wanted to know how old he should suppose the Roman leech to be; and again
he avoided answering, for Galen was above eighty, and Serenus scarcely
seventy.

She looked up at him with large, mournful eyes, saying, "Have I offended
you, or is there something you are concealing from me?"

"What could you do to offend me?" he replied; "life is full of sorrows,
my child. You must learn to have patience."

"Patience!" echoed Melissa, sadly. "That is the only knowledge I have
ever mastered. When my father is more sullen than you are, for a week at
a time, I scarcely heed it. But when you look like that, Andreas, it is
not without cause, and that is why I am anxious."

"One we love is very sick, child," he said, soothingly; but she was not
to be put off so, and exclaimed with conviction:

"No, no, it is not that. We have learned nothing fresh about Diodoro--
and you were ready enough to answer me when we came away from the
Christian's house. Nothing but good has happened to us since, and yet
you look as if the locusts had come down on your garden."

They had reached a spot on the shore where a ship was being unloaded of
its cargo of granite blocks from Syene. Black and brown slaves were
dragging them to land. An old blind man was piping a dismal tune on a
small reed flute to encourage them in their work, while two men of fairer
hue, whose burden had been too heavy for them, had let the end of the
column they were carrying sink on the ground, and were being mercilessly
flogged by the overseer to make them once more attempt the impossible.