ind this man in such a circle, but he
learned from Althea that the young member of the Museum was a relative
of Proclus, and a suitor of the beautiful Nico, one of the Queen's
ladies in waiting, who was among the guests.

Crates had really been invited in order to win him over to the Queen's
cause; but charming fair-haired Nico had been commissioned by the
conspirators to persuade him to sing Arsinoe's praises among his
professional associates.

The rest of the men present stood in close connection with Arsinoe,
and were fellow-conspirators against her husband's throne and life.
The ladies whom Proclus had invited were all confidants of Arsinoe, the
wives and daughters of his other guests. All were members of the highest
class of society, and their manners showed the entire freedom from
restraint that existed in the Queen's immediate circle. Althea profited
by the advantage of being Hermon's only acquaintance here. So, when he
took his place on the cushion at her side, she greeted him familiarly
and cordially, as she had treated him for a long time, wherever they
met, and in a low voice told him, sometimes in a kindly tone, sometimes
with biting sarcasm, the names and characters of the other guests.

The most aristocratic was Amyntas, who stood highest of all in the
Queen's favour because he had good reason to hate the other Arsinoe, the
sister of the King. His son had been this royal dame's first husband,
and she had deserted him to marry Lysimachus, the aged King of Thrace.

The Rhodian Chrysippus, her leech and trusted counsellor, also possessed
great influence over the Queen.

"The noble lady," whispered Althea, "needs the faithful devotion of
every well-disposed subject, for perhaps you have already learned how
cruelly the King embitters the life of the mother of his three children.
Many a caprice can be forgiven the suffering Ptolemy, who recently
expressed a wish that he could change places with the common workmen
whom he saw eating their meal with a good appetite, and who is now
tortured by the gout; yet he watches the hapless woman with the jealousy
of a tiger, though he himself is openly faithless to her. What is the
Queen to him, since the widow of Lysimachus returned from Thrace--no,
from Cassandrea, Ephesus, and sacred Samothrace, or whatever other
places there are which would no longer tolerate the murderess?"

"The King's sister--the object of his love?" cried Hermon incredulously.
"She must be fort