atrons and maidens of
the city, and the first painters and sculptors will decide to what part
of the performance your air and appearance are best fitted."

"But, father," cried Selene, "we cannot show ourselves in such an
assembly in our common garments, and where are we to find the money to
buy new ones?"

"We can quite well show ourselves by any other girls, in clean, white
woollen dresses, prettily smartened with fresh ribbons," declared
Arsinoe, interposing between her father and her sister.

"It is not that which troubles me," replied the steward; "it is the
costumes, the costumes! It is only the daughters of the poorer citizens
who will be paid by the council, and it would be a disgrace to be
numbered among the poor--you understand me, children."

"I will not take part in the procession," said Selene resolutely, but
Arsinoe interrupted her.

"It is inconvenient and horrible to be poor, but it certainly is no
disgrace! The most powerful Romans of ancient times, regarded it as
honorable to die poor. Our Macedonian descent remains to us even if the
state should pay for our costumes."

"Silence," cried the steward. "This is not the first time that I have
detected this low vein of feeling in you. Even the noble may submit to
the misfortunes entailed by poverty, but the advantages it brings with it
he can never enjoy unless he resigns himself to being so no longer."

It had cost the steward much trouble to give due expression to this idea,
which he did not recollect to have heard from another, which seemed new
to him, and which nevertheless fully represented what he felt; and he
slowly sank, with all the signs of exhaustion, into a couch which formed
a divan round a side recess in the spacious sitting-room.

In this room Cleopatra might have held with Antony those banquets of
which the unequalled elegance and refinement had been enhanced by every
grace of art and wit. On the very spot where Keraunus now reclined the
dining-couch of the famous lovers had probably stood; for, though the
whole hall had a carefully-laid pavement, in this recess there was a
mosaic of stones of various colors of such beauty and delicacy of finish
that Keraunus had always forbidden his children to step upon it. This, it
is true, was less out of regard for the fine work of art than because his
father had always prohibited his doing so, and his father again before
him. The picture represented the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, and the
d