him and for his mother; but if, at
the moment when Publius Scipio accuses me, he is more in favor with her
than ever, I am a lost man.

"You are always with the queen; do you tell her who these girls are, and
what motives the Roman has for loading me with their father's crimes;
and some opportunity must offer for doing you and your belongings some
friendly office or another."

"What a shameless crew!" exclaimed Zoe. "Depend upon it I will not
be silent, for I always do what is just. I cannot bear seeing others
suffering an injustice, and least of all that a man of your merit and
distinction should be wounded in his honor, because a haughty foreigner
takes a fancy to a pretty little face and a conceited doll of a girl."

Zoe was in the right when she found the air stifling in the
gate-keeper's house, for poor Irene, unaccustomed to such an atmosphere,
could no more endure it than the pretentious maid of honor. It cost
even Klea an effort to remain in the wretched room, which served as the
dwelling-place of the whole family; where the cooking was carried on
at a smoky hearth, while, at night, it also sheltered a goat and a few
fowls; but she had endured even severer trials than this for the sake of
what she deemed right, and she was so fond of little Philo--her anxious
care in arousing by degrees his slumbering intelligence had brought her
so much soothing satisfaction, and the child's innocent gratitude
had been so tender a reward--that she wholly forgot the repulsive
surroundings as soon as she felt that her presence and care were
indispensable to the suffering little one.

Imhotep, the most famous of the priest-physicians of the temple of
Asclepius--a man who was as learned in Greek as in Egyptian medical
lore, and who had been known by the name of "the modern Herophilus"
since King Philometor had summoned him from Alexandria to Memphis--had
long since been watchful of the gradual development of the dormant
intelligence of the gate-keeper's child, whom he saw every day in his
visits to the temple. Now, not long after Zoe had quitted the house, he
came in to see the sick child for the third time. Klea was still holding
the boy on her lap when he entered. On a wooden stool in front of
her stood a brazier of charcoal, and on it a small copper kettle the
physician had brought with him; to this a long tube was attached. The
tube was in two parts, joined together by a leather joint, also tubular,
in such a way that the u