"Then all is well, then--oh! what a weight is taken off my mind!--then Irene shall be my wife as sure as I live! Oh Eros and Aphrodite and Father Zeus and Apollo! how happy I am! I feel as if the biggest of the Pyramids yonder had fallen off my heart.

Now, you rascal, run up and carry to the fair Irene, the betrothed of her faithful Lysias--mark what I say--carry her at once this tablet and bracelet.

But you will not say it right; I will write here above my distich: 'From the faithful Lysias to the fair Irene his future wife.' There--and now I think she will not send the thing back again, good girl that she is! Listen, rascal, if she keeps it you may swallow cakes to-day out on the Grand Square till you burst--and yet I have only just paid five gold pieces for you.

Will she keep the bracelet, Publius--yes or no ?" "She will keep it." A few minutes later the boy came hurrying back, and pulling the Greek vehemently by his dress, he cried: "Come, come with me, into the house." Lysias with a light and graceful leap sprang right over the little fellow's head, tore open the door, and spread out his arms as he caught sight of Irene, who, though trembling like a hunted gazelle, flew down the narrow ladder-like stairs to meet him, and fell on his breast laughing and crying and breathless.
In an instant their lips met, but after this first kiss she tore herself from his arms, rushed up the stairs again, and then, from the top step, shouted joyously: "I could not help seeing you this once! now farewell till Klea comes, then we meet again," and she vanished into an upper room.
Lysias turned to his friend like one intoxicated, he threw himself down on his bench, and said: "Now the heavens may fall, nothing can trouble me! Ye immortal gods, how fair the world is!" "Strange boy!" exclaimed the Roman, interrupting his friend's rapture.
"You can not stay for ever in this dingy stall." "I will not stir from this spot till Klea comes.

The boy there shall fetch me victuals as an old sparrow feeds his young; and if necessary I will lie here for a week, like the little sardines they preserve in oil at Alexandria." "I hope you will have only a few hours to wait; but I must go, for I am planning a rare surprise for King Euergetes on his birthday, and must go to the palace.