the eye might turn. Her
lover, borne before her in a litter, was on the way to the physician in
whose hands lay the power to cure him. She felt as though Hope led the
way.

Since love had blossomed in her breast her quiet life had become an
eventful one. Most of what she had gone through had indeed filled her
with alarms. Serious questions to which she had never given a thought
had been brought before her; and yet, in this brief period of anxiety
she had gained the precious sense of youthfulness and of capacity
for action when she had to depend on herself. The last few hours had
revealed to her the possession of powers which only yesterday she had
never suspected. She, who had willingly yielded to every caprice of her
father's, and who, for love of her brothers, had always unresistingly
done their bidding, now knew that she had a will of her own and strength
enough to assert it; and this, again, added to her contentment this
morning.

Alexander had told her, and old Dido, and Diodoros, that she was fair to
look upon--but these all saw her with the eyes of affection; so she had
always believed that she was a well-looking girl enough, but by no means
highly gifted in any respect--a girl whose future would be to bloom
and fade unknown in her father's service. But now she knew that she was
indeed beautiful; not only because she had heard it repeatedly in
the crowd of yesterday, or even because Agatha had declared it while
braiding her hair--an inward voice affirmed it, and for her lover's sake
she was happy to believe it.

As a rule, she would have been ready to drop with fatigue after so many
sleepless hours and such severe exertions; but to-day she felt as fresh
as the birds in the trees by the roadside, which greeted the sun with
cheerful twitterings.

"Yes, the world is indeed fair!" thought she; but at that very moment
Andreas's grave voice was heard ordering the bearers to turn down a dark
side alley which led into the street of Hermes, a few hundred paces from
the Rhakotis Canal.

How anxious the good man looked! Her world was not the world of the
Christian freedman; that she plainly understood when the litter in which
Diodoros lay was carried into one of the houses in the side street.

It was a large, plain building, with only a few windows, and those
high up-in fact, as Melissa was presently informed, it was a Christian
church. Before she could express her surprise, Andreas begged her to
have a few minutes