.

"We shall get on without them somehow," he said. "'Nil desperandum' says
Horace the Roman. And after all they are not lizards that can hide in the
cracks of the walls; I know every corner of Alexandria and I will go and
hunt them up at once."

"And I will help you, my friend," said Demetrius, "We will go to the
Hippodrome--the gentry you will meet with there are capital blood-hounds
after such game as the daughter of your 'own sister,' my good woman. As
to the black-haired Christian girl--I have seen her many a time on board
ship. . ."

"Oh! she will take refuge with some fellow-Christians," remarked
Porphyrius. "Olympius told me all about her. I know plenty of the same
sort in the Church. They fling away life and happiness as if they were
apple-peelings to snatch at something which they believe to constitute
salvation. It is folly, madness! pure unmitigated madness! To have sung
in the temple of the she-devil Isis with Gorgo and the other worshippers
would have cost her her seat in Paradise. That, as I believe, is the
cause of her flight."

"That and nothing else!" cried Karnis. "How vexed the noble Olympius will
be. Indeed, Apollo be my witness! I have not been so disturbed about
anything for many a day. Do you happen to recollect," he went on, turning
to Demetrius, "our conversation on board ship about a dirge for Pytho?
Well, we had transposed the lament of Isis into the Lydian mode, and when
this young lady's wonderful voice gave it out, in harmony with Agne's and
with Orpheus' flute, it was quite exquisite! My old heart floated on
wings as I listened! And only the day after to-morrow the whole crowd of
worshippers in the temple of Isis were to enjoy that treat!--It would
have roused them to unheard-of enthusiasm. Yesterday the girl was in it,
heart and soul; nay, only this morning she and the noble Gorgo sang it
through from beginning to end. One more rehearsal to-morrow, and then the
two voices would have given such a performance as perhaps was never
before heard within the temple walls."

Constantine had listened to this rhapsody with growing agitation; he was
standing close to Gorgo, and while the rest of the party held anxious
consultation as to what could be done to follow up and capture the
fugitives, he asked Gorgo in a low voice, but with gloomy looks:

"You intended to sing in the temple of Isis? Before the crowd, and with a
girl of this stamp?"

"Yes," she said firmly.

"And you knew yesterd