ght the girl had crept up to the little boy's bed,
and to comfort and lull him had begun to sing him a simple song. The
singer's voice was so pure and pathetic that it had touched both him and
his wife and they had at once purchased the girl and her brother for a
small sum. He had simply paid what the soldier asked, not regarding the
children in the light of slaves; nor had he had any description of them
written out, though it was, no doubt, in his power to treat them as
slaves and to sell them again, since the sale had taken place before
witnesses who might still be found. He had afterwards learnt from the
girl that her parents were Christians and had settled in Antioch only
a few years previously; but she had no friends nor relatives there. Her
father, being a tax-collector in the service of the Emperor, had moved
about a great deal, but she remembered his having spoken of Augusta
Treviroruin in Belgica prima, as his native place.--[Now Trier or
Treves, on the Moselle.]

Agne had witnessed the attack on her father's house by the angry mob
who had killed her parents, their two slaves, and her elder brother. Her
father must certainly have been an official of some rank, and probably,
as it would seem, a Roman citizen, in which case--as Porphyrius
agreed--both the young girl and her little brother could legally claim
their freedom. The insurgents who had dragged the two children out into
the street had been driven off by the troops, and it was from them that
Karnis had rescued them. "And I have never regretted it," added the old
musician, "for Agne is a sweet, gentle soul. Of her voice I need say
nothing, since you yourselves heard it yesterday."

"And were quite delighted with it!" cried Gorgo. "If flowers could sing
it would be like that!"

"Well, well," said Karnis. "She has a lovely voice--but she wants wings.
Something--what, I know not, keeps the violet rooted to the soil."

"Christian scruples," said the merchant, and Damia added:

"Let Eros touch her--that will loosen her tongue."

"Eros, always Eros!" repeated Gorgo shrugging her shoulders. "Nay, love
means suffering--those who love drag a chain with them. To do the best
of which he is capable man needs only to be free, true, and in health."

"That is a great deal, fair mistress," replied Karnis eagerly. "With
these three gifts the best work is done. But as to Agne--what can be
further from freedom than a girl bound to service? her body, to be sure
is heal