t? Ah, ha! According to Chilo, that is the sign
of a Christian, I remember." Then he extended his hand to Vinicius, and
said: "Happiness is always where a man sees it. May Flora strew flowers
under thy feet for long years. I wish thee everything which thou wishest
thyself."

"I thank thee, for I thought that thou wouldst dissuade me, and that, as
thou seest, would be time lost."

"I? Dissuade? By no means. On the contrary, I tell thee that thou art
doing well."

"Ha, traitor!" answered Vinicius, joyfully; "hast forgotten what thou
didst tell me once when we were leaving the house of Pomponia Graecina?"

"No," answered Petronius, with cool blood; "but I have changed my
opinion. My dear," added he after a while, "in Rome everything changes.
Husbands change wives, wives change husbands; why should not I change
opinions? It lacked little of Nero's marrying Acte, whom for his sake
they represented as the descendant of a kingly line. Well, he would have
had an honest wife, and we an honest Augusta. By Proteus and his barren
spaces in the sea! I shall change my opinion as often as I find it
appropriate or profitable. As to Lygia, her royal descent is more
certain than Acte's. But in Antium be on thy guard against Poppaea, who
is revengeful."

"I do not think of doing so. A hair will not fall from my head in
Antium."

"If thou think to astonish me a second time, thou art mistaken; but
whence hast thou that certainty?"

"The Apostle Peter told me so."

"Ah, the Apostle Peter told thee! Against that there is no argument;
permit me, however, to take certain measures of precaution even to
this end, that the Apostle Peter may not turn out a false prophet; for,
should the Apostle be mistaken, perchance he might lose thy confidence,
which certainly will be of use to him in the future."

"Do what may please thee, but I believe him. And if thou think to turn
me against him by repeating his name with irony, thou art mistaken."

"But one question more. Hast thou become a Christian?"

"Not yet; but Paul of Tarsus will travel with me to explain the
teachings of Christ, and afterward I will receive baptism; for thy
statement that they are enemies of life and pleasantness is not true."

"All the better for thee and Lygia," answered Petronius; then, shrugging
his shoulders, he said, as if to himself, "But it is astonishing how
skilled those people are in gaining adherents, and how that sect is
extending."

"Yes," answered Vini