met those of the dreaded Egyptian; their white balls showed
plainly in his brown, lean face, and their cruel, evil sparkle had
stamped them clearly on her memory.

On her right a street turned off from the road, and saying in a low
tone, "This way," she led Diodoros, to his surprise, into the shadow.
His heart beat high. Did she, whose coy and maidenly austerity before
and after the intoxication of the dance had vouchsafed him hardly a kind
look or a clasp of the hand-did she even yearn for some tender embrace
alone and in darkness? Did the quiet, modest girl, who, since she had
ceased to be a child, had but rarely given him a few poor words, long
to tell him that which hitherto only her bright eyes and the kiss of her
pure young lips had betrayed?

He drew her more closely to him in blissful expectation; but she shyly
shrank from his touch, and before he could murmur a single word of
love she exclaimed in terror, as though the hand of the persecutor were
already laid on her: "Fly, fly! That house will give us shelter."

And she dragged him after her into the open doorway of a large building.
Scarcely had they entered the dark vestibule when the sound of hoofs was
heard, and the glare of torches dispelled the darkness outside.

"Zminis! It is he--he is following us!" she whispered, scarcely able to
speak; and her alarm was well founded, for the Egyptian had recognized
her, and supposed her companion to be Alexander. He had ridden down the
street with his torchbearers, but where she had hidden herself his keen
eyes could not detect, for the departing sound of hoofs betrayed to the
breathless listeners that the pursuer had left their hiding-place far
behind him. Presently the pavement in front of the house which sheltered
them rang again with the tramp of the horse, till it died away at last
in the direction of Hadrian's gate. Not till then did Melissa lift her
hand from her painfully throbbing heart.

But the Egyptian would, no doubt, have left his spies in the street, and
Diodoros went out to see if the road was clear. Melissa remained alone
in the dark entrance, and began to be anxious as to how she could
explain her presence there if the inhabitants should happen to discover
it; for in this vast building, in spite of the lateness of the hour,
there still was some one astir. She had for some minutes heard a
murmuring sound which reached her from an inner chamber; but it was only
by degrees that she collected hersel