Lygia seemed to her not only as beautiful as a beautiful vision, but also very dear, and, putting her lips to her dark hair, she kissed it.
But Lygia slept on calmly, as if at home, under the care of Pomponia Graecina.

And she slept rather long.

Midday had passed when she opened her blue eyes and looked around the cubiculum in astonishment.

Evidently she wondered that she was not in the house of Aulus.
"That is thou, Acte ?" said she at last, seeing in the darkness the face of the Greek.
"I, Lygia." "Is it evening ?" "No, child; but midday has passed." "And has Ursus not returned ?" "Ursus did not say that he would return; he said that he would watch in the evening, with Christians, for the litter." "True." Then they left the cubiculum and went to the bath, where Acte bathed Lygia; then she took her to breakfast and afterward to the gardens of the palace, in which no dangerous meeting might be feared, since Caesar and his principal courtiers were sleeping yet.

For the first time in her life Lygia saw those magnificent gardens, full of pines, cypresses, oaks, olives, and myrtles, among which appeared white here and there a whole population of statues.