physician I feel as if we were standing already roofless in the open
street. What is there that I can do with a happy mind? I certainly am
not idle, still I envy the woman who can sit with her hands in her lap
and be waited on by slaves, and if a golden treasure fell into my
possession, I would never stir a finger again, and would sleep every
day till the sun was high and make slaves look after my father and the
children. My life is sheer misery. If ever we see better days I shall
be astonished, and before I have got over my astonishment it will all be
over."

The sculptor felt a cold chill, and his heart which had opened wide to
his old playfellow shrank again within him. Before he could find the
right words of encouragement which he sought, they heard in the hall,
where the workmen and slaves were sleeping, the blast of a trumpet
intended to awake them. Selene started, drew her mantle more closely
round her, begged Pollux to take care of her father, and to hide the
wine-jar which was standing near him from the work-people and then,
forgetting her lamp, she went hastily toward the door by which she had
entered. Pollux hurried after her to light the way and while he
accompanied her as far as the door of her rooms, by his warm and urgent
words which appealed wonderfully to her heart, he extracted from her a
promise to stand once more in her mantle as his model.

A quarter of an hour later the steward was safe in bed and still sleeping
soundly, while Pollux, who had stretched himself on a mattress behind his
screen, could not for a long time cease to think of the pale girl with
her benumbed soul. At last sleep overcame him too, and a sweet dream
showed him pretty little Arsinoe, who but for him must infallibly have
been killed by the Numidian's restive horse, taking away her sister
Selene's almond-cake and giving it to him. The pale girl submitted