" said she
with a smile of pride.

"He is a soldier, every bit of him," added Coryna. "How different from
his elder brother, Dinarchus!"

"Yes, my Dinarchus is a great reader, a young philosopher, a hermit,
dear boy. He is now deep in the study of the Christian books. I would
my Carnion were at home with him to-day, but he expected to see a
wild-beast fight."

"Observe thy husband and my brother--see how calmly they look on!"

"They are soldiers, Coryna, and accustomed as we know to the spectacle
of wounds and blood. To them, the arena must be as nothing to a field
of battle when the clash of sword and spear is past."

"Oh, it must be racking, revolting!" exclaimed the other, pained at the
mental vision of mangled heaps of slain; "and our beloved ones hate the
sight."

"They also dislike what they see before them," said Myrtis. "They love
skill, but they have no love for wanton play with human life."

"I wish all Rome hated such idle butchery," remarked Coryna earnestly,
but rather loudly.

Overhearing these remarks, spoken in the Latin tongue, a number of
ladies sneered and smiled. All, or nearly all, who made that wide
investing terrace a wreath of brightness and beauty, were dead to pity.
At the most they could only feel regret for a wounded favorite or a
dying hero.

"I would all the empire were of thy mind, Coryna, and then no such sad
spectacle would stain our own beloved, humaner land.

"Christianity is the deadly enemy of all this wicked work. May it
prosper!" said the young lady fervently.

"There are no Christians here, I venture to say, civil or military,"
responded Myrtis. "No follower of the humane Jesus would come within
these walls, unless wronged and led, or bent on some heroic deed. But
we worshippers of a hundred gods can thank our divinities for no good
influence. I hate the gods: may they forgive me!" and the reflective
lady smiled at her own bold scepticism.

"They are myths, so my brother says," added Coryna, with a look of
decision and relief.

"Tharsos is almost a Christian," remarked Myrtis, "and with him I
strongly sympathize."

"He is. But see, he is telling thy husband something, and look how
earnestly Carnion watches his words. Of a surety something strange or
startling is going to present itself next. The uncertainty about the
time of the Christian's appearance must be removed, but my brother's
signal will tell."

CHAPTER VI.

THE INDIGNATION OF THA