like palaces stood arrayed on each side. Close to the buildings ran a
covered arcade, and down the centre of the roadway there was a broad
footpath shaded by sycamores. This fine avenue swarmed with pedestrians,
while on each side chariots, drawn by magnificent horses, hurried past,
and riders galloped up and down; at every step there was something new
and interesting to be seen.

Rome, even, could not boast of a handsomer street, and Dada expressed her
delight with frank eagerness; but Karnis did not echo her praises; he was
indignant at finding that the Christians had removed a fine statue of the
venerable Nile-god surrounded by the playful forms of his infant
children, which had formerly graced the fountain in the middle of the
avenue, and had also overthrown or mutilated the statues of Hermes that
had stood by the roadside. Orpheus sympathized in his wrath which
reached its climax when, on looking for two statues, of Demeter and of
Pallas Athene, of which Karnis had spoken to his son as decorating the
gateway of one of the finest houses in the city, they beheld instead,
mounted on the plinths, two coarsely-wrought images of the Lamb with its
Cross.

"Like two rats that have been caught under a stone!" cried the old man.
"And what is most shameful is that I would wager that they have destroyed
the statues which were the pride of the town and thrown them on a rubbish
heap. In my day this house belonged to a rich man named Philippus. But
stop--was not he the father of our hospitable protector . . ."

"The steward spoke of Porphyrius as the son of Philippus," Orpheus said.

"And Philippus was a corn merchant, too," added Karnis. "Demeter was
figurative of a blessing on the harvest, for it was from that the house