His presence was exerting over them a fatal
fascination. The power of action, suspended in Antonina as she entered
their ill-chosen refuge, was now arrested in Numerian also; but with him
no thought of the enemy in the street had any part, at this moment, in
the resistless influence which held him helpless before the enemy in the
temple.
It was a feeling of deeper awe and darker horror. For now, as he looked
upon the hideous features of Ulpius, as he saw the forbidden robe of
priesthood in which the Pagan was arrayed, he beheld not only the
traitor who had successfully plotted against the prosperity of his
household, but the madman as well,--the moral leper of the whole human
family--the living Body and the dead Soul--the disinherited of that
Divine Light of Life which it is the awful privilege of mortal man to
share with the angels of God.
He still clasped Antonina to his side, but it was unconsciously. To all
outward appearance he was helpless as his helpless child, when Ulpius
slowly removed his grasp from their shoulders, separated them, and
locking the hand of each in his cold, bony fingers, began to speak.
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