presence just now, when you have
so much else to think of; but I saw no other way of saving my brother's
life, which is in peril."

At this Berenike seemed surprised. She turned to her companion, who was
her sister's husband, and the first Egyptian who had been admitted to
the Roman Senate, and said, in a tone of gentle reproach:

"Did not I say so, Coeranus? Nothing but the most urgent need would have
brought Alexander's sister to speak with me at such an hour."

And the senator, whose black eyes had rested with pleasure on Melissa's
rare beauty, promptly replied, "And if she had come for the veriest
trifle she would be no less welcome to me."

"Let me hear no more of such speeches," Berenike exclaimed with some
annoyance.--"Now, my child, be quick. What about your brother?"

Melissa briefly and truthfully reported Alexander's heedless crime and
the results to her father and Philip. She ended by beseeching the noble
lady with fervent pathos to intercede for her father and brothers.

Meanwhile the senator's keen face had darkened, and the lady Berenike's
large eyes, too, were downcast. She evidently found it hard to come to
a decision; and for the moment she was relieved of the necessity, for
runners came hurrying up, and the senator hastily desired Melissa to
stand aside.

He whispered to his sister-in-law:

"It will never do to spoil Caesar's good-humor under your roof for the
sake of such people," and Berenike had only time to reply, "I am not
afraid of him," when the messenger explained to her that Caesar himself
was prevented from coming, but that his representatives, charged with
his apologies, were close at hand.

On this Coeranus exclaimed, with a sour smile: "Admit that I am a true
prophet! You have to put up with the same treatment that we senators
have often suffered under."

But the matron scarcely heard him. She cast her eyes up to heaven with
sincere thanksgiving as she murmured with a sigh of relief, "For this
mercy the gods be praised!"

She unclasped her hands from her heaving bosom, and said to the steward
who had followed the messengers:

"Caesar will not be present. Inform your lord, but so that no one else
may hear. He must come here and receive the imperial representatives
with me. Then have my couch quietly removed and the banquet served at
once. O Coeranus, you can not imagine the misery I am thus spared!"

"Berenike!" said the senator, in a warning voice, and he laid his finger