y years old now."

"Very true," Althea assented. "But we are in Egypt, where marriages
between brothers and sisters are pleasing to gods and men; and besides,
we make our own moral laws here. Her age! We women are only as old as we
look, and the leeches and tiring women of this beauty of forty practise
arts which give her the appearance of twenty-five, yet perhaps the King
values her intellect more than her person, and the wisdom of a hundred
serpents is certainly united in this woman's head. She will make our
poor Queen suffer unless real friends guard her from the worst. The
three most trustworthy ones are here: Amyntas, the leech Chrysippus, and
the admirable Proclus. Let us hope that you will make this three-leaved
clover the luck-promising four-leaved one. Your uncle, too, has often
with praiseworthy generosity helped Arsinoe in many an embarrassment.
Only make the acquaintance of this beautiful royal lady, and the
last drop of your blood will not seem too precious to shed for her!
Besides--Proclus told me so in confidence--you have little favour to
expect from the King. How long he kept you waiting for the first word
concerning a work which justly transported the whole city with delight!
When he did finally summon you, he said things which must have wounded
you."

"That is going too far," replied Hermon.

"Then he kept back his real opinion," Althea protested. "Had I not made
it a rule to maintain absolute silence concerning everything I hear in
conversation from those with whom I am closely associated--"

Here she was interrupted by Chrysippus, who asked if Althea had told her
neighbour about his Rhodian eye-salve.

He winked at her and made a significant gesture as he spoke, and then
informed the blind artist how graciously Arsinoe had remembered him when
she heard of the remedy by whose aid many a wonderful cure of blind eyes
had been made in Rhodes. The royal lady had inquired about him and his
sufferings with almost sisterly interest, and Althea eagerly confirmed
the statement.

Hermon listened to the pair in silence.

He had not been able to see them, it is true, yet he had perceived
their design as if the loss of sight had sharpened his mental vision.
He imagined that he could see the favourite and Althea nudge each other
with sneering gestures, and believed that their sole purpose was to
render him--he knew not for what object--the obedient tool of the Queen,
who had probably also succeeded in pers