without her parents’ knowledge.  The better to establish the truth of his story, he opened a coffer and took out the things she had left behind her—­a ring of gold which she had given him, and a belt which she had left on the previous night.  When Charito beheld all these convincing proofs, she uttered a piercing cry, and rent her clothes and her cloak, and tore her coif from her head, and began to mourn for her daughter afresh in the midst of her friends.  Machates was deeply distressed on seeing what had happened, and how they were all mourning, as if for her second funeral.  He begged them to be comforted, and promised them that they should see her if she appeared.  Charito yielded, but bade him be careful how he fulfilled his promise.

“When night fell and the hour drew near at which Philinnion usually appeared, they were on the watch for her.  She came, as was her custom, and sat down upon the bed.  Machates made no pretence, for he was genuinely anxious to sift the matter to the bottom, and secretly sent some slaves to call her parents.  He himself could hardly believe that the woman who came to him so regularly at the same hour was really dead, and when she ate and drank with him, he began to suspect what had been suggested to him—­namely, that some grave-robbers had violated the tomb and sold the clothes and the gold ornaments to her father.

“Demostratus and Charito hastened to come at once, and when they saw her, they were at first speechless with amazement.  Then, with cries of joy, they threw themselves upon their daughter.  But Philinnion remained cold.  ‘Father and mother,’ she said, ’cruel indeed have ye been in that ye grudged my living with the stranger for three days in my father’s house, for it brought harm to no one.  But ye shall pay for your meddling with sorrow.  I must return to the place appointed for me, though I came not hither without the will of Heaven.’  With these words she fell down dead, and her body lay stretched upon the bed.  Her parents threw themselves upon her, and the house was filled with confusion and sorrow, for the blow was heavy indeed; but the event was strange, and soon became known throughout the town, and finally reached my ears.

“During the night I kept back the crowds that gathered round the house, taking care that there should be no disturbance as the news spread.  At early dawn the theatre was full.  After a long discussion it was decided that we should go and open the tomb, to see whether the body was still on the bier, or whether we should find the place empty, for the woman had hardly been dead six months.  When we opened the vault where all her family was buried, the bodies were seen lying on the other biers; but on the one where Philinnion had been placed, we found only the iron ring which had belonged to her lover and the gilt drinking-cup Machates had given her on the first day.  In utter amazement, we went straight to Demostratus’s house to see whether the body was