house to witness her signature.

Though no one had suspected the "water-wagtail" of such forethought, it
was no matter of surprise that the young heiress, shut up in the plague-
stricken house, should dispose of her estates, and before night-fall the
physician brought Alexander, the chief of the Senate, to the garden gate
by her desire, and there they spoke to each other without opening it. He
was an old friend of her father's, and since the death of the Mukaukas,
had been her guardian; he now agreed to stand as her Kyrios, and as such
he ratified her will and the signature, though she would not allow him to
read the document.

Finally she went to the slaves quarters, from whence a few more sufferers
had been removed to the Necropolis, and desired her boatman to get the
holiday barge in readiness early in the morning, as she purposed seeing
the ceremonial from the river. She gave particular orders to the
gardener as to how it was to be decorated, and what flowers he was to cut
for her personal adornment.

She went to bed far less excited than she had been the night before, and
before she had ended her evening prayer, slumber overtook her weary
brain.

When she awoke at sunrise, the large and splendid boat, which her father
had had built at great cost in Alexandria, was manned and ready to put
out. No one interfered to prevent her embarking with Anubis and a few
female servants, for all the guards who had surrounded the house till
yesterday had been withdrawn to do duty at the great ceremonial of the
marriage and sacrifice, since a popular tumult was not unlikely to arise.