find a refuge at once? What was to become of them when all they now
possessed was spent. The gods be thanked! she was not forlorn; she
still had friends. She could find protection and love with Pollux and
look to dame Doris for motherly counsel.

She quickly dried her eyes and changed the remains of her splendor for
the dark dress in which she was accustomed to work at the papyrus
factory; then, as soon as she had taken the pearls out of her hair, she
went down to the little gate-house.

She was only a few steps from the door--but why did not the Graces come
springing out to meet her? Why did she see no birds, no flowers in the
window? Was she deceived, was she dreaming or was she tricked by some
evil spirit? The door of the dear home-like little dwelling was wide
open and the sitting-room was absolutely empty, not a chattel was left
behind, forgotten--not a leaf from a plant was lying on the ground; for
dame Doris, in her tidy fashion, had swept out the few rooms where she
had grown grey in peace and contentment as carefully as though she were
to come into them again to-morrow.

What had happened here? Where were her friends gone? A great terror
came over her, all the misery of desolation fell upon her, and as she
sank upon the stone bench outside the gate-house to wait for the
inhabitants who must presently return, the tears again flowed from her
eyes and fell in heavy drops on her hands as they lay in her lap.

She was still sitting there, thinking with a throbbing heart of Pollux
and of the happy morning of this now dying day, when a troup of Moorish
slaves came towards the deserted house. The head mason who led them
desired her to rise from the bench, and in answer to her questions, told