oulders, and arms, exclaiming in honest
admiration, "What a godlike form!"

He laid his delicate old hand, with its network of blue veins, on the
sick man's forehead, again glanced round the room, and listened to
Ptolemaeus, who gave him a brief and technical report of the case; then,
sniffing the heavy scent that filled the hall, he said, as the Christian
leech ceased speaking:

"We will try; but not here--in a room less full of incense. This perfume
brings dreams, but no less surely induces fever. Have you no other room
at hand where the air is purer?"

An eager "Yes," in many voices was the reply; and Diodoros was forthwith
transferred into a small cubicle adjoining.

While he was being moved, Galenus went from bed to bed, questioning the
chief physician and the patients. He seemed to have forgotten Diodoros
and Melissa; but after hastily glancing at some and carefully examining
others, and giving advice where it was needful, he desired to see the
fair Alexandrian's lover once more.

As he entered the room he nodded kindly to the girl. How gladly would
she have followed him! But she said to herself that if he had wished
her to be present he would certainly have called her; so she modestly
awaited his return. She had to wait a long time, and the minutes seemed
hours while she heard the voices of men through the closed door, the
moaning and sighing of the sufferer, the splashing of water, and the
clatter of metal instruments; and her lively imagination made her fancy
that something almost unendurable was being done to her lover.

At last the physician came out. His whole appearance betokened perfect
satisfaction. The younger men, who followed him, whispered among
themselves, shaking their heads as though some miracle had been
performed; and every eye that looked on him was radiant with
enthusiastic veneration. Melissa knew, as soon as his eyes met hers,
that all was well, and as she grasped the old man's hand she concluded
from its cool moisture that he had but just washed it, and had done with
his own hand all that Ptolemaeus had expected of his skill. Her eyes
were dim with grateful emotion, and though Galenus strove to hinder
her from pressing her lips to his hand she succeeded in doing so;
he, however, kissed her brow with fatherly delight in her warmhearted
sweetness, and said:

"Now go home happy, my child. That stone had hit your lover's brain-roof
a hard blow; the pressure of the broken beam--I mean a p