He was the very man to go and see her father and brothers; he would revive their spirits, and carry them her greeting.
When, presently, the Christian arrived he expressed himself as very ready to undertake this commission.

His sister was already busied in packing wine and other comforts for the captives-more, no doubt, as Johannes told Berenike, than the three men could possibly consume, even if their imprisonment should be a long one.

His smile showed how confidently he counted on the lady's liberality, and Melissa quickly put her faith in the young Christian, who would have reminded her of her brother Philip, but that his slight figure was more upright, and his long hair quite smooth, without a wave or curl.

His eyes, above all, were unlike Philip's; for they looked out on the world with a gaze as mild as Philip's were keen and inquiring.
Melissa gave him many messages for her father and brothers, and when the lady Berenike begged him to take care that the portrait of her daughter was safely carried to the Serapeum, where it was to contribute to mollify Caesar in the painter's favor, he praised her determination, and modestly added: "For how long may we call our own any of these perishable joys?
A day, perhaps a year, at most a lustrum.

But eternity is long, and those who, for its sake, forget time and set all their hopes on eternity--which is indeed time to the soul--soon cease to bewail the loss of any transitory treasure, were it the noblest and dearest.