It seemed to him of good augury for the long hours before him which he must devote to Caesar, that he should, so early in the day, have met so pure and fair a flower of girlhood.
When she had told him her own name and her father's, and also mentioned her brothers, Philip the philosopher, and Alexander the painter, who was already one of the chief masters of his art here, Galenus answered heartily: "All honor to his genius, then, for he is the one-eyed king in the land of the blind.

Like the old gods, who can scarce make themselves heard for the new, the Muses too have been silenced.

The many really beautiful things to be seen here are not new; and the new, alas! are not beautiful.

But your brother's work," he added, kindly, "may be the exception." "You should only see his portraits!" cried Melissa.
"Yours, perhaps, among them ?" said the old man, with interest.

"That is a reminder I would gladly take back to Rome with me." Alexander had indeed painted his sister not long before, and how glad she was to be able to offer the picture to the reverend man to whom she owed so much! So she promised with a blush to send it him as soon as she should be at home again.
The unexpected gift was accepted with pleasure, and when he thanked her eagerly and with simple heartiness, she interrupted him with the assurance that in Alexandria art was not yet being borne to the grave.
Her brother's career, it was true, threatened to come to an untimely end, for he stood in imminent danger.