base flows away
from him like water from the anointed body of the wrestler. Therefore
I consider myself fortunate above thousands of others, and if there is
anything which still tempts me to go to Alexandria, it is the desire to
touch his dead body once more. To do that before I die is my most ardent
desire."

"Then gratify it!" cried Thyone with urgent impatience; but Proclus
turned to the matron, and, after exchanging a hasty glance with Althea,
said: "You probably know, my venerable friend, that Queen Arsinoe, who
most deeply honours your illustrious husband, had already arranged to
have him summoned to the capital as priest of Alexander. True, in this
position he would have had the burden of disposing of all the revenues
from the temples throughout Egypt; but, on the other hand, he would
always have his master's mortal remains near and be permitted to be
their guardian. What influences baffled the Queen's wish certainly have
not remained hidden from you here."

"You are mistaken," replied Philippus gravely. "Not the least whisper of
this matter reached my ears, and it is fortunate."

"Impossible!" Althea eagerly interrupted; "nothing else was talked of
for weeks in the royal palace. Queen Arsinoe--you might be jealous, Lady
Thyone--has been fairly in love with your hero ever since her last stay
in your house on her way home from Thrace, and she has not yet given up
her desire to see him in the capital as priest of Alexander. It seems
to her just and fair that the old companion of the greatest of the great
should have the highest place, next to her husband's, in the city
whose foundation he witnessed. Arsinoe speaks of you also with all the
affection natural to her feeling heart."

"This is as flattering as it is surprising," replied Thyone. "The
attention we showed her in Pelusium was nothing more than we owed to
the wife of the sovereign. But the court is not the principal attraction
that draws me to the capital. It would make Philippus happy--you have
just heard him say so--to remember his old master beside the tomb of
Alexander."

"And," added Daphne, "how amazed you will be when you see the present
form of the 'Soma', in which rests the golden coffin with the body
of the divine hero whom the fortunate Philippus aided to conquer the
world!"

"You are jesting," interrupted the old warrior. "I aided him only as the
drops in the stream help to turn the wheel of the mill. As to his body,
true, I marched at th