ul like her tall Pollux, to be odious in the eyes of God
the Father of all, because he was able to make such wonderful things as
that head of her mother, for instance? If this really was so she would
rather, a thousand times rather, lift her hands in prayer to the smiling
Aphrodite, roguish Eros, beautiful Apollo, and all the nine Muses who
protected her Pollux, than to Him.

An obscure aversion rose up in her soul against the stern woman who
could not understand her, and of whose teaching and admonitions she
scarcely took in half; and she rejected many a word of the widow's which
might otherwise easily have found room in her heart, only because it was
spoken by the cold-mannered woman who at every hour seemed to try to lay
some fresh restraint upon her.

Paulina had never yet taken her with her to of the Christian assemblies
in her suburban villa; wished first to prepare her and to open her soul
to salvation. In this task no teacher of the congregation should assist
her. She, and she alone, should win to the Redeemer the soul of this
fair creature that had walked so resolutely in the ways of the heathen;
this was required of her as the condition of the covenant that she felt
she had made with Him, it was with the price of this labor that she
hoped to purchase her own child's eternal happiness. Day after day she
had Arsinoe into her own room, that was decked with flowers and with
Christian symbols, and devoted several hours to her instruction. But her
disciple proved less impressionable and less attentive every day; while
Paulina was speaking Arsinoe was thinking of Pollux, of the children, of
the festival prepared for the Emperor or of the beautiful dress she
was to have worn as Roxana. She wondered what young girl would fill her
place, and how she could ever hope to see her lover again. And it was
the same during Paulina's prayers as during her instruction, prayers
that often lasted more than hour, and which she had to attend, on her
knees on Wednesday and Friday, and with hands uplifted on all the other
days of the week.

When her adoptive mother had discovered how often she looked out into
the street she thought she had found out the reason of her pupil's
distracted attention and only waited the return of her brother, the
architect, in order to have the window blocked up.

As Pontius entered the lofty hall of his sister's house, Arsinoe came to
meet him. Her cheeks were flushed, she had hurried to fly down as fas