the rehearsal she had gone through yesterday, since, to all appearance,
her cooperation at the festival had been altogether given up. How could
the girl guess that the venerable philosopher, who had listened with
breathless admiration to their joint performance, had taken upon himself
to dissipate her doubts and persuade her into compliance?

Olympius laid the greatest stress on Agne's assistance, for every one who
clung to the worship of the old gods was to assemble in the sanctuary of
Isis; and the more brilliant and splendid the ceremony could be made the
more would that enthusiasm be fired which, only too soon, would be put to
crucial proof. On quitting the temple the crowd of worshippers, all in
holiday garb, were to pass in front of the Prefect's residence, and if
only they could effect this great march through the city in the right
frame of mind, it might confidently be expected that every one who was
not avowedly Jew or Christian, would join the procession. It would thus
become a demonstration of overwhelming magnitude and Cynegius, the
Emperor's representative, could not fail to see what the feeling was
of the majority of the towns folk, and what it was to drive matters
to extremes and lay hands on the chief temples of such a city.

To Olympius the orator, grown grey in the exercise of logic and
eloquence, it seemed but a small matter to confute the foolish doubts of
a wilful girl. He would sweep her arguments to the winds as the storm
drives the clouds before it; and any one who had seen the two together--
the fine old man with the face and front of Zeus, with his thoughtful
brow and broad chest, who could pour forth a flood of eloquence
fascinatingly persuasive or convincingly powerful, and the modest, timid
girl--could not have doubted on which side the victory must be.

To-day, for the first time, Olympius had found leisure for a prolonged