They left the temple, and crossing the gardens in an opposite direction from that by which Theon had entered, soon reached a gate, which, to his surprise, opened on a court at the back of the Gargettian’s house, the same in which he had supped the preceding evening.
CHAPTER V.
The fervor of the day had declined, when Theon issued to the street from the house of Epicurus: at that instant he met in the face his friend Cleanthes; he ran to his embrace; but the young stoic, receding with mingled astonishment and horror—“Ye gods! from the house of Epicurus?”
“I do not marvel at your surprise,” returned Theon, “nor, if I recall my own feelings of yesterday, at your indignation.”
“Answer me quickly,” interrupted Cleanthes; “is Theon yet my friend?”
“And does Cleanthes doubt it?”
“What may I not doubt, when I see you come from such a mansion?”
“Nay, my brother,” said Theon, kindly throwing his arm round the neck of his friend, and drawing him onwards, “I have been in no mansion of vice, or of folly.”
“I do not understand you,” returned the stoic, but half yielding to his kindness; “I do not know what to think, or what to fear.”
“Fear nothing; and think only good,” said the Corinthian: “True, I come from the gardens of pleasure, where I have heard very little of pleasure, and a very great deal of virtue.”