As strong and as glad as they.”
CHAPTER XXII.
A MEETING OF THE WATERS.
At last the day of the nuptials came. Before dawn Ethne and Baithene started with the lectica and the cavalcade, and pausing once on the way, at last reached the great basilica of the Lateran. There the party from the Aventine met them, and Marius himself wondered at the fresh power and beauty in Ethne’s face, the radiant glow, the shining of the happy eyes. The sadness and the worn, weary look had indeed passed out of his own face, but still he felt as if the weight of the ages rested on him in comparison with her.
“It is the old world wedding the new,” he said to her with a tender gravity.
“I have been among the fountains,” she said; “we are going there together.”
“You are my fountain of youth,” he answered; “I need no other.”