to the city without a soul here being the wiser; but in this chill,
people sleep sourly. We must wait till the hour drugs them
sounder."

And so we waited, sitting there together on that pavement so
long unkissed by worshippers, and it was little enough we said
aloud. But there can be good companionship without sentences of
talk.

But as the hours drew on, the night began to grow less quiet.
From the distance some one began to blow on a horn or a shell,
sending forth a harsh raucous note incessantly. The sound came
nearer, as we could tell from its growing loudness, and the voices
of those by the fires made themselves heard, railing at the blower
for his disturbance. And presently it became stationary, and
standing up we could see through the slits in the walls the people
of the camp rousing up from their uneasy rest, and clustering
together round one who stood and talked to them from the pedestal
of a war engine.

What he was declaiming upon we could not hear, and our curiosity
on the matter was not keen. Given that all who did not sleep
went to weary themselves with this fellow, as Nais whispered,
it would be simple for me to make an exit in the opposite
direction.

But here we were reckoning without the inevitable busybody.
A dozen pairs of feet splashing through the wet came up to the side
of the little temple, and cried loudly that Nais should join the
audience. She had eloquence of tongue, it appeared, and they