As was her custom, she asked no questions about the way in which he had acted. What had become of Jodot and William? Had he any news of the Marquess of Talencay? She preferred to know nothing and let him guide her. A minute later they came out of the grotto together, and Aurelie, once more overwhelmed by emotion, rested her head against Ralph’s arm and murmured: “That’s really it, Ralph! That is just what I saw so long ago—on the second day—with my mother.” CHAPTER XIV THE SPRING OF JOUVENCE Strange spectacle! Below them in a deep arena from which the water had retired, over all the ground in the circle of cliffs were the ruins of monuments and temples, still standing, but with truncated columns, dislocated steps, scattered arches, roofless, without pediments or cornices, a forest decapitated by lightning, but a forest the dead trees of which held still all the nobility and all the beauty of ardent life. Through the whole of it ran the Roman road, a triumphal road, bordered with broken statues, framed by symmetrical temples, it passed between the pillars of demolished arches and came up the bank to the grotto in which they offered their sacrifices. All of it was still dripping, shining, covered in places by a cloak of ooze; and fragments of marble or gold sparkled in the sun. On the right and on the left wound two long silver ribands. They were the waterfalls which had once more found the bed of their stone canals and poured their waters along them. “The forum,” said Ralph, who was a trifle pale and whose voice betrayed the emotion with which the sight filled him. “The forum—almost of the same dimensions and the same shape. The papers of the old Marquess contain a plan and explanations of it which I studied last night. The town of Juvains was under the big lake, under this one were the hot baths and the temples consecrated to the Gods of Health and Strength, all ranged round the temple of Youth, of which you see the circular colonnade.” With an arm round Aurelie’s waist, to help her over the slippery ground, he led her down the sacred way. The great slabs were slippery under their feet. Moss and water plants and small pebbles covered their surface. Here and there among the pebbles were pieces of money. Ralph picked up two of them: they were stamped with the effigy of Constantine. They stopped before a small temple dedicated to Youth. What remained of it was delightful; and there was enough to enable the imagination to reconstruct an admirably proportioned rotunda, raised upon several steps. Under it was the basin of a fountain, held up by four plump and sturdy children, from the middle of which must have risen the statue of Youth. Only two of them were still to be seen, charming, gracious, dipping their feet in the basin, from which in days gone by four of them hurled jets of water into the air.