it as I paid. I tell you the
Empress's money was well laid out on the thing." Selene made no answer,
but she sighed deeply, and her eye glanced at a quantity of useless
things which her father had acquired and brought home because they were
cheap, while she and her seven sisters wanted the most necessary things.

"Father," the girl began again after a short silence, "I ought not to
go on about it, but even if it vexes you, I must--the architect, who is
settling all the work out there, has sent for you twice already."

"Be silent!" shouted the fat man, striking his hand on the table. "Who
is this Pontius, and who am I!"

"You are of a noble Macedonian family, related perhaps even to the
Ptolemies; you have your seat in the Council of the Citizens--but do,
this time, be condescending and kind. The man has his hands full, he is
tired out."

"Nor have I been able to sit still the whole day, and what is fitting,
is fitting. I am Keraunus the son of Ptolemy, whose father came into
Egypt with Alexander the Great, and helped to found this city, and every
one knows it. Our possessions were diminished; but it is for that very
reason that I insist on our illustrious blood being recognized. Pontius
sends to command the presence of Keraunus! If it were not infuriating it
would be laughable--for who is this man, who? I have told you his father
was a freedman of the former prefect Claudius Balbillus, and by the
favor of the Roman his father rose and grew rich. He is the descendant
of slaves, and you expect that I shall be his obedient humble servant,
whenever he chooses to call me?"

"But father, my dear father, it is not the son of Ptolemy, but the
palace-steward that he desires shall go to hire."

"Mere chop-logic!--you have nothing to say, not a step do I take to go
to him."

The girl clasped her hands over her face, and sobbed loudly and
pitifully. Keraunus started up and cried out, beside himself.

"By great Serapis. I can bear this no longer. What are you whimpering
about?"

The girl plucked up courage and going up to the indignant man she said,
though more than once interrupted by tears.

"You must go father--indeed you must. I spoke to the foreman, and he
told me coolly and decidedly that the architect was placed here in
Caesar's name, and that if you do not obey him you will at once be
superseded in your office. And if that were to happen, if that--O
father, father, only think of blind Helios and poor Berenice! A