You were sure to come--, I knew it!" The young girl stepped nearer to him, and answered, kindly, "Since you needed me, I gladly followed Philostratus." "Because I needed you ?" asked the emperor.
"Yes," she replied, "because you require nursing." "Then, to keep you, I shall wish to be ill often," he answered, quickly; but he added, sadly, "only not so dreadfully ill as I have been to-day." One could hear how laborious talking was to him, and the few words he had sought and found, in order to say something kind to Melissa, had so hurt his shattered nerves and head that he sank back, gasping, on the cushions.
Then for some time all was quiet, until Caracalla took his hand from his forehead and continued, as if in excuse: "No one seems to know what it is.

And if I talk ever so softly, every word vibrates through my brain." "Then you must not speak," interrupted Melissa, eagerly.

"If you want anything, only make signs.

I shall understand you without words, and the quieter it is here the better." "No, no; you must speak," begged the invalid.

"When the others talk, they make the beating in my head ten times worse, and excite me; but I like to hear your voice." "The beating ?" interrupted Melissa, in whom this word awoke old memories.