ened eyes on those present.

But round about she saw clear glances, full of kindness. The Apostle
Peter approached her and asked,--"Lygia, dost thou love him as ever?"

A moment of silence followed. Her lips began to quiver like those of
a child who is preparing to cry, who feels that it is guilty, but sees
that it must confess the guilt.

"Answer," said the Apostle.

Then, with humility, obedience, and fear in her voice, she whispered,
kneeling at the knees of Peter,--"I do."

In one moment Vinicius knelt at her side. Peter placed his hands on
their heads, and said,--"Love each other in the Lord and to His glory,
for there is no sin in your love."

Chapter XXXIV

WHILE walking with Lygia through the garden, Vinicius described briefly,
in words from the depth of his heart, that which a short time before
he had confessed to the Apostles,--that is, the alarm of his soul,
the changes which had taken place in him, and, finally, that immense
yearning which had veiled life from him, beginning with the hour when
he left Miriam's dwelling. He confessed to Lygia that he had tried to
forget her, but was not able. He thought whole days and nights of her.
That little cross of boxwood twigs which she had left reminded him
of her,--that cross, which he had placed in the lararium and revered
involuntarily as something divine. And he yearned more and more
every moment, for love was stronger than he, and had seized his soul
altogether, even when he was at the house of Aulus. The Parcae weave the
thread of life for others; but love, yearning, and melancholy had woven
it for him. His acts had been evil, but they had their origin in love.
He had loved her when she was in the house of Aulus, when she was on the
Palatine, when he saw her in Ostrianum listening to Peter's words, when
he went with Croton to carry her away, when she watched at his bedside,
and when she deserted him. Then came Chilo, who discovered her dwelling,
and advised him to seize her a second time; but he chose to punish
Chilo, and go to the Apostles to ask for truth and for her. And blessed
be that moment in which such a thought came to his head, for now he is
at her side, and she will not flee from him, as the last time she fled
from the house of Miriam.

"I did not flee from thee," said Lygia.

"Then why didst thou go?"

She raised her iris-colored eyes to him, and, bending her blushing face,
said,--"Thou knowest--"

Vinicius was silent for a mome