"Down, Hylax!" And he waved away the dog with the pallium he had just taken off to intrust to the servants until his departure. "I hope your mistress has recovered from her late indisposition?" said he, addressing Nereus, who, though humble and respectful in manner and language, seemed to have a dislike for Aurelian.
"Not quite recovered, my noble lord. The confinement at home was increasing the depression of spirits, under which she has been suffering since her uncle's death."
The door of an apartment off the atrium—not the triclinium, but a small diaeta, or parlor, where the family spent the winter evenings—opened and presented Sisinnius to view.
"Welcome, Aurelian! How so early from the feast? I heard that Apollonius of Tyana himself was brought from Corinth to aid in the entertainment; and I wonder to find you here before the sixth hour!"
"It is true, indeed, that Apollonius was in Rome some time ago. Either he or the infernal imps must have been there to-night!"
"You were highly amused, then?"
"Amused! Domitian's amusements are not likely to suit all tastes."
He laid aside his pallium and wide-leafed carpentum, and was arranging the folds of his toga, while Sisinnius in a whisper told him that Theodora, Flavia, and Clement were inside. After the usual salutations and courtesy he was introduced to the last named, whose venerable appearance impressed him deeply. The hand of time had polished the upper part of the stranger's head to a transparent whiteness through which the blue veins were visible, and had scattered the snows of some eighty years on the hairs, which, like a silver crown, encircled his neck and flowed down on his shoulders. His face was bronzed by long exposure to suns in many lands. But there was about it an indescribable sweetness, and a charity beamed in his piercing eye sure to win the attention and good-will of all. He wore goat-skin sandals without stockings. The other parts of his dress, though indicative of citizenship and noble birth, were old and threadbare. The only ornament he wore was a plain gold ring, on which a cross was engraven.
Aurelian recognized in Clement the person who, some weeks before, when a physician was sought to attend one of the human [Footnote 119] victims in the capitol sacrificed to propitiate the god of war, presented himself and said: "I am not a physician by profession. But during a long life spent in foreign lands I have learned some secrets of the healing art. If permitted, I can relieve the pains of yonder victim." Leave was given; for according to the augurs it would be a bad omen if the victim expired before the conclusion of the sacrificial rite. Clement spoke in language which Aurelian did not understand, and raised his hand over the head of the sufferer, who, seeing it, brightened into smiles. He then took out a silver case from his side-pocket and rubbed its contents over parts of the wounded body; and immediately, before all present, the wounds inflicted by the fire were healed, and the victim was strong as ever. Recognizing now in the guest of Sisinnius the visitor of the capitol, Aurelian rejoiced to make his acquaintance. He rejoiced, too, on account of Flavia, whose health, dear to him as his own, would, no doubt, be soon restored by the skill of Clement.
[Footnote 119: Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities. Vide Sacrificium.]