g since dropped asleep, and enjoined him to say: "Yes" to his
master, as he expected. However, before the messenger had mounted his
mule, she begged him to wait yet a few minutes and returned to the two
men; for she had forgotten in her eagerness to speak to them of Orion's
plans. They were both willing to meet him at the hour proposed and,
while Philippus went to tell the messenger that they would expect his
master on the next day, the old man looked at Paula with undisguised
satisfaction and said:

"We were fearing lest the news from the governor's house should have
spoilt your happy mood, but, thank God, you look as if you had just come
from a refreshing bath.--What do you say, Joanna? Twenty years ago such
an inmate here would have made you jealous? Or was there never a place
for such evil passions in your dove-like soul?"

"Nonsense!" laughed the matron. "How can I tell how many fair beings you
have gazed after, wanderer that you are in all the wide world far away?"

"Well, old woman, but as sure as man is the standard of all things,
nowhere that I have carried my staff, have I met with a goddess like
this!"

"I certainly have not either, living here like a snail in its shell,"
said Dame Joanna, fixing her bright eyes on Paula with fervent
admiration.

CHAPTER XXI.

That evening Rufinus was sitting in the garden with his wife and
daughter and their friend Philippus. Paula, too, was there, and from
time to time she stroked Pulcheria's silky golden hair, for the girl had
seated herself at her feet, leaning her head against Paula's knee.

The moon was full, and it was so light out of doors that they could see
each other plainly, so Rufinus' proposition that they should remain to
watch an eclipse which was to take place an hour before midnight found
all the more ready acceptance because the air was pleasant. The men
had been discussing the expected phenomenon, lamenting that the Church
should still lend itself to the superstitions of the populace by
regarding it as of evil omen, and organizing a penitential procession
for the occasion to implore God to avert all ill. Rufinus declared that
it was blasphemy against the Almighty to interpret events happening in
the course of eternal law and calculable beforehand, as a threatening
sign from Him; as though man's deserts had any connection with the
courses of the sun and moon. The Bishop and all the priests of the
province were to head the procession, and thus