way she
fully understood, for the first time, that alarm and delight may find
room side by side in a girl's mind, and that one by no means hinders the
existence of the other.

Fear and expectation so completely overmastered her, that she neither
saw nor heard what was going on around her; only once she notic