This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
THE EMPEROR, Part 2.
By Georg Ebers
Selene and Helios were baptized, and two days after dame Hannah with heradopted children and Mary, escorted by the presbyter Hilarion and adeacon, embarked in the harbor of Mareotis on board a Nile-boat which wasto convey them to their new home, the town of Besa in Upper Egypt. Thedeformed girl had hesitated as to her answer to the widow's questionwhether she would accompany her. Her old mother dwelt in Alexandria, andthen—but it was this "then" which helped her abruptly to cut short allreflection and to pronounce a decided "yes," for it referred to Antinous.
For a few minutes it had seemed unendurable to think that she shouldnever see him again, for she could not help often thinking of thebeautiful youth, and her whole heart ought to belong solely to the Onewho had with His blood purchased peace for her on earth and bliss in theworld to come.
The day after being baptized, Selene had gone to Paulina's town-house,and there, with many tears had taken leave of Arsinoe. All the affectionwhich bound the sisters together found expression at this moment ofparting. Selene had heard from Paulina that Pollux was dead, and sheno longer grudged her rival sister that she grieved for him morepassionately than herself, though at first her peace of mind had morethan once been disturbed by memories of her old playfellow.
She felt it hard to leave Alexandria, where most of her brothers andsisters were left behind, and yet she rejoiced to think of a distanthome, for she was no longer the same creature that she had been a fewmonths since, and she longed for a remote scene of a new and sanctifiedlife.
Eumenes and Hannah were in the right. It was not the widow but thelittle blind boy who had won her to Christianity. The child's influencehad proceeded in a strange course. In the first instance the promises ofthe slave Master that Helios should some day meet his father again in ashining realm among beautiful angels had a powerful effect on the blindchild's tender heart and vivid imagination. In Hannah's house his hopeshad received fresh nurture, and Mary and the widow told him much abouttheir kind and loving God and His Son who loved children and had invitedthem to come to Him. When Selene began to recover and he was permittedto talk to her he poured out to her all his delight at what he had heardfrom the women. At first, to be sure, his sister took no pleasure inthese fanciful fables and tried to shake his belief and lead back hisheart to the old gods. But while she tried to guide the child, bydegrees she felt compelled to follow in his path; at first with waveringsteps, but dame Hannah helped her by her example and with many words ofgood counsel. She only taught her doctrine when the girl asked herquestions and begged for information. All that here surrounded Selenebreathed of love and peace, and the child felt this, spoke of it, forcedher to acknowledge it, and, in his own person, was the first object onwhich to exercise a wish hitherto unknown to her, to be herself lovingand lovable. The boy's firm faith, which was not to be shaken by anyreasoning or by any of the myths which she knew, touched her deeply andled to her asking Hannah what was the real bearing of one and another ofhis statements. It had always seemed a comfort to h