prepared to think the best of each other that there was no need for
Alexander's good offices to make them ready and willing to renew their
broken pledges. Besides, each had cause to fear for the other; for
Diodoros was afraid that the lady Euryale's power was not far-reaching
enough to conceal Melissa from Caesar's spies, and Melissa trembled at
the thought that the physician might too soon betray to Caesar that she
had been betrothed before he had ever seen her, and to whom; for, in that
case, Diodoros would be the object of relentless pursuit. So she urged
on her lover to embark, if possible, this very night.

Hitherto Alexander had taken no part in the conversation.
He could not forget the reception he had met with outside the
amphitheatre. Euryale's presence had saved his sister from evil
imputations, but had not helped him; and even his gay spirits could
make no head against the consciousness of being regarded by his fellow-
citizens as a hired traitor. He had withdrawn to one of the back seats
to see the performance; for as soon as the theatre was suddenly lighted
up, he had become the object of dark looks and threatening gestures.
For the first time in his life he had felt compassion for the criminals
torn by wild beasts, and for the wounded gladiators, whose companion in
misfortune he vaguely felt himself to be. But, what was worst of all,
he could not regard himself as altogether free from the reproach of
having accepted a reward for the service he had so thoughtlessly
rendered.

Nor did he see the remotest possibility of ever making those whose
opinion he cared for understand how it had come to pass that he should
have acceded to the desire of the villain in the purple, now that his
father, by showing himself to the people in the 'toga pretexta', had set
the seal to their basest suspicions. The thought that henceforth he