in a dream, she
heard the leech's voice as he cautioned the bearers to walk carefully,
and saw the people, and vehicles, and horsemen pass her on their way.
Then she saw that she was being carried through a large garden, and at
last she dimly perceived that she was being laid on a bed. From
that moment every thing was merged in a dream, though the frequent
convulsions of pain that passed over her features and now and then a
rapid movement of her hand to the cut in her head, showed that she was
not altogether oblivious to the reality of her sufferings.

Dame Hannah sat by the bed, and carried out the physician's instructions
with exactness; he himself did not leave his patient till he was
perfectly satisfied with her bed and her position. Mary stayed with the
widow helping her to wet handkerchiefs and to make bandages out of old
linen.

When Selene began to breathe more calmly Hannah beckoned her assistant
to come close to her and asked in a low voice.

"Can you stay here till early to-morrow, we must take it in turns to
watch her, most likely for several nights--how hot this wound on her
head is!"

"Yes, I can stay, only I must tell my mother that she may not be
frightened."

"Quite right, and then you may undertake another commission for I cannot
leave the poor child just now."

"Her people will be anxious about her."

"That is just where you must go; but no one besides us two must know who
she is. Ask for Selene's sister and tell her what has happened; if you
see her father tell him that I am taking care of his daughter, and that
the physician strictly forbids her moving or being moved. But he must
not know that Selene is one of us workers, so do not say a word about
the factory before him. If you find neither Arsinoe nor her father at
home, tell any one that opens the door to you that I have taken the sick
child in, and did it gladly. But about the workshop, do your hear, not
a word. One thing more, the poor girl would never have come down to the
factory in spite of such pain, unless her family had been very much in
need of her wages; so just give these drachmae to some one and say, as
is perfectly true, that we found them about her person."

CHAPTER XIX.

Plutarch was one of the richest citizens of Alexandria, and the owner of
the papyrus manufactory where Selene and Arsinoe worked; and he had of
his own free will offered to provide for the "suitable" entertainment of
the wives and daughters of hi