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He wished to go out to meet the litter, but Petronius and Chrysothemis detained him. Steps were heard suddenly in the entrance; the slaves rushed into the atrium in a crowd, and, halting quickly at the wall, raised their hands, and began to repeat with groaning, "Aaaa! aa!" Vinicius sprang toward them. "Where is Lygia?" cried he, with a terrible and changed voice. "Aaaa!"
"Do not address me in that way," answered Lygia; "it is not proper for me to hear such words." She smiled at him, however, and said that sleep had fled from her, that she felt no toil, that she would not go to rest till Glaucus came. He listened to her words as to music; his heart rose with increasing delight, increasing gratitude, and his thought was struggling to show her that gratitude.
Lygia stood with shoulders leaning against the cypress, her face whitening in the shadow, like a flower, her eyes drooping, her bosom heaving with more and more life. Vinicius changed in the face, and grew pale.
Yesterday I saw gladness on his face, and when I asked what he was doing, he answered, 'I am sowing! Petronius knows that he is among my people, and wishes to see him, as does Seneca also, who heard of him from Gallo. "But the stars are growing pale, O Lygia, and 'Lucifer' of the morning is bright with growing force.
What will Lygia do later, save to reconcile her fate with the religion which she professes? That, too, is a question of inferior significance. Those are matters devoid of importance. First of all, she will be his, and his this very day.
Let them put Lygia in a coffin at night and carry her out of the prison as a corpse; thou divinest the rest?" "Yes," answered Vinicius. Their further conversation was interrupted by Tullius Senecio, who, bending toward them, asked, "Do ye know whether they will give weapons to the Christians?" "We do not," answered Petronius.
Petronius did not lose hope that Vinicius had anticipated the pretorians and fled with Lygia, or, in the worse case, had rescued her. But he would have preferred to be certain, since he foresaw that he might have to answer various questions for which he would better be prepared.
"Chilo," interrupted Petronius, "in thy narrative falsehood appears on the surface of truth, as oil does on water. Thou hast brought important information; I do not deny that. I assert, even, that a great step is made toward finding Lygia; but do not cover thy news with falsehood.
Finally he understood this, which he and Petronius had not understood, that the new religion ingrafted into the soul something unknown to that world in which he lived, and that Lygia, even if she loved him, would not sacrifice any of her Christian truths for his sake, and that, if pleasure existed for her, it was a pleasure different altogether from that which he and Petronius and Cæsar's court and all Rome were pursuing.
"I should follow them," said Vinicius, "and in every case she would be out of danger; but now, if that child dies, Poppæa will believe, and will persuade Cæsar, that she died because of Lygia." "True; that alarmed me, too. But that little doll may recover. Should she die, we shall find some way of escape."
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