wrath seems to eat him inwardly, and I
have rarely seen him so angry as he was that time."

"But if he had only settled the account with me on the spot! but my
father was by, and hot words fell like rain, and my mother added her
share, and from that time there has been utter hostility between our
little house and you up here. What hurt me most was that you and your
sister were forbidden to come to see us and to play with me."

"That has spoilt many pleasant hours for me, too."

"It was nice when we used to dress up in my father's theatrical finery
and cloaks."

"And when you made us dolls out of clay.".

"Or when we performed the Olympian games."

"I was always the teacher when we played at school with our little
brothers and sisters."

"Arsinoe gave you most trouble."

"Oh! and what fun when we went fishing!"

"And when we brought home the fishes and mother gave us meal and raisins
to cook them."

"Do you remember the festival of Adonis, and how I stopped the runaway
horse of that Numidian officer?"

"The horse had knocked over Arsinoe, and when we got home mother gave you
an almond-cake."

"And your ungrateful sister bit a great piece out of it and left me only
a tiny morsel. Is Arsinoe as pretty as she promised to become? It is two
years since I last saw her; at our place we never have time to leave work
till it is dark. For eight months I had to work for the master at
Ptolemais, and often saw the old folks but once in the month."

"We go out very little, too, and we are not allowed to go into your
parents' house. My sister--"

"Is she pretty?"

"Yes, I think she is. Whenever she can get hold of a piece of ribbon she
plaits it in her hair, and the men in the street turn round to look at
her. She is sixteen now."

"Sixteen! What, little Arsinoe! Why, how long then is it since your
mother died?"

"Four years and eight months."

"You remember the date very exactly; such a mother is not easily
forgotten, indeed. She was a good woman and a kinder I never met. I know,
too, that she tried to mollify your father's feeling, but she could not
succeed, and then she need must die!"

"Yes," said Selene gloomily. "How could the gods decree it! They are
often more cruel than the hardest hearted man."

"Your poor little brothers and sisters!"

The girl bowed her head sadly and Pollux stood for some time with his
eyes fixed on the ground. Then he raised his head and exclaimed:

"I have something for you