's peril; however, he did not allow a word
of blame to escape him. He was happy only to be allowed to walk behind
Melissa, and to hear from her own lips that all was well with her, and
that Caesar was gracious.

Alexander, indeed, had also told the old man that he and Caesar were
"good friends"; and now the slave was thinking of Pandion, Theocritus,
and the other favorites of whom he had heard; and he assured Melissa
that, as soon as her father should be free, Caracalla would be certain
to raise him to the rank of knight, to give him lands and wealth,
perhaps one of the imperial residences on the Bruchium. Then he,
Argutis, would be house steward, and show that he knew other things
besides keeping the workroom and garden in order, splitting wood, and
buying cheaply at market.

Melissa laughed and said he should be no worse off if only the first
wish of her heart were fulfilled, and she were wife to Diodoros; and
Argutis declared he would be amply content if only she allowed him to
remain with her.

But she only half listened and answered absently, for she breathed
faster as she pictured to herself how she would show Caesar, on whom she
had already proved her power, that she had ceased to tremble before him.

Thus they came to the house of Seleukus.

A large force had taken up their quarters there. In the pillared
hall beyond the vestibule bearded soldiers were sitting on benches or
squatting in groups on the ground, drinking noisily and singing, or
laughing and squabbling as they threw the dice on the costly mosaic
pavement. A riotous party were toping and reveling in the beautiful
garden of the impluvium round a fire which they had lighted on the
velvet turf. A dozen or so of officers had stretched themselves on
cushions under one of the colonnades, and, without attempting to check
the wild behavior of their men, were watching the dancing of some
Egyptian girls who had been brought into the house of their involuntary
host. Although Melissa was closely veiled and accompanied by a servant,
she did not escape rude words and insolent glances. Indeed, an audacious
young praetorian had put out his hand to pull away her veil, but an
older officer stopped him.

The lady Berenike's rooms had so far not been intruded on; for Macrinus,
the praetorian prefect, who knew Berenike through her brother-in-law the
senator Coeranus, had given orders that the women's apartments were to
be exempt from the encroachments of the quarte