about
midnight
In truth his spirit was in no mood for idle gossip ; no , it was full of gnawing anxiety and tender fears , and his heart bled when he reflected that he had broken his vows , and forsworn the oath he had made to his dying mother . When he reached the palace-gate he begged one of the civic guard to conduct him to his brother , and as he backed his request with a gift of money he was led at once to the man whom he sought . Glaucus was excessively startled to recognize Serapion , but he was so much engaged that he could only give up a few minutes to his brother , whose proceedings he considered as both inexplicable and criminal . Irene , as the anchorite now learned , had been carried off from the temple , not by Euergetes but by the Roman , and Klea had quitted the palace only a few minutes since in a chariot and would return about midnight and on foot from the second tavern to the temple . And the poor child was so utterly alone , and her way lay through the desert where she might be attacked by dissolute soldiery or tomb-robbers or jackals and hyenas . Her walk was to begin from the second tavern , and that was the very spot where low rioters were wont to assemble -- and his darling was so young , so fair , and so defenceless ! He was once more a prey to the same unendurable dread that had come over him , in his cell , after Klea had left the temple and darkness had closed in .