But for a few days, especially while all Rome is in chaos, I am safe; and, come what may, I would be first warned if any one intended to lay hands on me." Indeed, Demetrius's boast as to his own importance in Alexandria was soon verified.

The customs officials were all obsequiousness when they went through the form of levying on the cargo of the ship.

The master of the port was soon in Demetrius's own cabin over a crater of excellent wine, and no sooner had the vessels touched the quay than their crews were fraternizing with the hosts of stevedores and flower-girls who swarmed to meet the new arrivals.
* * * * * A few days later Cornelia and Fabia found themselves received as members of the household of no less a person than Cleomenes, a distant kinsman of Demetrius and Agias, and himself one of the great merchant princes of the Egyptian capital.

The Roman ladies found a certain amount of shyness to overcome on their own part and on that of their hosts.

Cleomenes himself was a widower, and his ample house was presided over by two dark-skinned, dark-eyed daughters, Berenice and Monime--girls who blended with the handsome Greek features of their father the soft, sensuous charm of his dead Egyptian wife.