the window. No, no; I confess you have conquered my
objections--indeed, if you should now refuse your assistance, I should be
obliged to crave it. But Ptolemaeus wishes to leave Diodoros quite
undisturbed till daybreak. He is now gone to the Serapeum to find a good
place for him. You, too, need rest, and you shall be waked in good time.
Go, now, with Dame Katharine.--As to your relations," he added, to
Agatha, "do not be uneasy. A boy is already on his way to your father, to
tell him where you are for the night."

The deaconess led the two girls to a room where there was a large double
bed. Here the new friends stretched their weary limbs; but, tired as they
were, neither of them seemed disposed to sleep; they were so happy to
have found each other, and had so much to ask and tell each other! As
soon as Katharine had lighted a three-branched lamp she left them to
themselves, and then their talk began.

Agatha, clinging to her new friend, laid her head on Melissa's shoulder;
and as Melissa looked on the beautiful face, and remembered the fond
passion which her heedless brother had conceived for its twin image, or
as now and again the Christian girl's loving words appealed to her more
especially, she stroked the long, flowing tresses of her brown hair.

It needed, indeed, no more than a common feeling, an experience gone
through together, an hour of confidential solitude, to join the hearts of
the two maidens; and as they awaited the day, shoulder to shoulder in
uninterrupted chat, they felt as though they had shared every joy and
sorrow from the cradle. Agatha's weaker nature found a support in the
calm strength of will which was evident in many things Melissa said; and
when the Christian opened her tender and pitying heart to Melissa with
touching candor, it was like a view into a new but most inviting world.

Agatha's extreme beauty, too, struck the artist's daughter as something
divine, and her eye often rested admiringly on her new friend's pure and
regular features.

When Agatha inquired of her about her father, Melissa briefly replied,
that since her mother's death he was often moody and rough, but that he
had a good, kind heart. The Christian girl, on the contrary, spoke with
enthusiasm of the warm, human loving-kindness of the man to whom she owed
her being; and the picture she drew of her home life was so fair, that
the little heathen could hardly believe in its truth. Her father, Agatha
said, lived in const