suspicion creeping nearer, growing larger. Some day the Christians of
Rome would be enveloped in the darkness and then would come death, as
it had come in other times to other martyrs of the Cross.

Martius had only time to seize his sister's had and press it warmly,
when his father's voice was heard behind them.

"Virgilia, thy mother needs thee. Go to her. She seems to be very
weak. Do nothing to agitate or excite her. Sacrifice thine own wishes
to hers."

He was gone, and the girl looked in bewilderment at Martius.

"Dost think that he heard what I said?" She whispered.

Martius shrugged his shoulders.

"I know not. But he is right, Virgilia. Thou must wait. For a time, we
must worship in secret. Some day, all will be open to the light and we
must suffer what comes. Christ will help us."

"Yes, Christ will give us strength."

All that afternoon, Virgilia sat patiently by her mother's couch. The
change in the proud woman during these weeks of illness was only too
apparent. It seemed as if the ardor of her hatred had burned out her
strength. Her lovely eyes were lustreless. The neck on which Sahira
had hung a splendid cord of sapphires from Persia, linked together
with milky pearls from India, was thin and haggard. Her skin, fair and
beautiful on that day when she sat so proudly by her husband and