Several pleasant subjects were discussed; but between whiles Melissa had
to dissemble and give evasive answers to Diodoros's questions as to
whether she had already arranged with her brother and friends who should
be the youths and maidens to form the wedding procession, and sing the
hymeneal song.

As the two whispered to one another and looked tenderly at each other--
for Diodoros had insisted on her allowing him to kiss not only her hands
but also her sweet red lips--Berenike had pictured her dead daughter in
Melissa's place. What a couple they would have been! How proudly and
gladly she would have led them to the lovely villa at Kanopus, which her
husband and she had rebuilt and decorated with the idea that some day
Korinna, her husband, and--if the gods should grant it--their children,
might inhabit it! But even Melissa and Diodoros made a fine couple, and
she tried with all her heart not to grudge her all the happiness that she
had wished for her own child.

When it was time to depart, she joined the hands of the betrothed pair,
and called down a blessing from the gods.

Diodoros accepted this gratefully.

He only knew that this majestic lady had made Melissa's acquaintance
through Alexander, and had won her affection, and he encouraged the
impression that this woman, whose Juno-like beauty haunted him, had
visited him on his bed of sickness in the place of his long-lost mother.

Outside the sick-room Andreas again met Melissa, and, after she had told
him of her visit to the emperor, he impressed on her eagerly on no