too, belonged to a family of scholars and had a brother who had won
high repute as a philosopher, and had directed the studies of the
young Octavianus. This had occurred long before the commencement of the
hostility which separated the heirs of Caesar and Mark Antony. But even
after the latter had deserted Octavia, the sister of Octavianus, to
return to Cleopatra, the object of his love, and there was an open
breach between the two rivals for the sovereignty of the world, Antony
had been friendly to Arius and borne him no grudge for his close
relations to his rival. The generous Roman had even given his enemy's
former tutor a fine house, to show him that he was glad to have him in
Alexandria and near his person.

The widow Berenike, Barine's mother, was warmly attached to her only
brother, who often joined her daughter's guests. She was a quiet,
modest woman whose happiest days had been passed in superintending the
education of her children, Barine, the fiery Hippias, and the quiet
Helena, who for several years had lived with her grandparents and, with
faithful devotion, assumed the duty of caring for them. She had been
more easily guided than the two older children; for the boy's aspiring
spirit had often drawn him beyond his mother's control, and the
beautiful, vivacious girl had early possessed charms so unusual that she
could not remain unnoticed.

Hippias had studied oratory, first in Alexandria and later in Athens and
Rhodes. Three years before, his uncle Arius had sent him with excellent
letters of introduction to Rome to become acquainted with the life of
the capital and try whether, in spite of his origin, his brilliant gifts
of eloquence would forward his fortunes there.

Two miserable years with an infamous, unloved husband had changed the
wild spirits of Barine's childhood into the sunny cheerfulness now one
of her special charms. Her mother was conscious of having desired only
her best good in uniting the girl of sixteen to Philostratus, whom the
grandfather Didymus then considered a very promising young man, and
whose advancement, in addition to his own talents, his brother Alexas,
Antony's favourite, promised to aid. She had believed that this step
would afford the gay, beautiful girl the best protection from the perils
of the corrupt capital; but the worthless husband had caused both
mother and daughter much care and sorrow, while his brother Alexas, who
constantly pursued his young sister-in-law wit