"Remains at Rome, having his own hired house, receiving all who come to him, preaching of the Heavenly kingdom, teaching with all confidence, of the coming of the Christ--no man yet forbidding him." Deep silence fell between them, and the only sound came from a droning that in Sulcastra never ceased by night or day--the voice of the rushing river as it poured across the weir. Now they stood erect; each was tall and nobly framed; each face had beauty intellectual and physical. Yet in the sculptor's features and his deep-set eyes there was the look that visionaries wear, the stamp of those who nourish great ideals. The gaze the priestess bent upon him told a different tale. The dreamer knew this woman loved this man, while he, as yet, had found no passion in his soul for her. She raised her hand in gesture of adieu, and moved with slow steps towards the temple. Then, as if stirred by sudden impulse, she turned to him again. "And this Paul--tell me--what teacheth he concerning women?" "He teacheth that man is the image and the glory of God, and woman the glory of the man. That man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man: neither was man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. He commandeth that women keep silence in the Christian churches, and in all things be subject to their husbands, for the husband is the head of the wife." "Then he forbiddeth not to marry?" "Is not Paul the Apostle of Him who blessed the marriage feast of Cana?" "In whom thou dost believe?" "In whom I do believe," he answered steadfastly. "I tell thee that the banner of the Cross shall one day float above the capitol of Rome itself." The priestess took two swifter steps towards him. "Then why, O Lucius Flaccus, hast thou built here an altar to our Goddess Sul?" She pointed to the pedestal beside them; and he, answering not a word, stretched forth his hand and drew away the covering that concealed the apex. There, in the fading light, there stood revealed the hated emblem of the Christian Faith. "A cross!" she cried, "a cross!" The sculptor raised his eyes and clasped his hands: "The Cross of Him who died for all the world!" THE VESTAL'S FATE. The spirit of the dream had changed. A sense of horrible foreboding agonized the dreamer. No longer did the sculptor and the priestess look down upon Sulcastra. Yet the dreamer knew all that had happened and was happening still.