So base a proposal was the last thing she would ever have expected from Marcus--of all men in the world, Marcus, whom she had imagined so good and pure! She could not believe it; and as her glance met the cunning glitter of the Egyptian's eyes her own sparkled keenly, and she exclaimed with a vehemence and decision which her attendant had never suspected in her: "It is deceit and falsehood from beginning to end! Go, woman, I will hear no more of it. Why should Marcus have come to you since yesterday if he does not know where I am? You are silent--you will not say?.... Oh! I understand it all. He--I know he would never have ventured it. But it is your 'noble lady Damia'--that old woman, who has told you what to say. You are her echo, and as for Marcus ... Confess, confess at once, you witch . . ." "Sachepris is only a poor slave," said the woman raising her hands in entreaty. "Sachepris can only obey, and if the pretty mistress were to tell my lady Damia . . ." "It was she then who sent for me to go to the little tavern?" The woman nodded. "And Marcus?" "If the pretty mistress had consented . . ." "Well?" "Then--but Great Isis! if you tell of me!" "I will not tell; go on." "I should have gone to my lord Marcus and invited him, from you . . ." "It is shameful!" interrupted Dada, and a shudder ran through her slight frame. "How cruel, how horrible it is! You--you will stay here till the others come home and then you will go home to the old woman. I thank the gods, I have two hands and need no maid to wait upon me! But look there --what is the meaning of that? That pretty litter has stopped and there is an old man signing to you." "It is the widow Mary's house steward," whined the woman, while Dada turned pale, wondering what a messenger from Marcus' mother could want here. Herse, who had kept a watchful eye on the landing-plank, on Dada's account, had also seen the approach of the widow's messenger and suspected a love-message from Marcus; but she was utterly astounded when the old man politely but imperiously desired her--Herse to get into the litter which would convey her to his mistress's house. Was this a trap? Did he merely want to tempt her from the vessel so as to clear the way for his young master? No--for he handed her a tablet on which there was a written message, and she, an Alexandrian, had been well educated and could read: