Egypt -- History -- 30 B.C.-640 A.D. -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English; Hadrian, Emperor of Rome, 76-138 -- Fiction
Selene made no attempt to resist these orders, and willingly drank a
potion which the old man gave her; but she cried to herself as she was
lifted into the litter and her foot was carefully propped on pillows. In
the street, which they soon reached through a side door, she again almost
lost consciousness, and half awake but half as in a dream, she heard the
leech's voice as he cautioned the bearers to walk carefully, and saw the
people, and vehicles, and horsemen pass her on their way. Then she saw
that she was being carried through a large garden, and at last she dimly
perceived that she was being laid on a bed. From that moment every thing
was merged in a dream, though the frequent convulsions of pain that
passed over her features and now and then a rapid movement of her hand to
the cut in her head, showed that she was not altogether oblivious to the
reality of her sufferings.
Dame Hannah sat by the bed, and carried out the physician's instructions
with exactness; he himself did not leave his patient till he was
perfectly satisfied with her bed and her position. Mary stayed with the
widow helping her to wet handkerchiefs and to make bandages out of old
linen.
When Selene began to breathe more calmly Hannah beckoned her assistant to
come close to her and asked in a low voice.
"Can you stay here till early to-morrow, we must take it in turns to
watch her, most likely for several nights--how hot this wound on her head
is!"
"Yes, I can stay, only I must tell my mother that she may not be
frightened."
"Quite right, and then you may undertake another commission for I cannot
leave the poor child just now."
"Her people will be anxious about her."
"That is just where you must go; but no one besides us two must know who
she is. Ask for Selene's sister and tell her what has happened; if you
see her father tell him that I am taking care of his daughter, and that
the physician strictly forbids her moving or being moved. But he must
not know that Selene is one of us workers, so do not say a word about the
factory before him. If you find neither Arsinoe nor her father at home,
tell any one that opens the door to you that I have taken the sick child
in, and did it gladly. But about the workshop, do your hear, not a word.
One thing more, the poor girl would never have come down to the factory
in spite of such pain, unless her family had been very much in need of
her wages; so just give these drachmae to some one and say, as is
perfectly true, that we found them about her person."
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
Enjoy the present day
Idleness had long since grown to be the occupation of his life
It was such a comfort once more to obey an order
Philosophers who wrote of the vanity of writers
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