And again the answer was a ready "Yes." Philostratus released her hand,
and said:

"Then we will dare the worst. I will smooth the way for you, and
to-morrow--do not start--tomorrow you yourself, under my protection,
shall appeal to Caesar."

The color faded from the girl's cheeks, which had been flushed with
fresh hopes, and her counselor had just expressed his wish to talk the
matter over with the lady Berenike, when she came into the room. She was
now dressed in mourning, and her pale, beautiful face showed the traces
of the tears she had just shed. The dark shadows which, when they
surround a woman's eyes, betray past storms of grief, as the halo round
the moon--the eye of night--gives warning of storms to come, were deeper
than ever; and when her sorrowful gaze fell on Melissa, the girl felt an
almost irresistible longing to throw herself into her arms and weep on
her motherly bosom.

Philostratus, too, was deeply touched by the appearance of this mother,
who possessed so much, but for whom everything dearest to a woman's
heart had been destroyed by a cruel stroke of Fate. He was glad to be
able to tell her that he hoped to soften Caesar. Still, his plan was a
bold one; Caracalla had been deeply offended by the scornful tone of the
attacks on him, and Melissa's brother was perhaps the only one of the
scoffers who had been taken. The crime of the Alexandrian wits could not
be left unpunished. For such a desperate case only desperate remedies
could avail; he therefore ventured to propose to conduct Melissa into
Caesar's presence, that she might appeal to his clemency.

The matron started as though a scorpion had stung her. In great
agitation, she threw her arm round the girl as if to shelter her from
imminent danger, and Melissa, seeking help, laid her head on that kind
breast. Berenike was reminded, by the scent that rose up from the girl's
hair, of the hours when her own child had thus fondly clung to her.
Her motherly heart had found a new object to love, and exclaiming,
"Impossible!" she clasped Melissa more closely.

But Philostratus begged to be heard. Any plea urged by a third person he
declared would only be the ruin of the rash mediator.

"Caracalla," he went on, looking at Melissa, "is terrible in his
passions, no one can deny that; but of late severe suffering has made
him irritably sensitive, and he insists on the strictest virtue in all
who are about his person. He pays no heed to female beauty