magined so good
and pure! She could not believe it; and as her glance met the cunning
glitter of the Egyptian's eyes her own sparkled keenly, and she
exclaimed with a vehemence and decision which her attendant had never
suspected in her:

"It is deceit and falsehood from beginning to end! Go, woman, I will
hear no more of it. Why should Marcus have come to you since yesterday
if he does not know where I am? You are silent--you will not say?... Oh!
I understand it all. He--I know he would never have ventured it. But
it is your 'noble lady Damia'--that old woman, who has told you what to
say. You are her echo, and as for Marcus.... Confess, confess at once,
you witch...."

"Sachepris is only a poor slave," said the woman raising her hands in
entreaty. "Sachepris can only obey, and if the pretty mistress were to
tell my lady Damia..."

"It was she then who sent for me to go to the little tavern?"

The woman nodded. "And Marcus?"

"If the pretty mistress had consented..."

"Well?"

"Then--but Great Isis! if you tell of me!"

"I will not tell; go on."

"I should have gone to my lord Marcus and invited him, from you..."

"It is shameful!" interrupted Dada, and a shudder ran through her slight
frame. "How cruel, how horrible it is! You--you will stay here till the
others come home and then you will go home to the old woman. I thank
the gods, I have two hands and need no maid to wait upon me! But look
there--what is the meaning of that? That pretty litter has stopped and
there is an old man signing to you."

"It is the widow Mary's house steward," whined the woman, while Dada
turned pale, wondering what a messenger from Marcus' mother could want
here.

Herse, who had kept a watchful eye on the landing-plank, on Dada's
account, had also seen the approach of the widow's messenger and
suspected a love-message from Marcus; but she was utterly astounded when
the old man politely but imperiously desired her--Herse to get into the
litter which would convey her to his mistress's house. Was this a trap?
Did he merely want to tempt her from the vessel so as to clear the way
for his young master? No--for he handed her a tablet on which there was
a written message, and she, an Alexandrian, had been well educated and
could read:

"Mary, the widow of Apelles, to the wife of Karnis, the singer." And
then followed the same urgent request as she had already received by
word of mouth. To reassure herself entirely she called the