fill the part. Jesting had never been the old woman's strong point, and
to-day it was less easy than ever; for, if the worst befell, and she were
sent in her old age to a strange house--and Argutis, no doubt, to
another--she would have to turn the handmill for the rest of her days.

But it was a hard task which the motherless--and now fatherless--girl
had set herself, and she must try to cheer her darling. While she was
dressing her, she never ceased praying to all the gods and goddesses she
could think of to come to the maiden's aid and move the souls of those
who could help her. And though she was, as a rule, ready to expect the
worst, this time she hoped for the best; for Seleukus's wife must have a
heart of stone if she could close it to such innocence, such beauty, and
the pathetic glance of those large, imploring eyes.

When at length Melissa quitted the house, deeply veiled, with Argutis to
escort her, she took his arm; and he, wearing his master's mantle, and
exempted long since from keeping his hair cropped, was so proud of this
that he walked with all the dignity of a freeman, and no one could have
guessed that he was a slave. Melissa's face was completely hidden, and
she, like her companion, was safe from recognition. Argutis,
nevertheless, led her through the quietest and darkest lanes to the
Kanopic way. Both were silent, and looked straight before them.
Melissa, as she walked on, could not think with her usual calm. Like a
suffering man who goes to the physician's house to die or be cured by the
knife, she felt that she was on her way to something terrible in itself,
to remedy, if possible, something still more dreadful. Her father--
Alexander, so reckless and so good-hearted--Philip, whom she pitied--and
her sick lover, came in turn before her fancy. But she could not control
her mind to dwell on either for long. Nor could she, as usual, when she
had any serious purpose in hand, put up a prayer to her mother's manes or