The soft yet earnest, eloquent tones of Julia's voice fell upon pleased
and willing ears. The countenance of the Greek glowed with a generous
satisfaction, as he listened to the reasoning of his fair pupil, poured
forth in that noble tongue it had been his task and his happiness to teach
her. Evidently desirous, however, not to prolong the conversation, he
addressed himself to the Queen.

'You are pleased,' said he, 'you must be, with the aptness of my scholar.
Julia has not studied dialectics in vain. Before I can feel myself able to
contend with her, I must study the books she has commended so--from which,
I must acknowledge, I have been repelled by a prejudice, I believe, rather
than any thing else, or more worthy--and then, perhaps, I may agree in
opinion with her.'

'In truth,' said Zenobia, 'Julia is almost or quite a Christian. I knew
not, daughter, that Paul had made such progress in his work. But all have
my full consent to cherish such form of religious faith as most approves
itself to their own minds. I find my highest satisfaction in Moses and the
prophets. Happy shall I be if Julia find as much, or more, in Christ and
his apostles. Sure am I, there is no beneficent power nor charm in the
religions of Greece, or Rome, or Persia, or Egypt, to cause any of us to
adhere to them, though our very infancy were instructed in their
doctrines.'

'It is not, I assure you,' said Julia, 'to Paul of Antioch that I owe such
faith in Christ as I have, but to the Christian books themselves; or if to
any human authority besides, to St. Thomas, the old hermit of the
mountain, to whom I would that every one should resort who would draw near
to the purest living fountain of Christian knowledge.'