Egypt -- History -- 30 B.C.-640 A.D. -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English; Hadrian, Emperor of Rome, 76-138 -- Fiction
"Think of that sword, the weapon of the great Antony, perhaps the very
one with which he pierced his own breast.--Where can Selene be?"
An hour, an hour and a half had slipped by, and when the fourth half-
hour was well begun, and still his eldest daughter did not return, the
steward announced that they must set out, for that it would not do to
keep the ship-builder's wife waiting. It was a sincere grief to Arsinoe
to be obliged to go without Selene. She had made her sister's dress look
as nice as her own, and had laid it carefully on the divan near the
mosaic pavement. She had taken a great deal of trouble. Never before
had she been out in the streets alone, and it seemed impossible to enjoy
anything without the companionship and supervision of her absent sister.
But her father's assertion, that Selene would have a place gladly found
for her, even later, among the maidens, reassured the girl who was
overflowing with joyful expectation.
Finally she perfumed herself a little with the fragrant extract which
Keraunus was accustomed to use before going to the council, and begged
her father to order the old slave-woman to go and buy the promised cakes
for the little ones during her absence. The children had all gathered
round her, admiring her with loud ohs! and ahs! as if she were some
wondrous incarnation, not to be too nearly approached, and on no account
to be touched. The elaborate dressing of her hair would not allow of her
stooping over them as usual. She could only stroke little Helios' curls,
saying: "Tomorrow you shall have a ride in the air, and perhaps Selene
will tell you a pretty story by-and-bye."
Her heart beat faster than usual as she stepped into the litter, which
was waiting for her just in front of the gate-house. Old Doris looked at
her from a distance with pleasure, and while Keraunus stepped out into
the street to call a litter for himself, the old woman hastily cut the
two finest roses from her bush, and pressing her fingers to her lips with
a sly smile, put them into the girl's hand.
Arsinoe felt as if it were in a dream that she went to the ship-builder's
house, and from thence to the theatre, and on her way she fully
understood, for the first time, that alarm and delight may find room side
by side in a girl's mind, and that one by no means hinders the existence
of the other.
Fear and expectation so completely overmastered her, that she neither saw
nor heard what was going on around her; only once she noticed a young man
with a garland on his head, who, as he passed her, arm in arm with
another, called out to her gaily: "Long live beauty!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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