e salutation, "Joy be with thee."
Going straight on for a few feet, she passed into the _atrium_, a
pillared court, where Coryna, the image of Tharsos in finer mould, met
her and kissed her hand in touching silence.

Leading the way, Coryna went on through the _cavaedium_, a larger
Corinthian-columned court, in whose centre stood a splashing fountain,
shooting its crystal stream towards the open sky. Passing the
_tablinum_ or room of archives, they proceeded into the _peristylium_,
a still larger transverse court or lawn with verdant shrubbery and a
chaste towering fountain.

Here there was a Roman lady, elegantly dressed and richly jewelled.
Her dark-complexioned face was strikingly beautiful, yet marred by a
lofty look of haughtiness. She walked around the lawn with the alert
graceful movements of a panther. Evidently she was laboring under
considerable excitement, and when Coryna and Pathema entered, her black
eyes flashed out a deadly scorn.

Inwardly disturbed, yet meeting the lady's look with a smile, Coryna
turned aside between the marble columns into one of the _exedrae_ or
rooms for conversation. Guiding Pathema to a comfortable seat, she
spoke for the first time, saying,

"Welcome to our home!"

"I thank thee for the honour," answered Pathema, "and I am glad to
come, yet greatly pained."

"My brother did right," was the quiet response.

"Receive, I pray thee," said Pathema in tears, "my deepest gratitude
for thy brother's deed."

"Tharsos will yet receive it personally," was the happy answer.

"I rejoice to hear thy hope," replied Pathema with brightening eyes.

"I have hope, but the physicians have little or none."

After a little further conversation during which the visitor's whole
heart was drawn out to the noble character before her, Coryna craved
liberty for a moment to bid her friend in the _peristylium_ farewell.
As she went out, a female slave entered to wait upon Pathema and show
her every necessary attention. The slave was not long in her presence
when she bewailed the calamity that had come upon her beloved master.
Then she mentioned that the young lady in the _peristylium_ was much
distressed.

"Emerentia," she continued, "loves him exceedingly, and he liked her in
return. Her father and mother leave to-day for a distant city of the
empire, and she goes with them."

Pathema was grieved, and she expressed the fervent hope that the
nobleman would recover, for the distressed la