“Yes; you will have to begin your work immediately, I suppose. Now, often as I have visited, for devotion, our sacred cemeteries, I have never studied or examined them; and this I should like to do with you, who know them so well.”
“Nothing would give me greater pleasure,” answered Diogenes, somewhat flattered by the compliment, but still more pleased by this love for what he so much loved. “After I have received my instructions, I shall go at once to the cemetery of Callistus. Meet me out of the Porta Capena, half an hour before mid-day, and we will go on together.”
“But I shall not be alone,” continued Pancratius. “Two youths, recently baptized, desire much to become acquainted with our cemeteries, which they do not yet much know; and have asked me to initiate them there.”
“Any friends of yours will be always welcome. What are their names, that we may make no mistake?”
“One is Tiburtius, the son of Chromatius, the late prefect; the other is a young man named Torquatus.”
Severus started a little, and said: “Are you quite sure about him, Pancratius?”
Diogenes rebuked him, saying, “That he comes to us in Pancratius’s company is security enough.”
“I own,” interposed the youth, “that I do not know as much about him as about Tiburtius, who is really a gallant, noble fellow. Torquatus is, however, very anxious to obtain all information about our affairs, and seems in earnest. What makes you fear, Severus?”
“Only a trifle, indeed. But as I was going early to the cemetery this morning, I turned into the Baths of Antoninus.”[78]
“What!” interrupted Pancratius, laughing, “do you frequent such fashionable resorts?”