stone bench outside the gate-house to wait for the inhabitants
who must presently return, the tears again flowed from her eyes and fell
in heavy drops on her hands as they lay in her lap.

She was still sitting there, thinking with a throbbing heart of Pollux
and of the happy morning of this now dying day, when a troup of Moorish
slaves came towards the deserted house. The head mason who led them
desired her to rise from the bench, and in answer to her questions, told
her that the little building was to be pulled down, and that the couple
who had inhabited it were evicted from their post, turned out of doors
and had gone elsewhere with all their belongings. But where Doris and her
son had taken themselves no one knew. Arsinoe as she heard these tidings
felt like a sailor whose vessel has grounded on a rocky shore, and who
realizes with horror that every plank and beam be neath him quivers and
gapes. As usual, when she felt too weak to help herself unaided, her
first thought was of Selene, and she decided to hasten off to her and to
ask her what she could do, what was to become of her and the children.

It was already growing dark. With a swift step, and drying her eyes from
time to time on her peplum as she went, she returned to her own room to
fetch a veil, without which she dared not venture so late into the
streets. On the steps--where the dog had thrown down Selene--she met a
man hurrying past her; in the dim light she fancied he bore some
resemblance to the slave that her father had bought the day before; but
she paid no particular heed, for her mind was full of so many other
things. In the kitchen sat the old negress in front of a lamp and the
children squatted round her; by the hearth sat the baker and the butcher,
to whom her father owed considerable sums and who had come to claim their
dues, for ill news has swifter wings than good tidings, and they had
already heard of the steward's death. Arsinoe took the lamp, begged the
men to wait, went into the sitting-room, passing, not without a shudder,
the body of the man who a few hours since had stroked her cheeks and
looked lovingly into her eyes.

How glad she felt to be able to pay her dead father's debts and save the
honor of his name! She confidently drew the key out of her pocket and
went up to the chest. What was this? She knew, quite positively, that she
had locked it before going out and yet it was now standing wide open; the
lid, thrown back, hung askew