How many a time at the beginning of a new week, or when under the
influence of a special fit of aversion to her work, had Arsinoe refused
to go with her ever again to the factory; how much persuasive eloquence
had she expended, how many new ribbons had she bought, how often had she
consented to allow her to go to some spectacle, which consumed half a
week's wages, to induce Arsinoe to persist in her work, or to avert the
fulfilment of her threat to tell her father, whither her daily walk--as
she called it--tended.

When Selene, who had been carried as far as the door of her own work-
room, was sitting once more in her usual place in front of the long table
on which she worked, and where hundreds of prepared papyrus strips were
to be joined together, she felt scarcely able to raise the veil from her
face. She drew the uppermost sheets towards her, dipped the brush in the
gum-jar, and began to touch the margin of the leaf with it--but in the
very act, her strength forsook her, the brush fell from her fingers, she
dropped her hands on the table and her face in her hands, and began to
cry softly.

While she sat thus, her tears slowly flowing, her shoulders heaving, and
her whole body shaken with shuddering sobs, a woman who sat opposite to
her, beckoned to the deformed girl, and after whispering to her a few
words grasped her hand firmly and warmly and looked straight into her
eyes with her own, which though lustreless were clear and steady; then
the little hunchback silently took Arsinoe's vacant place by Selene, and
pushed the smaller half of the papyrus leaves over to the woman, and both
set diligently to work on the gumming.

They had been thus occupied for some time when Selene at last raised her