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Perhaps, after all, our kind Phanes did not go away yesterday, and has come to bid us farewell once more." "Phanes is gone," said Melitta, becoming serious, "and Rhodopis has ordered me to send you in when visitors arrive. Go child, that I may open the gate. There, they have knocked again."
Through the door of the country-house, now so well known to us, two female figures have just passed; Melitta, the old slave, and Sappho, the grandchild of Rhodopis. The latter is not less lovely now, than when we saw her last, asleep.
"How stupid of little Eros to mistake a bee for a winged snake! Grandmother says that the great poet Anacreon wrote another verse to this song, but she will not teach it me. Tell me, Melitta, what can there be in that verse? There, you are smiling; dear, darling Melitta, do sing me that one verse. Perhaps though, you don't know it yourself? No? then certainly you can't teach it me."
"What is this, my child?" Melitta trembled and had a falsehood ready on her lips, but Sappho, throwing herself into her grandmother's arms, embraced her tenderly and told the whole story of her love. Rhodopis turned pale, ordered Melitta to leave the chamber, and, placing herself in front of her grandchild, laid both hands on her shoulders and said earnestly, "Look into my eyes, Sappho.
Melitta, bring the bride's marriage-ornaments, the bracelets and necklaces which lie in the bronze casket on my dressing-table, that our darling may give her hand to her lord attired as beseems a future princess." "Yes, and do not linger on the way," cried Kallias, whose old cheerfulness had now returned.
You see, when I am very happy, I have no one in the whole world to talk to about it, except old Melitta and my grandmother, and, I don't know how it is, that, though they love me so much, they sometimes cannot understand how trifles can make me so happy." "That is because they are old, and have forgotten what made them happy in their youth.
Sappho followed Melitta into the palace, first whispering in her husband's ear with her arm round his neck: "Tell my grandmother everything and ask whether you are right." Before he could answer, she had stopped his mouth with a kiss, and then hurried after the old woman who was departing with dignified steps.
Melitta wanted to enquire of the Oracle whether you would remain faithful; and to question an old woman who has just come from Phrygia and can conjure by night from drawn cords, with incense, styrax, moon-shaped cakes, and wild-briar leaves; but I would have none of this, for my heart knows better than the Pythia, the cords, or the smoke of sacrifice, that you will be true to me, and love me always."
His cheeks had lost their brilliant color, but that added to his beauty, while it lessened hers, who, like him, became paler from day to day. Melitta, the old slave, had taken the lovers under her protection.
Sappho, therefore, had to take a short farewell of her grandmother, all the more tender, however, for its shortness, and then, led by Rartja and followed by old Melitta, who was to accompany her to Persia, she went on board Syloson's boat. After an hour's sail they reached a beautifully- built and fast-sailing vessel, the Hygieia, which belonged to Kallias.
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