“Stand back!” touching her with no gentle hand on the shoulder.
Then the lady paused.
“Nay,” she said, “do not be rough with the maiden;” and she looked down upon Hyacintha with a smile, which seemed to raise her drooping spirits, as the sun raises the head of a flower after a storm.
It was but momentary, and the lady passed on.
“Who is that beautiful lady?” Hyacintha asked.
“She is the Vestal Maxima, the very lady whom you desire to see,” Clœlia said. “I dare not speak, for the vestals must never be addressed by the commoner folk when they walk abroad; they are always guarded by lictors, as you see. But let us follow; we shall reach the House of the Vestals in a short space now.”
“Oh!” Hyacintha exclaimed, “I am glad that gracious lady is my father’s kinswoman; her smile is so beautiful. It is a great honour, I think, that I may one day be a Vestal Maxima.”
“A long time ere that day comes,” said Clœlia. “Ten years must pass ere you are allowed to take any especial or high office in the temple, and then it is not every vestal who attains the high rank of Maxima.”
“No,” said Hyacintha, humbly. “I know that well, but there is hope that it may be my honourable post one day.”
Clœlia nodded her head, and then Hyacintha, feeling that the time of parting was near, said—