nified presence.

Heron had already seen the man, and he seemed still to be thinking of
him, when Melissa, with a blush and downcast eyes, confessed that, as
soon as he was well again, Diodoros was coming to her father to ask her
of him in marriage.

It was a long story before she came at last to her own concerns, but it
was always her way not to think of herself till every one else had had
his due.

But what about her father? Had she spoken inaudibly, or was he really
unable to-day to be glad? or what ailed him, that he paid no heed to the
news which, even for him, was not without its importance, but, without a
word of consent or disapproval, merely bade her go on with her story?

Melissa called him by name, as if to wake a man from sleep, and asked
whether it were indeed possible that he really felt no pleasure in the
happy prospect that lay before her, and that she had confessed to him.
And now Heron lent an ear, and gave her to understand the satisfaction
of his fatherly heart by kissing her. This news, in fact, made up for
much that was evil, for Diodoros was a son-in-law after his own heart,
and not merely because he was rich, or because his mother had been
so great a friend of Olympias's. No, the young man's father was, like
himself, one of the old Macedonian stock; he had seen his daughter's
lover grow to manhood, and there was not in the city a youth he could
more heartily welcome. This he freely admitted; he only regretted that
when she should set up house with her husband on the other side of the
lake, he (Heron) would be left as lonely as a statue on its pedestal.
His sons had already begun to avoid him like a leper!

Then, when he heard of what had befallen Diodoros, and Melissa went
on to say that the people who had thrown the stone at the dog were
Christians, and that they had carried the wounded youth into a large,
clean dwelling, where he was being carefully attended when she had
left him, Heron broke out into violent abuse. They were unpatriotic
worshipers of a crucified Jew, who multiplied like vermin, and only
wanted to turn the good old order of things upside down. But this time
they should see--the hypocrites, who pretended to so much humanity, and
then set ferocious dogs on peaceful folk!--they should learn that they
could not fall on a Macedonian citizen without paying for it.

He indignantly refused to hear Melissa's assurance that none of the
Christians had set the dog on her lover; she,