s, he handed it to a
herald who followed him, who proclaimed to all the assembly:

"In the name of the most noble Exegetes I request your attention, all
you ladies here assembled, the wives and daughters of Macedonians and of
Roman citizens. We now come to a distribution of the characters in our
representation of the life and history of the great Macedonian, of the
'Marriage of Alexander and Roxana,' and I hereby request those among you
to come upon the stage whom our artists have selected to take part in
this scene in the procession." After this exordium he shouted in a deep
and resonant voice a long list of names, and while this was going on
every other sound was hushed in the wide amphitheatre.

Even on the stage all was still; only Verus whispered a few remarks
to Titianus, and the curiosity-dealer spoke into Plutarch's ear, long
sentences with the stringent emphasis which was peculiar to him; and the
old man answered sometimes with an assenting nod, and sometimes with a
deprecatory motion of his hands.

Arsinoe listened with suspended breath to the herald's proclamation;
she started and colored all over, with her eyes fixed on the bunch of
flowers in her hand, when she heard from the stage loudly uttered and
plain to be heard by all present:

"Arsinoe, the second daughter of Keraunus, the Macedonian and a Roman
citizen."

The ship-builder's daughter had already been called before her, and had
immediately left her seat, but Arsinoe waited modestly till some older
ladies rose. She then joined them and went among the last members of the
little procession which went down to the orchestra and from thence up
the steps for the chorus, on to the stage.

There the ladies and young girls were placed in two ranks, and looked
at with amiable consideration by the artists. Arsinoe was not long in
perceiving that these gentlemen looked at her longer and more often
than at the others; and then, after the masters of the festival had gone
aside in groups to discuss the matter they looked at her constantly and
were talking, she felt sure, about her. Nor did it escape her that
she had become the centre of many glances from the lookers-on who were
sitting in the theatre, and it occurred to her that on several sides
people were pointing at her with their fingers. She did not know which
way she should look and began to feel bashful; still she was pleased at
being remarked by so many people, and as she stood looking at the ground
o