ssing sound, they were, whom, rising for the
purpose, and laying by her work, she now proceeded to recall to sublunary
matters.

"Paullus," she said, "and you, my Julia, ye are unconscious how the
fleeting hours have slipped away. The night hath far advanced into the
third watch. I would not part ye needlessly, nor over soon, especially
when you must so soon perforce be severed; but we must not forget how long
a homeward walk awaits our dear Arvina. Come, then, and partake some
slight refreshment, before you say farewell.

"How thoughtless in me, to have detained you thus, and with a mile to walk
this murky and unpleasant night. They say, too, that the streets are
dangerous of late, haunted by dissolute night-revellers--that villain
Clodius and his infamous co-mates. I tremble like a leaf if I but meet
them in broad day--and what if you should fall in with them, when flushed
with wine, and ripe for any outrage?"

"Fie! dear one, fie!" answered the young man with a smile--"a sorry soldier
wouldst thou make of me, who am within so short a space to meet the
savages of Pontus, under our mighty Pompey! There is no danger, Julia,
here in the heart of Rome; and my stout freedman Thrasea awaits me with
his torch. Nor is it so far either to my house, for those who cross, as I
shall do, the cemetery on the Esquiline. 'Tis but a step across the
sumptuous Carinae to the Caelian."

"But surely, surely, Paul," exclaimed the lovely girl, laying her hand
upon his arm, "thou wouldst not cross that fearful burying-ground, haunted
by all things awful and obscene, thus at the dead of night. Oh! do not,
dearest," she continued, "thou knowest not what wild terrible tales are
rife, of sounds and sights unnatural and superhuman, encountered in those
loathsome precincts. 'Tis a mere tempting of the Dark Ones, to brave the
horrors of that place!"

"The Gods, my Julia," replied the youth unmoved by her alarm, "the Gods
are never absent from their votaries, so they be innocent and pure of
spirit. For me! I am unconscious of a wilful fault, and fear not
anything."

"Well said, Paullus Arvina," exclaimed the elder lady, "and worthily of
your descent from the Caecilii"--for from that noble house his family indeed
derived its origin. "But, although I," she added, "counsel you not to heed
our Julia's girlish terrors, I love you not to walk by night so slenderly
accompanied. Ho! boy, go summon me the steward, and bid him straightway
arm four of t