Agatha’s cheerful, bright spirit infected Anna, and she began to take heart, and as the Gospel story was told her by her friend her soul expanded under its influence, and she only longed that her dear little mistress could have the same good news, and bitterly repented that through fear and terror of the consequences she had kept silence, and that she had not answered many earnest questions that the child had asked her. It was too late now. CHAPTER III. THE MISSING SLAVE. There was a good deal of consternation in the household of the noble Severus when Ebba’s flight was discovered. An ominous frown upon Severus’s brow, as he entered his wife’s chamber, showed that a storm was brewing. His lady had just had her morning bath, and was crying in a very undignified way for Ebba, declaring that the attendant, who was doing her best to supply her place, scorched her head with the crimping iron; that no one could plait her hair as Ebba did; that no one could twist into it the gold threads, or place the plait in the right position, but Ebba. “Silence!” exclaimed Severus; “what mean you, to chide and wail like a weakling infant? Begone, all of you,” he said, clapping his hands; “begone, slaves, nor return till I bid you.” The attendants, frightened by their master’s threatening air, took flight like a flock of pigeons, and only Hyacintha remained. “Didst hear my order, child?” But Hyacintha, whose eyes were swollen with weeping, said-- “Father, do not send me hence, I pray you.” Severus seldom said a harsh word to his little daughter, and it was not often that she witnessed his outbursts of passion. He offered no opposition when Hyacintha nestled closer to her mother on the couch, merely saying-- “Then hold your peace if you stay, nor make a single objection to what I have to say. This slave, Ebba, has, it seems, been in league with the poor reptiles whom, by order of the Emperor, we are to do our best to crush out of this land. By the gods! it is no pleasant thing for me to have cold and scornful looks turned on me in the Governor’s hall to-day; to be suspected as the master of a household of these creatures. ‘Forsooth,’ one said in my ear, ‘the runaway slave is not the only tainted one in thy house.’ I swear by the gods, that if he referred to my own son, I will not spare him, no, I will deliver him up.” Hyacintha, who buried her face in her mother’s mantle, gave a low cry of terror. “Peace, child,” said her father; “I do not know if Casca is infected, but I will take care to stop the infection if it be so. I have set a price on Ebba’s head, and do not doubt I shall scent her out; but it is of this daughter of ours I wish to speak. I propose to send her to Rome without delay, to begin her training under our kinswoman, Terentia Rufilla. It is time--high time--and I shall proceed at once.”