w shamefully we are treated--"

"Aye! when he knows," interrupted the old woman. "But the cry of the
poor is tossed about by many winds before it reaches the king's ear. I
might find a shorter way than that for you and your sister if fasting
comes so much amiss to you. Girls with faces like hers and yours, my
little Irene, need never come to want."

"And pray what is my face like?" asked the girl, and her pretty features
once more seemed to catch a gleam of sunshine.

"Why, so handsome that you may always venture to show it beside your
sister's; and yesterday, in the procession, the great Roman sitting by
the queen looked as often at her as at Cleopatra herself. If you had
been there too he would not have had a glance for the queen, for you are
a pretty thing, as I can tell you. And there are many girls would sooner
hear those words then have a whole loaf--besides you have a mirror I
suppose, look in that next time you are hungry."

The old woman's shuffling steps retreated again and the girl snatched up
the golden jar, opened the door a little way to let in the daylight and
looked at herself in the bright surface; but the curve of the costly
vase showed her features all distorted, and she gaily breathed on the
hideous travestie that met her eyes, so that it was all blurred out by
the moisture. Then she smilingly put down the jar, and opening the chest
took from it a small metal mirror into which she looked again and yet
again, arranging her shining hair first in one way and then in another;
and she only laid it down when she remembered a certain bunch of violets
which had attracted her attention when she first woke, and which must
have been placed in their saucer of water by her sister some time the
day before. Without pausing to consider she took up the softly scented
blossoms, dried their green stems on her dress, took up the mirror again
and stuck the flowers in her hair.

How bright her eyes were now, and how contentedly she put out her hand
for the loaf. And how fair were the visions that rose before her young
fancy as she broke off one piece after another and hastily eat them
after slightly moistening them with the fresh oil. Once, at the festival
of the New Year, she had had a glimpse into the king's tent, and there
she had seen men and women feasting as they reclined on purple cushions.
Now she dreamed of tables covered with costly vessels, was served in
fancy by boys crowned with flowers, heard the music o