I didn't know what it meant, when some of the younger women, meeting us together, looked at me (not at her), and smiled maliciously.

My stupid eyes were opened at last by the woman who slept in the next bed to her in the dormitory--a woman old enough to be my mother, who took care of me when I was a child at Tadmor.

She stopped me one morning, on my way to fish in the river.

'Amelius,' she said, 'don't go to the fishing-house; Mellicent is waiting for you.' I stared at her in astonishment.

She held up her finger at me: 'Take care, you foolish boy! You are drifting into a false position as fast as you can.