Cœlia Concordia came last.
She dreaded the interview, and would fain have avoided it; but Hyacintha asked for her again and again.
Proudly and haughtily she stood by the couch of the dying Vestal. Her dark eyes looked down on the beautiful face before her, without a shadow of tenderness or sympathy in them.
Hyacintha smiled, and said to Hermione:—
“Tell her to stoop down; I want to say something to her.”
Cœlia obeyed, unwillingly enough, and to her surprise she caught the words:—
“May the God whom I love in Christ fill you with peace. With my last breath I pray Him for your conversion.”
But the proud Vestal, wrapt in the impenetrable mantle of her own self-assertion and self-exaltation, did not respond. She turned away, whispering to herself:—
“It is true, then, she is a Christian!”
Nevertheless, so greatly was Hyacintha Severa honoured, that the Council, who met the day after she had appeared before them, handed over to the sculptor the inscription for the pedestal on which her statue stood, with its high praise of her virtues and her services.