“With your foster-children?” asked Eumenes.

“Yes.  It was indeed Selene’s most earnest wish to be baptized by you, but as a year of probation is required—­”

“I will perform the rite to-morrow morning.”

“To-morrow, Father?”

“Yes, Sister, in all confidence.  She buried the old man in the waves of the sea, and before we were her teachers she had gone through the school and discipline of life.  While she was yet a heathen she had taken up her cross and proved herself as faithful as though she were a child of the Lord.  All that was lacking to her—­Faith, Love and Hope—­she has found under your roof.  I thank thee for this soul thou hast found Sister, in the name of the Lord.”

“Not I, not I,” said the widow.  “Her heart was frozen, but it is not I but the innocent faith of the blind child that has melted it.”

“She owes her salvation to him and to you,” replied the bishop, “and they both shall be baptized together.  We will give the lovely boy the name of the fairest of the disciples, and call him John.  Selene for the future, if she herself likes it, shall be known as Martha.”

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THE EMPEROR

By Georg Ebers

Volume 10.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Selene and Helios were baptized, and two days after dame Hannah with her adopted children and Mary, escorted by the presbyter Hilarion and a deacon, embarked in the harbor of Mareotis on board a Nile-boat which was to convey them to their new home, the town of Besa in Upper Egypt.  The deformed girl had hesitated as to her answer to the widow’s question whether she would accompany her.  Her old mother dwelt in Alexandria, and then—­but it was this “then” which helped her abruptly to cut short all reflection and to pronounce a decided “yes,” for it referred to Antinous.

For a few minutes it had seemed unendurable to think that she should never see him again, for she could not help often thinking of the beautiful youth, and her whole heart ought to belong solely to the One who had with His blood purchased peace for her on earth and bliss in the world to come.

The day after being baptized, Selene had gone to Paulina’s town-house, and there, with many tears had taken leave of Arsinoe.  All the affection which bound the sisters together found expression at this moment of parting.  Selene had heard from Paulina that Pollux was dead, and she no longer grudged her rival sister that she grieved for him more passionately than herself, though at first her peace of mind had more than once been disturbed by memories of her old playfellow.

She felt it hard to leave Alexandria, where most of her brothers and sisters were left behind, and yet she rejoiced to think of a distant home, for she was no longer the same creature that she had been a few months since, and she longed for a remote scene of a new and sanctified life.