Woe! Woe!"
Virgilia and her mother were clinging to each other. The Senator was
pallid and shaking with fear.
"Woe! woe to the house of Lucanus!" wailed the aged woman, and would
have fallen if Martius had not caught her in his strong arms.
The slaves, frightened, had gathered in the doorway. At a sign from
Aurelius, they carried her away, while Sahira tried to assist Virgilia
to calm her mother.
"She is very aged," explained the lawyer.
"She must be crazy," energetically remarked the Senator, demanding his
chair.
When he had gone away, and Claudia was in bed, with Virgilia, by her
side, the lawyer sat a long time in his little room and thought.
What was this woe that the Old One had prophesied for him and his
household?
As the light of a rosy dawn bathed the world in the beauty of a
promised day, he arose.
"She must be crazy," he said, repeating the Senator's words.
But he did not forget.
VI.
THE FEAST OF THE GRAPES.
Sunshine and laughter came after clouds and sadness. It was natural
that the effects of the Old One's strange words should pass away and
be almost forgotten, except by the lawyer, who feared disaster.
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