"The gods be thanked; the gods be thanked for that." The words came fervently from the Vestal's lips.
He turned on her and sighed. "What! still the gods?"
She pressed her hands upon her brow. "Is there no more to tell?"
He paused a moment. "Already I have told too much if told in vain. The island we had reached was Melita, and Publius, the chief man of the place, received us courteously. Paul healed his father of a grievous sickness, and many others also, ere we departed in a ship of Alexandria. We touched at Syracuse, and then at Rhegium, whence we went towards Rome. There many brethren greeted Paul with joy, and there in reverence and sorrow did I part from him."
"And he—this Paul himself?"
"Remains at Rome, having his own hired house, receiving all who come to him, preaching of the
