Both were listening to hear if some one were coming.

Lygia repeated again and again that, though grieved to leave Acte, she preferred that all should take place that day, as Ursus must be waiting in the dark for her then.
But her breathing grew quicker from emotion, and louder.

Acte collected feverishly such jewels as she could, and, fastening them in a corner of Lygia's peplus, implored her not to reject that gift and means of escape.

At moments came a deep silence full of deceptions for the ear.
It seemed to both that they heard at one time a whisper beyond the curtain, at another the distant weeping of a child, at another the barking of dogs.
Suddenly the curtain of the entrance moved without noise, and a tall, dark man, his face marked with small-pox, appeared like a spirit in the atrium.

In one moment Lygia recognized Atacinus, a freedman of Vinicius, who had visited the house of Aulus.
Acte screamed; but Atacinus bent low and said,--"A greeting, divine Lygia, from Marcus Vinicius, who awaits thee with a feast in his house which is decked in green." The lips of the maiden grew pale.
"I go," said she.
Then she threw her arms around Acte's neck in farewell..