not leave till evening.

When darkness had come and slaves brought in tapers with great flames,
both women were very pale. Their conversation failed every moment.
Both were listening to hear if some one were coming. Lygia repeated
again and again that, though grieved to leave Acte, she preferred that
all should take place that day, as Ursus must be waiting in the dark for
her then. But her breathing grew quicker from emotion, and louder.
Acte collected feverishly such jewels as she could, and, fastening them
in a corner of Lygia's peplus, implored her not to reject that gift and
means of escape. At moments came a deep silence full of deceptions for
the ear. It seemed to both that they heard at one time a whisper beyond
the curtain, at another the distant weeping of a child, at another the
barking of dogs.

Suddenly the curtain of the entrance moved without noise, and a tall,
dark man, his face marked with small-pox, appeared like a spirit in the
atrium. In one moment Lygia recognized Atacinus, a freedman of
Vinicius, who had visited the house of Aulus.

Acte screamed; but Atacinus bent low and said,--"A greeting, divine
Lygia, from Marcus Vinicius, who awaits thee with a feast in his house
which is decked in green."

The lips of the maiden grew pale.

"I go," said she.

Then she threw her arms around Acte's neck in farewell.