ding doors opened
a little, and Dorippe called through the crack:

"May we come in? Here's a messenger from Protarch."

"Admit him," cried Semestre, eagerly. The door flew wide open, and the
two girls entered the women's apartment with Mopsus, the brother of the
lively Chloris. The latter was clinging to his arm, and as he came into
the hall removed the broad-brimmed travelling-hat from his brown locks,
while dark-skinned Dorippe went behind him and pushed the hesitating
youth across the threshold, as a boat is launched into the sea.

In reply to the house-keeper's excited questions, he related that
Protarch had sold his master's oil at Messina for as high a price as
his own, bought two new horses for his neighbor Cleon, and sent Mopsus
himself forward with them. If the wind didn't change, he would arrive
that day.

While speaking, he drew from the girdle which confined his blue chiton,
bordered with white, around his waist, a strip of papyrus, and handed it
to Semestre with a greeting from his master.

The house-keeper looked at both sides of the yellow sheet, turned it
over and over, held it close to her eyes, and then glanced hesitatingly
at Jason. He would know that she could not read; but Xanthe could
decipher written sentences, and the young girl must soon appear at
breakfast.

"Shall I read it?" asked the old man.

"I could do so myself, if I chose," replied the house-keeper, drawing
her staff over the floor in sharp and blunt angles, as if she were
writing. "I could, but I don't like to hear news on an empty stomach,
and what is said in this letter concerns myself, I should suppose, and
nobody else. Go and call Xanthe to breakfast, Dorippe."

"I know what is in it," cried the girl, reluctant to part from her
companion's brother, whom she loved, and who still had a great deal to
tell her about his journey to Messina. "Mopsus has told us. Our master's
nephew, Leonax, Alciphron's son, will accompany his uncle and stay for
a week or longer as a guest, not over yonder with Protarch, but here in
our house. He is a handsome youth, even taller than Phaon, and Mopsus
says Alciphron's wife, by our master's request, dipped deep into his
purse at Messina, and bought from her husband's merchant friends gold
bracelets and women's garments, such as matrons wear."

At these words a smile of joy and hope flitted over Semestre's wrinkled
face, like a spring breeze sweeping across a leafless garden. She no
longer though