in her face with utter
amazement.

He could not but approve her warning not to betray Alexander's
hiding-place, and her suggestion that he should go to see his eldest
son coincided with an unspoken desire which had been lurking in his mind
ever since she had told him of her having seen a disembodied soul. The
possibility of seeing her once more, whose memory was dearer to him than
all else on earth, had such a charm, that it moved him more deeply than
the danger of his son, who was, nevertheless, very dear to his strangely
tempered heart.

So he answered Melissa coolly, as if he were telling her of a decision
already formed:

"Of course! I meant to see Philip too; only"--and he paused, for anxiety
about Alexander again came to the front--"I can not bear to remain in
such uncertainty about the boy."

At this instant the door opened. The new-comer was Andreas, the man to
whom Diodoros had advised Alexander to apply for protection and counsel;
and Melissa greeted him with filial affection.

He was a freedman in her lover's family, and was the steward and manager
of his master's extensive gardens and lands, which were under his
absolute control. No one could have imagined that this man had ever been
a slave; his face was swarthy, but his fine black eyes lighted it up
with a glance of firm self reliance and fiery energy. It was the look
of a man who might be the moving spirit of one of those rebellions which
were frequent in Alexandria; there was an imperious ring in his voice,
and decision in the swift gestures of his hardened but shapely hands.

For twenty years, indeed, he had ruled over the numerous slaves of
Polybius, who was an easy-going master, and an invalid from gout in his
feet. He was at this time a victim to a fresh attack, and had therefore
sent his confidential steward into the town to tell Heron that he
approved of his son's choice, and that he would protect Alexander from
pursuit.

All this Andreas communicated in few and business-like words; but he
then turned to Melissa, and said, in a tone of kindly and affectionate
familiarity: "Polybius also wishes to know how your lover is being cared
for by the Christians, and from hence I am going on to see our sick
boy."

"Then ask your friends," the gem-cutter broke in, "to keep less
ferocious dogs for the future."

"That," replied the freedman, "will be unnecessary, for it is not likely
that the fierce brute belongs to the community whose friendship I