Matters might soon change for the better, and good or evil could come only from without.

So Dido clung to the literal sense of her master's question, and something note-worthy had actually happened in the kitchen.

She drew a deep breath, and told him that a subordinate of the night-watch had come in and asked whether Alexander were in the house, and where his painting-room was.
"And you gave him an exact description ?" asked Heron.
But the slave shook her head; she again began to fidget with her dress, and said, timidly: "Argutis was there, and he says no good can come of the night-watch.

He told the man what he thought fit, and sent him about his business." At this Heron interrupted the old woman with such a mighty blow of his fist on the table that the porridge jumped in the bowl, and he exclaimed in a fury: "That is what comes of treating slaves as our equals! They begin to think for themselves.

A stupid blunder can spoil the best day! The captain of the night-watch, I would have you to know, is a very great man, and very likely a friend of Seleukus's, whose daughter Alexander has just painted.