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He was silent for a while; then, raising his hands, he said, "I thank Thee, O Christ, for having taken the beam from eyes which are the dearest on earth to me." Then he embraced the head of Vinicius, and, weeping from happiness, fell to kissing his forehead. A moment later, Petronius appeared, bringing Nazarius. "Good news!" cried he, while still at a distance. Indeed, the news was good.
Perhaps Christ Himself would assist him with His divine power; maybe that inspiration was His? "Oh, would that it were!" exclaimed Vinicius, in spirit.
BARELY had Vinicius finished reading when Chilo pushed quietly into his library, unannounced by any one, for the servants had the order to admit him at every hour of the day or night. "May the divine mother of thy magnanimous ancestor Æneas be full of favor to thee, as the son of Maia was kind to me." "What dost thou mean?" asked Vinicius, springing from the table at which he was sitting.
Here a longing seized Lygia, and her eyes were moist with tears; but she calmed herself quickly, and said, "I know that Pomponia, too, yearns for me; but we have consolation which others have not." "Yes," answered Vinicius, "Christ is your consolation, but I do not understand that." "Look at us! For us there are no partings, no pains, no sufferings; or if they come they are turned into pleasure.
There is nothing in the world but love. Lay thy head on my breast and close thy eyes." The pulse beat oppressively in Lygia's hands and temples. A feeling seized her that she was flying into some abyss, and that Vinicius, who before had seemed so near and so trustworthy, instead of saving was drawing her toward it. And she felt sorry for him. She began again to dread the feast and him and herself.
I cannot imagine a worse combination. Brr!" "Not with Pomponia eheu!" answered Vinicius. "With whom, then?" "If I knew myself with whom? But I do not know to a certainty her name even, Lygia or Callina? They call her Lygia in the house, for she comes of the Lygian nation; but she has her own barbarian name, Callina. It is a wonderful house, that of those Plautiuses.
"Ye will go with me," said he, turning to Petronius and Vinicius, who were sitting in a corner of the hall. "Give me thy arm, Vinicius, for strength fails me; Petronius will talk to me of music." They went out on the terrace, which was paved with alabaster and sprinkled with saffron. "Here one can breathe more freely," said Nero.
"But He will restore her to me." Pettonius shrugged his shoulders. "Dost know," inquired he, "that Christians are to illuminate Cæsar's gardens to-morrow?" "To-morrow?" repeated Vinicius. And in view of the near and dreadful reality his heart trembled with pain and fear. "This is the last night, perhaps, which I can pass with Lygia," thought he.
Those present, not less pleased by that evident expression of honor for the Apostle of God, exclaimed in one voice, "Praise to the Lord in the highest!" Vinicius rose with a radiant face, and began, "I see that happiness may dwell among you, for I feel happy, and I think that ye can convince me of other things in the same way. But I will add that this cannot happen in Rome.
When he found some, he began to blow, not with his mouth, but as it were with the bellows of a blacksmith. Vinicius, remembering how that man had crushed Croton the day before, examined with attention befitting a lover of the arena his gigantic back, which resembled the back of a Cyclops, and his limbs strong as columns. "Thanks to Mercury that my neck was not broken by him," thought Vinicius.