“Oh yes! I know very well, you are not afraid of his anger. And in fact what could he do to you? But I—ye merciful gods!—Are you quite certain that the priest expects us?”
“Perfectly certain. Aspasia brought me a quite distinct message.”
“Well then—I wash my hands in innocence. It is fearfully dark out here—I shall be truly thankful, if nothing dreadful happens to us.”
“Silly thing! The Temple of Isis is quite near at hand, and Parmenio is with us.”
Chloe closed the door behind her and sighed deeply; still she made one more attempt to stop her mistress. “Must it be to-day?” she said plaintively.
“Yes, this very hour. When the day is done in which the dream was seen, the seer’s power is gone. You heard Baucis say so.”
“Baucis!” said Chloe contemptuously.
“She only repeated the priest’s words. Make haste; minutes are precious. Go in front, my good Parmenio.”
They went down the street and turned to the right along a narrow alley, which zigzagged between high walls and led them to the back of the temple of Isis. They presently reached the vestibule of Barbillus, where a slave was waiting behind the door with a gilt lantern; he bowed low and led them, without speaking a word, to an upper room.
Barbillus—a man of marked eastern type, handsome and tall, with waving locks, like an oriental Zeus—received his guests with an admirable combination of affability and dignified reserve. He desired Chloe and the astonished slave to wait in an outer room, while he opened a side door and led the way into another. Cornelia followed him with a beating heart, through a perfect labyrinth of dimly-lighted rooms and corridors, till at length they came into a hall mysteriously fitted up as a sanctuary, and well calculated to impress the senses with a magical spell. Dark curtains, embroidered with dead silver, hung over the walls on every side, and in a niche, on a silver pedestal, sat a statue of the goddess closely wrapped in veils, while, to the right and left of the figure, magnificent censers stood on brazen tripods. A lamp hanging from the star-spangled ceiling cast a ghostly blue light on the scene.