A certain understanding had
arisen between the beautiful youth and the deformed girl. When Antinous
appeared and she called out to him: "What, again already!" he would
grasp her hand and implore her only once to grant his wish; but she was
always firm, only she never sent him away sternly but with smiles and
friendly admonitions. When he brought rare and lovely flowers in his
pallium and entreated her to give them to Selene in the name of her
friend at Lochias, she would take them and promise to place them in her
room; but she always said it would do neither him nor her any good at
all that Selene should know from whom they came. After such repulses he
well knew how to flatter and coax her with appealing words, but he had
never dared to defy her or to gain his end by force. When the flowers
were placed in the room Mary looked at them much oftener than Selene
did, and when Antinous had been long absent the deformed girl longed to
see him again, and would pace restlessly up and down between the garden
gate and her friend's little house. She, like him, dreamed of an angel,
and the angel of whom she dreamed was exactly like himself. In all
her prayers she included the name of the handsome heathen and a soft
tenderness in which a gentle pity was often infused, a grief for his
unredeemed soul, was inseparable from all her thoughts of him.

Hannah was informed by her of each of the young man's visits, and
as often as Mary mentioned Antinous the deaconess seemed anxious and
desired her to threaten to call the gate-keeper to him. The widow knew
full well who her patient's indefatigable admirer was, for she had once
heard him speaking to Mastor, and she had asked the slave, who availed
himself of every spare moment to attend the services of the Christians,
who the lad was. All Alexandria, nay all the Empire, knew the name of
the most beautiful youth of his time, the spoilt favorite of Caesar.
Even Hannah had heard of him and knew that poets sang his praises and
heathen women were eager to obtain a glance from his eyes. She knew
how devoid of all morality were the lives of the nobles at Rome, and
Antinous appeared to her as a splendid falcon that wheels above a dove
to swoop down upon it at a favorable moment and to tear it in its beak
and talons. Hannah also knew that Selene was acquainted with Antinous,
that it was he who had formerly rescued her from the big dog and
afterward saved her from the water; but that Selene, who was n