olis, with their hands full of offerings, but the consciousness
of their nearness to the dead, and of being cared for by them so long as
they were not forgotten? And even if the glorified spirit of her mother
were not permitted to hear her prayers, she need not therefore cease to
turn to her; for it comforted her unspeakably to be with her in spirit,
and to confide to her all that moved her soul. And so her mother's tomb
had become her favorite place of rest. Here, if anywhere, she now hoped
once more to find comfort, some happy suggestion, and perhaps some
definite assistance.

She begged Alexander to take her thither, and he consented, though he
was of opinion that Philip would be found in the mortuary chamber, in
the presence of Korinna's portrait.

It was not easy to force their way through the thousands who had come
out to the great show this night; however, most of the visitors were
attracted by the mysteries far away from the Macedonian burial-ground,
and there was little to disturb the silence near the fine marble
monument which Alexander, to gratify his father, had erected with his
first large earnings. It was hung with various garlands, and Melissa,
before she prayed and anointed the stone, examined them with eye and
hand.

Those which she and her father had placed there she recognized at once.
That humble garland of reeds with two lotus-flowers was the gift of
their old slave Argutis and his wife Dido. This beautiful wreath of
choice flowers had come from the garden of a neighbor who had loved her
mother well; and that splendid basketful of lovely roses, which had not
been there this morning, had been placed here by Andreas, steward to the
father of her young friend Diodoros, although he was of the Christian
sect. And these were all. Philip had not been here then, though it was
now past midnight.

For the first time in his life he had let this day pass by without a
thought for their dead. How bitterly this grieved Melissa, and even
added to her anxiety for him!

It was with a heavy heart that she and Alexander anointed the tombstone;
and while Melissa uplifted her hands in prayer, the painter stood in
silence, his eyes fixed on the ground. But no sooner had she let them
fall, than he exclaimed:

"He is here, I am sure, and in the house of the embalmers. That he
ordered two wreaths is perfectly certain; and if he meant one for
Korinna's picture, he surely intended the other for our mother. If he
has of