“A Christian meeting-house,” replied Andreas, and his expressive face darkened.  “But those who assemble there are aliens to me; they follow evil heresies.  But never mind—­they also call themselves Christians, and the words which led you to ponder, stand to me at the very gate of the doctrine of our divine master, like the obelisks before the door of an Egyptian temple.  Paul, the great preacher of the faith, wrote them to the Galatians.  They are easy to understand; nay, any one who looks about him with his eyes open, or searches his own soul, can scarcely fail to see their meaning, if only the desire is roused in him for something better than what these cursed times can give us who live in them.”

“Then it means that we are on the eve of great changes?”

“Yes!” cried Andreas, “only the word you use is too feeble.  The old dull sun must set, to rise again with greater glory.”

Ill at ease, and by no means convinced, Melissa looked her excited companion in the face as she replied: 

“Of course I know, Andreas, that you speak figuratively, for the sun which lights the day seems to me bright enough; and is not everything flourishing in this gay, busy city?  Are not its citizens under the protection of the law?  Were the gods ever more zealously worshiped?  Is my father wrong when he says that it is a proud thing to belong to the mightiest realm on earth, before whose power barbarians tremble; a great thing to feel and call yourself a Roman citizen?”

So far Andreas had listened to her with composure, but he here interrupted, in a tone of scorn “Oh, yes!  Caesar has made your father, and your neighbor Skopas, and every free man in the country a Roman citizen; but it is a pity that, while he gave each man his patent of citizenship, he should have filched the money out of his purse.”

“Apion, the dealer, was saying something to that effect the other day, and I dare say it is true.  But I can not be persuaded against the evidence of my own eyes, and they light on many good and pleasant things.  If only you had been with us to the Nekropolis yesterday!  Every man was honoring the gods after his own manner.  Some, indeed, were grave enough; still, cheerfulness won the day among the people.  Most of them were full of the god.  I myself, who generally live so quietly, was infected as the mystics came back from Eleusis, and we joined their ranks.”

“’Till the spy Zminis spoiled your happiness and imperiled your brother’s life for a careless speech.”

“Very true!”

“And what your brother heedlessly proclaimed,” Andreas went on, with flashing eyes, “the very sparrows twitter on the house-tops.  It is the truth.  The sovereign of the Roman Empire is a thousand times a murderer.  Some he sent to precede his own brother, and they were followed by all—­twenty thousand, it is said—­who were attached to the hapless Geta, or who even spoke his name.  This is the lord and master to whom we owe obedience