"Young men!" he said as be rose, "we may or we may not meet again, No one can count on another day; it is better to arrange tonight what the morrow might not dawn upon." Theodora and Flavia bent their eyes inquiringly upon him: addressing them, he said: "To you I address the words often said to me by one I journeyed with for many years: 'Be always ready with lamps trimmed. The shadow of this world is passing away. The night is at hand; but remember there is a bright and lasting dawn beyond it.' Allow an old man, whose pilgrimage in this world will not be long, to invoke his blessing upon you all." He raised his outspread hands, and the ring with the engraven cross shone out as he solemnly said, "May my blessing and the blessing of the unknown God descend upon you. May he soon gather you all into that glorious edifice he has sent his workmen to build on earth, and there manifest to you the admirable light and beauty of his countenance!" While he spoke, Flavia and Theodora bent their heads, as if some unseen influence was descending upon them; while Sisinnius and Aurelian attributed the manner of Clement to an eccentricities not previously noticed.
After Clement's departure, Aurelian approached Flavia to express his anxiety about her health. She was agitated. He saw that her face did not wear the sunshine welcome and the loving smile with which it heretofore brightened at his approach. She seemed sad, yet not unhappy, but anxious to avoid his presence and his look. Could the insinuations of Zoilus be true? Formerly when she went from home, or when she expected to meet him, she took trouble to heighten her great natural beauty of appearance and manner by artificial assistance. Her toilet table and attendants were models for the Roman ladies, who spent enormous sums on Asiatic cosmetics and Ionian female slaves to aid them in dressing. All seemed now changed with Flavia. Her dress was a mourning one of brown cloth, such as the wives of Roman shopkeepers might wear, drawn modestly about her from chin to feet, without a single ornament. Her hair was bound in no Persian head-dress, as was then the fashion with high-born dames; but was folded unpretendingly about her head, so as to conceal as much as possible the fair proportions of her full and polished forehead. Her dark eyes, usually so full of hearty affection, were not upturned as of old to his. He saw something was out of joint. Could it be the effect of sickness? If so, he would pour out all his fortune, melt down the silver and golden images of his ancestors, at Clement's feet, and beseech him to cure her. Or could it be that she had transferred her affections from himself to the young officer lately returned from Judea? Such were the thoughts flitting through the mind of Aurelian as he found himself alone with Flavia. Sisinnius had beckoned Theodora away.
"Flavia!" he at length said, "in what have I offended? You appear distressed at my approach. Who can have a better right to that affection you always professed for me than I, who shall call you by a new endearing title on the next Kalends?"
"The next Kalends! You cannot be in earnest, Aurelian!" she said.
"Your guardian and adopted father, the emperor, has chosen that day for the fulfilment of the promise you have made me. It is a day to be for ever marked with Cretan chalk in my memory," he replied.
"But it cannot be! It is impossible!"
"Why not? How?" he asked.
"O Aurelian! you are too noble, too generous, you have been always too kind to me to force me to fulfil a promise which can never bring me aught but misery!"
"Misery? Why, have you not always professed the greatest confidence and love of me? Have I done anything to lose them? You admit I have not. How, then, can the fulfilment of your engagement make you miserable?"