lia! Alas, poor girl!'

'And what, Livia, is the truth?' said Julia; 'the city is filled with
rumors, but they are so at variance one with another, no one knows which
to believe, or whether none.'

'I hardly know myself,' replied Livia. 'All I know with certainty is,
that I have lost my only companion--or the only one I cared for--and
that Aurelian merely says she has been sent to the prisons at the
Fabrician bridge. I cannot tell you of our parting. Aurelia was sure
something terrible was designed against her, from the sharpness and
violence of her uncle's language, and she left me as if she were never
to see me again. But I would believe no such thing, and so I told her,
and tried to give to her some of the courage and cheerfulness which I
pretended to have myself: but it was to no purpose. She departed weeping
as if her heart were broken. I love her greatly, notwithstanding her
usual air of melancholy and her preference of solitude, and I have found
in her, as you know, my best friend and companion. Yet I confess there
is that in her which I never understood, and do not now understand. I
hope she will comply with the wishes of Aurelian, and that I shall soon
see her again. The difficulty is all owing to this new religion. I wish,
Julia, there were no such thing. It seems to me to do nothing but sow
discord and violence.'

'That, dear Livia,' said Julia, 'is not a very wise wish; especially
seeing you know, as you will yourself confess, so little about it.'

'But,' quickly added Livia, 'was it not better as it was at Palmyra? who
heard then of these bitter hostilities? who were there troubled about
their worship? One hardly knew there was such a thing as a Christian.
When Paul was at the palace, it was still all the same only, if
anything, a little more agreeable. But here, no one at the gardens
speaks of Christians but with an assassin air that frightens one. There
must surely be more evil in them than I ever dreamed of.'

'The evil, Livia,' answered her sister, 'comes not from the Christians
nor Christianity, but from those who oppose them. There were always
Christians in Palmyra, and, as you say, even in the palace, yet there
was always peace and good-will too. If Christianity were in itself an
element of discord and division, why were no such effects seen there?
The truth is, Livia, the division and discord are created, not by the
new religion, but by those who resist it, and will not suffer people to
act and