Part 6 (2/2)
Dea Flavia had remained silent and still. She had not attempted to interrupt the frenzied woman who called this awful curse upon her; only once, when Menecreta invoked the G.o.ds, did a shudder pa.s.s through the delicate body, and her heavy lids fell over her blue eyes, as if they were trying to shut out some awful vision which the woman's ravings had conjured up.
Then in a sudden her mood seemed to change, her serenity returned, and when the praefect interposed she put out a restraining hand, warning the lictors not to approach.
She bent to Menecreta and called her by name, her mellow voice vibrating with tender tones like the chords of the harp that are touched by a master hand, and her blue eyes, veiled with tears, looked down with infinite tenderness on the prostrate figure at her feet.
”Menecreta,” she said gently, ”thy sorrow hath made thee harsh. The G.o.ds, believe me, still hold much happiness in store for thee and for thy daughter. See how they refuse to register thy curse which had been impious were it not the dictate of thy poor frenzied mind. See, Menecreta, how thou didst misjudge me; what I did, I did because I wished to test thy love for thy child. I wished to test its true selflessness. But now I am satisfied and Nola need no longer choose, for she shall have the luxury for which her young heart doth pine, but she shall never by me be deprived of her mother's love.”
Even while she spoke, Menecreta struggled to her knees. Her wide-open eyes, over which a mysterious veil seemed to be slowly descending, were fixed on the radiant vision above her. But comprehension had not yet reached her mind. Her spirit had not yet been dragged from the h.e.l.l of despair to this glorious sight of heaven.
”Menecreta,” continued the gentle voice, ”thou shalt come to my house. A free woman, thou shalt be my friend and thy daughter shall be thy happy bondswoman. I'll give thee a little home in which thou shalt dwell with her and draw thy last breath in her arms; there shall be a garden there which she will plant with roses. Thy days and hers will be one continuous joy. Come to me now, Menecreta! Take thy daughter by the hand and come and dwell with her in the little house which my slaves shall prepare for thee.”
Her face now was almost on a level with that of Menecreta, whose hollow eyes gazed upwards with a look of ecstatic wonder.
”Who art thou?” murmured the freedwoman; ”there is a film over my eyes--I cannot see--art thou a G.o.ddess?”
”Nay!” replied Dea Flavia gently, ”only a lonely maiden who has no friends e'en in the midst of all her riches. A lonely maid whom thou didst try to curse, asking the G.o.ds that her every act of mercy be turned to bitter sorrow. See, she takes thee to her heart and gives thee back thy daughter, a home and happiness.”
”My daughter?” murmured Menecreta.
”She shall dwell with thee in the house which shall be thine.”
”A home?” and the trembling voice grew weaker, the hollow eyes more dim.
”Aye! in the midst of a garden, with roses and violets all around.”
”And happiness?” sighed Menecreta.
And her head fell back against Dea Flavia's arm; her eyes, now veiled by the film of death gazed, sightless, up at the dome of blue.
”Menecreta!” cried Dea Flavia, horror-stricken as she felt the feeble body stiffening against her with the approaching rigidity of death.
”Mother!” echoed Nola, striving to smother her terror as she threw herself on her knees.
”The woman is dead,” said the praefect quietly.
CHAPTER VI
”I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”--REVELATIONS XXII. 13.
And after that silence and peace.
Silence save for the moanings of the child Nola, who in a pa.s.sionate outburst of grief had thrown herself on the body of her mother.
Dea Flavia stood there still and calm, her young face scarce less white than the clinging folds of her tunic, her unfathomable eyes fixed upon the pathetic group at her feet: the weeping girl and the dead woman.
She seemed almost dazed--like one who does not understand and a quaint puzzled frown appeared upon the whiteness of her brow.
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