Pathema ascended the marble steps, and passing through the richly gilded door inlaid with tortoise-shell, she stood for a moment on the mosaic floor of the _ostium_ or entrance hall. Overhead, a parrot of brilliant plumage greeted her with the salutation, "Joy be with thee." Going straight on for a few feet, she passed into the _atrium_, a pillared court, where Coryna, the image of Tharsos in finer mould, met her and kissed her hand in touching silence. Leading the way, Coryna went on through the _cavaedium_, a larger Corinthian-columned court, in whose centre stood a splashing fountain, shooting its crystal stream towards the open sky. Passing the _tablinum_ or room of archives, they proceeded into the _peristylium_, a still larger transverse court or lawn with verdant shrubbery and a chaste towering fountain. Here there was a Roman lady, elegantly dressed and richly jewelled. Her dark-complexioned face was strikingly beautiful, yet marred by a lofty look of haughtiness. She walked around the lawn with the alert graceful movements of a panther. Evidently she was laboring under considerable excitement, and when Coryna and Pathema entered, her black eyes flashed out a deadly scorn. Inwardly disturbed, yet meeting the lady's look with a smile, Coryna turned aside between the marble columns into one of the _exedrae_ or rooms for conversation. Guiding Pathema to a comfortable seat, she spoke for the first time, saying, "Welcome to our home!" "I thank thee for the honour," answered Pathema, "and I am glad to come, yet greatly pained." "My brother did right," was the quiet response. "Receive, I pray thee," said Pathema in tears, "my deepest gratitude for thy brother's deed." "Tharsos will yet receive it personally," was the happy answer. "I rejoice to hear thy hope," replied Pathema with brightening eyes. "I have hope, but the physicians have little or none." After a little further conversation during which the visitor's whole heart was drawn out to the noble character before her, Coryna craved liberty for a moment to bid her friend in the _peristylium_ farewell. As she went out, a female slave entered to wait upon Pathema and show her every necessary attention. The slave was not long in her presence when she bewailed the calamity that had come upon her beloved master. Then she mentioned that the young lady in the _peristylium_ was much distressed. "Emerentia," she continued, "loves him exceedingly, and he liked her in return. Her father and mother leave to-day for a distant city of the empire, and she goes with them." Pathema was grieved, and she expressed the fervent hope that the nobleman would recover, for the distressed lady's sake, as well as his own. "Emerentia," added the slave, "is generous and accomplished--that is why the master liked her--but her goodness is not so strong as her pride and jealousy. The lady is fierce in her feelings. She hates the Christians, and more so now than ever."