Goisvintha was nowhere to be seen.
Not duped by the woman's sudden disappearance into the belief that she
had departed from the street--persisting in his resolution to lead his
daughter to a place of repose, where she might most immediately feel
herself secure, and might therefore most readily recover her self-
possession, Numerian drew Antonina with him into the temple. He
lingered there for a moment, ere he departed to watch the street from
the portico outside.
The light in the building was dim,--it was admitted only from a small
aperture in the roof, and through the narrow doorway, where it was
intercepted by the overhanging bulk of the outer portico. A crooked pile
of dark heavy-looking substances on the floor, rose high towards the
ceiling in the obscure interior. Irregular in form, flung together one
over the other in strange disorder, for the most part dusky in hue, yet
here and there gleaming at points with a metallic brightness, these
objects presented a mysterious, indefinite, and startling appearance.
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