,
and there was little to disturb the silence near the fine marble monument
which Alexander, to gratify his father, had erected with his first large
earnings. It was hung with various garlands, and Melissa, before she
prayed and anointed the stone, examined them with eye and hand.

Those which she and her father had placed there she recognized at once.
That humble garland of reeds with two lotus-flowers was the gift of their
old slave Argutis and his wife Dido. This beautiful wreath of choice
flowers had come from the garden of a neighbor who had loved her mother
well; and that splendid basketful of lovely roses, which had not been
there this morning, had been placed here by Andreas, steward to the
father of her young friend Diodoros, although he was of the Christian
sect. And these were all. Philip had not been here then, though it was
now past midnight.

For the first time in his life he had let this day pass by without a
thought for their dead. How bitterly this grieved Melissa, and even added
to her anxiety for him!

It was with a heavy heart that she and Alexander anointed the tombstone;
and while Melissa uplifted her hands in prayer, the painter stood in
silence, his eyes fixed on the ground. But no sooner had she let them
fall, than he exclaimed:

"He is here, I am sure, and in the house of the embalmers. That he
ordered two wreaths is perfectly certain; and if he meant one for
Korinna's picture, he surely intended the other for our mother. If he has
offered both to the young girl--"

"No, no!" Melissa put in. "He will bring his gift. Let us wait here a
little while, and do you, too, pray to the manes of our mother. Do it to
please me."

But her brother interrupted her eagerly I think of her wherever I may be;
for those we truly love always live for us. Not a day passes, nor if I
come in sober, not a night, when I do not see her dear face, either
waking or dreaming. Of all things sacred, the thought of her is the
highest; and if she had been raised to divine honors like the dead
Caesars who have brought so many curses on the world--"

"Hush--don't speak so loud!" said Melissa, seriously, for men were moving
to and fro among the tombs, and Roman guards kept watch over the
populace.

But the rash youth went on in the same tone:

"I would worship her gladly, though I have forgotten how to pray. For who
can tell here--unless he follows the herd and worships Serapis--who can
tell to which god of them all h