e no longer craved;
it would only have disturbed her peace. But she was the last person to
think ill of the young, whose life still lay before them, if they longed
to look into futurity.

The fair widow and her companion crossed the sorceress' threshold in
some trepidation, and Katharina was the more agitated of the two; for
this afternoon she had seen Philippus leave the house of Rufinus, and
not long after some Arab officials had called there. Paula had come into
the garden shortly before sundown, her eyes red with weeping; and when,
soon after, Pulcheria and her mother had joined her there, Paula had
thrown herself on Joanna's neck, sobbing so bitterly that the mother
and daughter--"whose tears were near her eyes"--had both followed her
example. Something serious had occurred; but when she had gone to the
house to pick up further information, old Betta, who was particularly
snappish with her, had refused her admission quite rudely.

Then, on their way hither, she and Heliodora had had a painful
adventure; the chariot, lent by Neforis to convey them as far as the
edge of the necropolis, was stopped on the way by a troop of Arab horse,
and they were subjected to a catechism by the leader.

So they entered the house of "Medea of the curls," as the common people
called the witch, with uneasy and throbbing hearts; they were received,
however, with such servile politeness that they soon recovered
themselves, and even the timid Heliodora began to breathe freely again.
The sorceress knew this time who Katharina was, and paid more respectful
attention to the daughter of the wealthy widow.

The young crescent moon had risen, a circumstance which Medea declared
enabled her to see more clearly into the future than she could do at
the time of the Luna-negers as she called the moonless night. Her inward
vision had been held in typhornian darkness at the time of their first
visit, by the influence of some hostile power. She had felt this as soon
as they had quitted her, but to-day she saw clearer. Her mind's eye was
as clear as a silver mirror, she had purified it by three days' fasting
and not a mote could escape her sight.--"Help, ye children of Horapollo!
Help, Hapi and Ye three holy ones!"

"Oh, my beauties, my beauties!" she went on enthusiastically. "Hundreds
of great dames have proved my art, but such splendid fortunes I never
before saw crowding round any two heads as round yours. Do you hear
how the cauldrons of fortu