"Pray who is that?" replied Theodore, with a smile, which encouraged the girl to run on.
"As fair a youth as any in the imperial city," answered the girl: "she calls him her brother Ammian; but once, as I rested in the gardens of their villa without the walls, I saw their lips meet as brothers and sisters rarely do meet; and I found afterward that there was no such near blood between them."
Theodore's cheek reddened from feelings that would be difficult, and are unnecessary to define. "Alas, poor youth!" continued the girl--"alas, poor youth, I am sorry for thee! but these things must be borne, sweet heart, and thou wilt soon find thee another bride."
"Thou art mistaken, pretty lass," replied Theodore: "Eudochia is my sister, and Ammian I love as a brother; but have you no news of the Lady Flavia and--"
"Ha, ha, I have thee now!" cried the girl; "thou wouldst ask after the fair Ildica. Thou art safe, then, stranger, thou art safe. She lives as a nun, and keeps her maiden beauties from the searching eyes of admiration. Seldom have I even seen her, but she is very beautiful. Thou wilt find her, too, by the Aventine; and if thou wouldst know where Ammian is, I could tell thee too."
The girl assumed an air of mystery as she spoke, which excited Theodore's curiosity; and, without appearing to be anxious on the subject, he merely asked, "And where, pray, is that?"
"I do not know whether I will tell or not," answered the girl; "it might cost the pretty boy his life; but thou wilt not repeat it, and may keep him from such follies hereafter. He has gone out," she added, approaching closer to Theodore's horse, and speaking in a lower tone--"he has gone out to see secretly a great sacrifice which is to be offered to Jupiter by the people who dwell at the foot of Pincianus: I saw him going thither as I came along; for I heard that the good old pagans--as we Christians call them--were about to risk their throats for the sake of offering a sacrifice to a god in whom they do not half believe, and I went thither to sell my garlands. As we came back, we saw the young wanderer going thither for sport, and we decked him and his horse out with flowers, as if he were verily to be the sacrifice himself."
"God grant that it may not be so," thought Theodore; but he merely asked, "Are not the laws against these sacrifices very severe here in the West? They are so in the Eastern empire at least."
"Death to every one who beholds them," replied the girl; "but since the emperor has dwelt at Ravenna, people have not been so strict, and one may swear by Jupiter, or even by Venus, without danger. What it will be, now that Valentinian has returned, I cannot tell; but I must on to the palace to sell him flowers, for he will soon be going to join the procession, and the præpositus always buys flowers of me and Claudia for the emperor's own use, he tells us."
Thus saying, she tripped on; while Theodore turned his horse's head towards the Aventine Mount: and, on inquiring for the house of Julius Lentulus, he was directed to a stately but somewhat gloomy edifice, enclosed within its own walls and gardens, and bearing an air of majestic decay, which harmonized but too well with the state of the city and the country. On reaching the gates he asked at once for Flavia; but the old janitor considered him attentively for some moments ere he gave him admission, for the person he inquired for received but few visiters.