ramed the lovely oval of her face under the veil, and
Alexander agreed with his sister when she expressed the wish that she
might but once see this rarely beautiful creature. But the sculptor
assured them that they would be disappointed, for time had treated her
cruelly.

"I have shown her," he continued, "as she charmed me a generation ago.
What you see standing before you is the young girl Julia; I was not
capable of representing her as matron or mother. The thought of her son
would have spoiled everything."

"He is capable of better emotions," Alexander declared.

"May be," answered the old man--"I do not know them. May your father and
brother be restored to you soon!--I must get to work!"

CHAPTER XXI.

The high-priest of Serapis presided over the sacrifices to be offered
this morning. Caesar had given beasts in abundance to do honor to the
god; still, the priest had gone but ill-disposed to fulfill his part;
for the imperial command that the citizens' houses should be filled with
the troops, who were also authorized to make unheard-of demands on their
hosts, had roused his ire against the tyrant, who, in the morning, after
his bath, had appeared to him unhappy indeed, but at the same time a
gifted and conscientious ruler, capable of the highest and grandest
enterprise.

Melissa, in obedience to the lady Euryale, had taken an hour's rest,
and then refreshed herself by bathing. She now was breakfasting with her
venerated friend, and Philostratus had joined them. He was able to tell
them that a swift State galley was already on its way to overtake and
release her father and brother; and when he saw how glad she was to hear
it, how beautiful, fresh, and pure she was, he thought to himself with
anxiety that it would be a wonder if the imperial slave to his own
passions should not desire to possess this lovely creature.

Euryale also feared this, and Melissa realized what filled them
with anxiety; yet she by no means shared the feeling, and the happy
confidence with which she tried to comfort her old friends, at the same
time pacified and alarmed them. It seemed to her quite foolish and vain
to suppose that the emperor, the mighty ruler of the world, should fall
in love with her, the humble, obscure gem-cutter's child, who aspired to
one suitor alone. It was merely as a patient wishes for the
physician, she assured herself, that the emperor wished for her
presence--Philostratus had understood that. During t