here are women who remind us of fading flowers, extinguished lights or
vanishing shades, and they are not the least attractive of their sex:
but the large-boned, stiff and meagre Sabina had none of the yielding
and tender grace of these gentle creatures. Her feeble health, which was
very evident, became her particularly ill when, as at this moment,
the harsh acrimony of her embittered soul came to light with hideous
plainness.

She was deeply indignant at the affront her husband had put upon her.
Not content with having a separate house established for her he kept
aloof in Alexandria without informing her of his arrival. Her hands
trembled with rage, and stammering rather than speaking she desired the
praetor to order a composing draught for her. When Verus returned she
was lying on her cushions, with her face turned to the wall, and said
lamentably:

"I am freezing; spread that coverlet over me. I am a miserable, ill-used
creature."

"You are sensitive and take things too hardly," the praetor ventured to
remonstrate.

She started up angrily, cut off his speech, and put him through as keen
a cross-examination as if he were an accused person and she his judge.
Ere long she had learnt that Verus also had encountered Mastor, that her
husband was residing at Lochias, that he had taken part in the festival
in disguise, and had exposed himself to grave danger outside the house
of Apollodorus. She also made him tell her how the Israelite had been
rescued, and whom her friend had met in his house, and she blamed Verus
with bitter words for the heedless and foolhardy recklessness with
which he had risked his life for a miserable Jew, forgetting the high
destinies that lay before him. The praetor had not interrupted her, but
now bowing over her, he kissed her hand and said:

"Your kind heart foresees for me things that I dare not hope for.
Something is glimmering on the horizon of my fortune. Is it the dying
glow of my failing fortunes, is it the pale dawn of a coming and more
glorious day? Who can tell? I await with patience whatever may be
impending--an early day must decide."

"That will bring certainty, and put an end to this suspense," murmured
Sabina.

"Now rest and try to sleep," said Verus with a tender fervency, that was
peculiar to his tones. "It is past midnight and the physician has often
forbidden you to sit up late. Farewell, dream sweetly, and always be the
same to me as a man, that you were to me in my ch