Fabia did not realize this fact until late in the afternoon, when she started forth, on foot and unattended, to visit a friend on the Caelian.  The half-deserted streets and barricaded houses filled her with uneasy tremors.  The low, brutish creatures that she met gave her little heed; but the sight of them, alone and not offset by any more respectable fellow-strollers, made her turn back to the Atrium Vestae.  As she hastened on her way homeward an uneasy sensation haunted her that she was being followed.  She halted, faced about.  The street was narrow, the light was beginning to fade.  The figure of a man was vanishing in the booth of some bold vintner, who had ventured to risk plunder for the sake of sales.  She proceeded.  A moment later a half glance over the shoulder and a straining of the eyes told her that the stranger was continuing his pursuit.  He kept very close to the side of the buildings.  His face and form were quite lost in shadow.  Fabia quickened her pace; the stranger increased his also, yet made no effort to cut down the distance between them.  The Vestal began to feel the blood mantling to her cheeks and leaving them again.  She was so near to the Forum and the Atrium Vestae now that she could not be overtaken.  But why did the stranger follow?

There was a gap in the houses ahead.  Through a narrow alley the dying light was streaming.  Fabia passed it, timed herself, glanced back.  For an instant, and only an instant (for the stranger walked rapidly), the light glared full upon his face.  But Fabia needed to see no more.  It was the face of Publius Gabinius.  By a mighty effort she prevented herself from breaking into a run.  She passed into the doorway of the Atrium Vestae, and sank upon a divan, shivering with fright.  Recollecting herself, she went to Fonteia and told her the discovery.  The Maxima, however, by that singular fatuity which sometimes takes possession of the wisest of people,—­especially when the possible danger is one which never in all their long experience has come to a head,—­received her warnings with blank incredulity.

“You should not go out of the house and Temple,” she said, “until there is some proper policing of the city.  No doubt Gabinius has come back for the sake of riot and plunder, and having met with you by chance could not resist the temptation to try to have an interview; but you are in no possible danger here.”

“But, Fonteia,” urged the younger Vestal, “I know him to be a bold, desperate man, who fears not the gods, and who from the law can expect no mercy.  And we in this house are but weak women folk.  Our only defence is our purity and the reverence of the people.  But only the evil wander the streets to-night; and our virtuous lives make us only the more attractive prey to such men as Gabinius.”