“I saw,” replied the man, “the white horses of my Lord Eulaeus hard by the vineyard of Khakem; I know them well. They were harnessed to a closed chariot, in which besides himself sat a lady.”
“I do not know,” replied the tarter, “for I could not see who sat in the chariot, but I heard the voice of Eulaeus, and then a woman’s laugh. She laughed so heartily that I had to screw my mouth up myself, it tickled me so.”
While Klea supposed this description to apply to Irene’s merry laugh-which she had never thought of with regret till this moment--the high-priest exclaimed:
“You, keeper of the eastern gate, did the lady and Eulaeus enter and leave this sanctuary together?”
“No,” was the answer. “She came in half an hour later than he did, and she quitted the temple quite alone and long after the eunuch.”
“And Irene did not pass through your gate, and cannot have gone out by it?--I ask you in the name of the god we serve!”
“She may have done so, holy father,” answered the gate-keeper in much alarm. “I have a sick child, and to look after him I went into my room several times; but only for a few minutes at a time-still, the gate stands open, all is quiet in Memphis now.”
“You have done very wrong,” said Asclepiodorus severely, “but since you have told the truth you may go unpunished. We have learned enough. All you gate-keepers now listen to me. Every gate of the temple must be carefully shut, and no one--not even a pilgrim nor any dignitary from Memphis, however high a personage he may be--is to enter or go out without my express permission; be as alert as if you feared an attack, and now go each of you to his duties.”
The assembly dispersed; these to one side, those to another.
Klea did not perceive that many looked at her with suspicion as though she were responsible for her sister’s conduct, and others with compassion; she did not even notice the twin-sisters, whose place she and Irene were to have filled, and this hurt the feelings of the good elderly maidens, who had to perform so much lamenting which they did not feel at all, that they eagerly seized every opportunity of expressing their feelings when, for once in a way, they were moved to sincere sorrow. But neither these sympathizing persons nor any other of the inhabitants of the temple, who approached Klea with the purpose of questioning or of pitying her, dared to address her, so stern and terrible was the solemn expression of her eyes which she kept fixed upon the ground.