ould be at home again.

The unexpected gift was accepted with pleasure, and when he thanked
her eagerly and with simple heartiness, she interrupted him with the
assurance that in Alexandria art was not yet being borne to the grave.
Her brother's career, it was true, threatened to come to an untimely
end, for he stood in imminent danger. On this the old man--who had taken
his seat on a bench which the attendant physicians of the temple had
brought forward-desired to know the state of the case, and Melissa
briefly recounted Alexander's misdemeanor, and how near he had been,
yesterday, to falling into the hands of his pursuers. Then she looked
up at the old man beseechingly; and as he had praised her beauty, so
now--she herself knew not how she had such courage--the praises of his
fame, his greatness and goodness, flowed from her lips. And her bold
entreaties ended with a prayer that he would urge Caesar, who doubtless
revered him as a father, to cease from prosecuting her brother.

The old man's face had grown graver and graver; he had several times
stroked his white beard with an uneasy gesture; and when, as she spoke
the last words, she ventured to raise her timidly downcast eyes to his,
he rose stiffly and said in regretful tones:

"How can I be vexed with a sister who knocks at any door to save a
brother's life? But I would have given a great deal that it had not been
at mine. It is hard to refuse when I would so gladly accede, and yet
so it must be; for, though Claudius Galenus does his best for Bassianus
Antoninus as a patient, as he does for any other, Bassianus the man and
the emperor is as far from him as fire from water; and so it must ever
be during the short space of time which may yet be granted to him and me
under the light of the sun."

The last words were spoken in a bitter, repellent tone, and yet
Melissa felt that it pained the old man to refuse her. So she earnestly
exclaimed:

"Oh, forgive me! How could I guess--" She suddenly paused and added,
"Then you really think that Caesar has not long to live?"

She spoke with the most anxious excitement, and her question offended
Galenus. He mistook their purport, and his voice was wrathful as he
replied, "Long enough yet to punish an insult!"

Melissa turned pale. She fancied that she apprehended the meaning
of these stern words, and, prompted by an earnest desire not to be
misunderstood by this man, she eagerly exclaimed:

"I do not wish him dead--no