“Did Serapis pass over you, my son?”

“Yes, holy father.”

“What did he make you see, in your dreams?”

“The woman whom I love....”

The prophet had laid his long, thin, transparent hand on the dreamer’s head:

“But who did not love you,” he said, gently and quietly.

“How do you know, holy father?... I saw the pirates who kidnapped her....”

“But by whom she was not kidnapped....”

“How do you know, holy father?”

“And by whom she was not sold as a slave.”