fetch
water, she repeated to herself many of these injunctions; she felt
herself encouraged by them, and firmly resolved not to give her sister
up to the seducer without a struggle.

As soon as the vessels for libation at the altar were filled she
returned to little Philo, whose state seemed to her to give no further
cause for anxiety; after staying with him for more than an hour she left
the gate-keeper's dwelling to seek Serapion's advice, and to divulge
to him all she had been able to plan and consider in the quiet of the
sick-room.

The recluse was wont to recognize her step from afar, and to be looking
out for her from his window when she went to visit him; but to-day he
heard her not, for he was stepping again and again up and down the few
paces which the small size of his tiny cell allowed him to traverse.
He could reflect best when he walked up and down, and he thought
and thought again, for he had heard all that was known in the temple
regarding Irene's disappearance; and he would, he must rescue her--but
the more he tormented his brain the more clearly he saw that every
attempt to snatch the kidnapped girl from the powerful robber must in
fact be vain.

"And it must not, it shall not be!" he had cried, stamping his great
foot, a few minutes before Klea reached his cell; but as soon as he was
aware of her presence he made an effort to appear quite easy, and cried
out with the vehemence which characterized him even in less momentous
circumstances:

"We must consider, we must reflect, we must puzzle our brains, for the
gods have been napping this morning, and we must be doubly wide-awake.
Irene--our little Irene--and who would have thought it yesterday! It is
a good-for-nothing, unspeakably base knave's trick--and now, what can
we do to snatch the prey from the gluttonous monster, the savage wild
beast, before he can devour our child, our pet little one?

"Often and often I have been provoked at my own stupidity, but never,
never have I felt so stupid, such a godforsaken blockhead as I do now.
When I try to consider I feel as if that heavy shutter had been nailed
clown on my head. Have you had any ideas? I have not one which would not
disgrace the veriest ass--not a single one."

"Then you know everything?" asked Klea, "even that it is probably our
father's enemy, Eulaeus, who has treacherously decoyed the poor child to
go away with him?"

"Yes, Yes!" cried Serapion, "wherever there is some scoundrel's t