CHAPTER III.

"The lad is in an evil plight," said Gorgias, shaking his head
thoughtfully as the equipage rolled over the stone pavement of the
Street of the King.

"And over yonder, added Dion," "the prospect is equally unpleasing.
Philostratus is setting the people crazy. But the hired mischief-maker
will soon wish he had been less ready to seize Iras's gold coins."

"And to think," cried the architect, "that Barine was this scoundrel's
wife! How could it--"

"She was but a child when they married her," interrupted Dion. "Who
consults a girl of fifteen in the choice of a husband? And Philostratus
--he was my classmate at Rhodus--at that time had the fairest prospects.
His brother Alexas, Antony's favourite, could easily advance him.
Barine's father was dead, her mother was accustomed to follow Didymus's
counsel, and the clever fellow had managed to strew dust in the old man's
eyes. Long and lank as he is, he is not bad-looking even now.

"When he appeared as an orator he pleased his hearers. This turned his
head, and a spendthrift's blood runs in his veins. To bring his fair
young bride to a stately mansion, he undertook the bad cause of the
thievish tax-collector Pyrrhus, and cleared him."