upper side. In a long, narrow room apart hung the
portraits, waiting to be attached to the upper end of the mummy-cases of
those lately deceased, and still in the hands of embalmers. Here, too,
most of the lamps were out, and the upper end of the room was already
dark. Only in the middle, where the best pictures were on show, the
lights had been renewed.

The portraits were painted on thin panels of sycamore or of cypress,
and in most of them the execution betrayed that their destiny was to be
hidden in the gloom of a tomb.

Alexander's portrait of Korinna was in the middle of the gallery, in
a good light, and stood out from the paintings on each side of it as
a genuine emerald amid green glass. It was constantly surrounded by a
crowd of the curious and connoisseurs. They pointed out the beautiful
work to each other; but, though most of them acknowledged the skill
of the master who had painted it, many ascribed its superiority to
the magical charm of the model. One could see in those wonderfully
harmonious features that Aristotle was right when he discerned beauty
in order and proportion; while another declared that he found there
the evidence of Plato's doctrine of the identity of the good and the
beautiful--for this face was so lovely because it was the mirror of a
soul which had been disembodied in the plenitude of maiden purity
and virtue, unjarred by any discord; and this gave rise to a vehement
discussion as to the essential nature of beauty and of virtue.

Others longed to know more about the early-dead original of this
enchanting portrait. Korinna's wealthy father and his brothers were
among the best-known men of the city. The elder, Timotheus, was
high-priest of the Temple of Serapis; and Zeno, the younger, had set
the whole world talking when he, who in his youth had been notoriously
dissipated, had retired from any concern in the corn-trade carried on
by his family, the greatest business of the kind in the world, perhaps,
and--for this was an open secret--had been baptized.

The body of the maiden, when embalmed and graced with her portrait, was
to be transported to the family tomb in the district of Arsinoe, where
they had large possessions, and the gossip of the embalmer was eagerly
swallowed as he expatiated on the splendor with which her liberal father
proposed to escort her thither.

Alexander and Melissa had entered the portrait-gallery before the
beginning of this narrative, and listened to it, s