pare his sons the same
experience, and allowed them to accompany Constantine to church and to
wear blue--the badge of the Christians--at races and public games, with a
shrug of silent consent.

With Gorgo it was different. She was a woman and need wear no colors; and
her enthusiasm for the old gods and Greek taste and prejudices were the
delight of her father. She was the pride of his life, and as he heard his
own convictions echoed in her childish prattle, and later in her
conversation and exquisite singing, he was grateful to his mother and to
his friend Olympius who had implanted and cherished these feelings in his
daughter. Constantine's endeavors to show her the beauty of his creed and
to win her to Christianity were entirely futile; and the older they grew,
and the less they agreed, the worse could each endure the dissent of the
other.

An early and passionate affection attracted the young man to his charming
playfellow; the more ardently he cherished his faith the more fervently
did he desire to win her for his wife. But Olympius' fair pupil was not
easy of conquest; nay, he was not unfrequently hard beset by her
questions and arguments, and while, to her, the fight for a creed was no
more than an amusing wrestling match, in which to display her strength,
to him it was a matter in which his heart was engaged.

Damia and Porphyrius took a vain pleasure in their eager discussions, and
clapped with delight, as though it were a game of skill, when Gorgo
laughingly checkmated her excited opponent with some unanswerable
argument.

But there came a day when Constantine discovered that his eager defence
of that which to him was high and holy, was, to his hearers, no more than
a subject of mockery, and henceforth the lad, now fast growing to
manhood, kept away from the merchant's house. Still, Gorgo could always
win him back again, and sometimes, when they were alone together, the old
strife would be renewed, and more seriously and bitterly than of old. But
while he loved her, she also loved him, and when he had so far mastered
himself as to remain away for any length of time she wore herself out
with longing to see him. They felt that they belonged to each other, but
they also felt that an insuperable gulf yawned between them, and that
whenever they attempted to clasp hands across the abyss a mysterious and
irresistible impulse drove them to open it wider, and to dig it deeper by
fresh discussions, till at last Const