Eastern lands that thou couldst forget thy home and thy friends?"

"Not so. But it was not possible for me to return. My heart yearned
for Rome. There is no place like her in all the world, in the whole
Roman Empire," he said, proudly.

"Was it thy business kept thee?" Then fearing lest she might be asking
too much, Hermione blushed. Martius thought that the rich color
flooding her cheek was in tint like that of a wondrous rose he had
seen on the Isle of Cyprus, where his ship had touched in the journey
toward Asia Minor. "Do not answer if it is not my right to know," she
added, hastily. "I thought,--we are old friends--"

Martius was silent. He had heard that Octavia was a Christian, while
her husband was not. He did not know whether Hermione followed the
religion of her father or her mother. They had never talked on these
matters. Christians, while exceedingly courageous where their
principles were involved, did not run useless risks. There was always
danger.

He drew from his tunic a small wax-tablet, and with the ivory stylus,
began, carelessly, to scribble on it, as if he had not noticed her
question, or as she might readily infer, did not wish to reply.

Hermione, slightly embarrassed and annoyed, watched him idly drawing.
Then her breath came quickly and her face glowed. He was drawing, in
the midst of other designs, a fish; little by little, it became plain.

Under her breath, she said: "I, too, am a Little Fish."