learnt from the porter that her young mistress had been admitted with her
companion, but she herself had been forbidden to enter the grounds. A
curbstone had served her for a seat, and as she waited her eyes had
closed, in spite of the increasing noise in the street. Arsinoe did not
waken her, but asked Pollux, with a roguish laugh:

"We shall find our way alone, shall we not?"

"If Eros does not lead us astray," answered the artist. And so, as they
went on their way, they jested and exchanged little tender speeches.

The nearer they got to Lochias and to the main lines of traffic which
intersected at right angles the Canopic way--the widest and longest road
in the city--the fuller was the stream of people that flowed onwards in
the direction in which they were going; but this circumstance favored
them, for those who wish to be unobserved, when they cannot be absolutely
alone, have only to mix with the crowd. As they were borne towards the
focus and centre of the festive doings, they clung closely together, she
to him, and he to her, so that they might not be torn apart by any of the
rushing and tumultuous processions of excited Thracian women who,
faithful to their native usages, came storming by with a young bull, on
this particular night of the year, that following the shortest day. They
had hardly gone a hundred paces beyond the Moon-street when they heard
proceeding from it a wild roving song of tipsy jollity, and loud above it
the sound of drums and pipes, cymbals and noisy shouting, and at the same
time in the King's street, a road which crossed the Bruchiom and opened
on Lochias, a merry troup came towards them.

At their head, among other acquaintances, came Teuker, the gem-cutter,
the younger brother of Pollux. Crowned with ivy, and flourishing a