Then she laid her withered hand on
Lidia's head, very gently.
"Lie down and sleep, my child, and be at peace. The Lord is with thee.
What the future holds we fear not."
There were three Christians in the servants' quarters of the lawyer's
home, one was Alexis, the Greek, one was Lidia, the scullery-maid. And
the third was the Old One, whose age no man knew, or whence she came.
V.
THE OLD ONE SPEAKS.
Aurelius, the lawyer, found his wife crying when he returned from
business a fortnight later. It was one of those rainy days, coming
early in October, when it seems as though the skies opened to let down
streams of water, washing trees and bushes, drenching the heavy dust,
which, during a long summer drouth had accumulated so much in the
cracks of the stones on the streets, on the roofs and ledges of the
houses and on the leaves of vines and flowers that even the
thunder-storm on that night when Alyrus made his visit to the temple
had not had force enough to remove it.
It was a desolate day. In Rome when it rains the whole aspect changes,
it becomes dreary and depressing.
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