edge at
Phaleron, swinging into the eastern void above the amethyst-dyed
rocks of Hymettus; a sail on a summer star-lit night from AEgina to
Piraeus--all these things crept one by one into their conversation.
Here, Paulus recognised, was a group of young men on fire with a real
emotion, cleansed in the presence of beauty and of great memories,
witnesses afresh to a procreative Hellas. When the party broke up
he thanked his host for the happiest day he had spent in many months.

On the way home, after rounding the last foot hill, they saw the
Acropolis across the plain. The sun fell on the red in the natural
rock and intensified the white of the marbles. Against the sombre
mountains the isolated citadel glowed inly, like a milk-white opal
shot with rose. Paulus caught his breath. Was it here, his flame of
life?

II

In the following weeks Paulus remembered some things in the
conversation of this day, which at the time had made but slight
impression on him. The stories of professors and teachers had meant
little until he knew at first hand the lentil suppers and brilliant
talking at the house of Taurus, the ethical discussions with
Peregrinus in his hovel on the outskirts of the city, and, most of
all, the generous and ennobling hospitality, in his city house and
villas, of the millionaire rhetorician, Herodes Atticus. About
Peregrinus Paulus could never make up his mind. Was he the helpful
teacher Gellius thought him, or the blatant charlatan of Lucian's
frequent attacks? At any rate, the stories that were abroad about
his wild youth, his connection with the strange sect known as
Christians, his excommunication by them for profaning one of their
rites, his expulsion from Rome by the Prefect of the City for his
anarchistic harangues made a picturesque background for his cynic
garb and ascetic preaching. To Taurus and Atticus, on the other hand,
Paulus could give himself with unreserved loyalty. His hardy will
responded to the severe standards of thought and conduct set by the
Platonic philosopher, while the wilder heart within him seemed to
seek and understand the rhetorician's emotional nature and
extravagant affections.

Indeed, as the spring passed into summer, all the elements in
Paulus's life seemed to confirm the glory of that day on the slopes
of Hymettus when he had first felt sure of the significance Greece
held for him. The cumulative effect of his association with older
men, his young friendships, his