years; who can tell?' she answered. 'And yet, let
us rather look the truth in the face, and not delude ourselves with
false hopes. The world is very wide, and the way from here to your home
is far, and the fatalities of life are many. Dear Cleotos, let us rather
make up our minds that this parting is for ever; unless it may be that
the gods will let us look upon each other's faces again in some future
state. But there may be times when you can write to me, or send some
message of good tidings; and then--'

'Talk not to me of the gods!' he interrupted, in a storm of passionate
exclamation. 'What have they ever done for us, that we should worship or
pray to them? Why look to them for blessings in a future state, when
they have done us such evil in the present life? Here we were poor and
lowly together; and have they not dragged us apart? And will they, then,
in another life, be the more disposed to let us see each other's
faces--you one of the nobles of the earth, and I one of its meanest
plebeians? Is it written in the temples or by the priests and oracles,
that when the Caesars are throned in Olympus, their lowly subjects shall
be permitted to approach, them any nearer than when here? How, then,
could we meet each other better hereafter than now? Away with all talk
about the gods! I believe not in them! If we part now for this world, it
is for eternity as well!'

'Oh, say not that!' she exclaimed. 'And still pray to the gods as of
old, for they may yet bring good out of all that now seems to us so
obscure. Remember that to the best of us, this world offers little but
what is mingled with unhappiness. Take not, therefore, away from
yourself and me a belief in something better to come.'

'Take, then, with you, a belief in the God about whom I learned in
Greece, for He it is who tells of comfort hereafter for the poor and
oppressed, and He is the only one who does so,' Cleotos doggedly
answered.

'It may be--it may be,' she said. 'Who can tell which is right? We have
so often talked about it, and have not yet found out. They may both be
the true gods--they may neither of them be. Ah, Cleotos, my brother, let
us not doubt. It is pleasanter and safer, too, that we should believe,
even if we extend our faith to a belief in both. Choose, then, your own,
as I will mine. I must not abandon the gods in whose worship I have been
brought up; but when I pray to them, I will first pray for you. And
you--if you adopt the God of th