Like the usual Roman dwelling, the exterior was not prepossessing; but when Marcellus opened the door, the prospective view was peculiarly magnificent. The doors and curtains of successive courts were drawn aside, revealing active fountains, marble pillars with splendid statuary, and a lawn and shrubbery exposed above to the blue Italian sky.
Pathema ascended the marble steps, and passing through the richly gilded door inlaid with tortoise-shell, she stood for a moment on the mosaic floor of the ostium or entrance hall. Overhead, a parrot of brilliant plumage greeted her with the salutation, "Joy be with thee." Going straight on for a few feet, she passed into the atrium, a pillared court, where Coryna, the image of Tharsos in finer mould, met her and kissed her hand in touching silence.
Leading the way, Coryna went on through the cavaedium, a larger Corinthian-columned court, in whose centre stood a splashing fountain, shooting its crystal stream towards the open sky. Passing the tablinum or room of archives, they proceeded into the peristylium, a still larger transverse court or lawn with verdant shrubbery and a chaste towering fountain.
Here there was a Roman lady, elegantly dressed and richly jewelled. Her dark-complexioned face was strikingly beautiful, yet marred by a lofty look of haughtiness. She walked around the lawn with the alert graceful movements of a panther. Evidently she was laboring under considerable excitement, and when Coryna and Pathema entered, her black eyes flashed out a deadly scorn.
Inwardly disturbed, yet meeting the lady's look with a smile, Coryna turned aside between the marble columns into one of the exedrae or rooms for conversation. Guiding Pathema to a comfortable seat, she spoke for the first time, saying,
"Welcome to our home!"
"I thank thee for the honour," answered Pathema, "and I am glad to come, yet greatly pained."
"My brother did right," was the quiet response.
"Receive, I pray thee," said Pathema in tears, "my deepest gratitude for thy brother's deed."
"Tharsos will yet receive it personally," was the happy answer.