"Is my friend then still alive?" inquired Polemo eagerly.
"He is; but you can never again look upon him."
"What can you mean? I conjure you to explain what has occurred."
"Oh, Polemo! one of our household gods has taken away Aristus's body from him. But ask him to tell you what has happened, for he is now in the room."
"Now in the room! and without his body! Really, if it were not for your tears, I should suppose you were jesting. Perhaps there may be some pleasant raillery in all this, but I confess I am too dull to understand it."
"Why do not you speak," said Cleopatra, addressing herself to the air, "and explain this mystery?"
Aristus having thus long suffered his friend's perplexity to continue, at length declared himself by saying,—
"It is true that I am now in the room and apart from my body, but I know you will not regard my separation as a calamity."
Polemo was in great astonishment when these words spoke themselves close to him. He knew the voice to be his friend's, and looking round endeavoured to find him, till Aristus related to him the whole adventure, and the circumstances in which he now found himself, saying to him at the conclusion of his story,—
"You have come fortunately, my friend, to assist me in persuading my wife to her duty. I have prevailed on the god to grant that by sprinkling her face, and by the magical word, she shall be let loose as I was, but (would you believe it?) she determines to remain shut up in her body, and in spite of the fidelity and love which I have a right to expect from her, she positively refuses to resemble me."