She looked at Cæcilius, first with surprise, then with anxiety; and her words were, “You, I fear, are of his people. If so, make the most of these hours. The foe may be on you to-morrow morning. Fly while you can.”

“If I am a Christian,” answered Cæcilius, “what are you who are so careful of us? Have you come all the way from Sicca to give the alarm to mere atheists and magic-mongers?”

“Stranger,” she said, “if you had seen what I have seen, what I have heard of to-day, you would not wonder at my wish to save from a like fate the vilest being on earth. A hideous mob is rioting in the city, thirsting for the blood of Christians; an accident may turn it in the direction of Agellius. He is gone; where is he? Murderous outrages have already been perpetrated; you remain.”

“She who is so tender of Christians,” answered the priest, “must herself have some sparks of the Christian flame in her own breast.”

Callista sat down half unconsciously upon the bench or stool near the door; but she at once suddenly started up again, and said, “Away, fly! perhaps they are coming; where is he?”

“Fear not,” said Cæcilius; “Agellius has been conveyed away to a safe hiding-place; for me, I shall be taken care of; there is no need for hurry; sit down again. But you,” he continued, “you must not be found here.”

“They know me,” she said; “I am well known here. I work for the temples. I have nothing to fear. I am no Christian;” and, as if from an inexplicable overruling influence, she sat down again.

“Not a Christian yet, you mean,” answered Cæcilius.

“A person must be born a Christian, sir,” she replied, “in order to take up the religion. It is a very beautiful idea, as far as I have heard anything about it; but one must suck it in with one’s mother’s milk.”

“If so, it never could have come into the world,” said the priest.

She paused for a while. “It is true,” she answered at length; “but a new religion begins by appealing to what is peculiar in the minds of a few. The doctrine, floating on the winds, finds its own; it takes possession of their minds; they answer its call; they are brought together by that common influence; they are strong in each other’s sympathy; they create and throw around them an external form, and thus they found a religion. The sons are brought up in their fathers’ faith; and what was the idea of a few becomes at length the profession of a race. Such is Judaism; such the religion of Zoroaster, or of the Egyptians.”