CONTENTS
PREFACE
CHAPTER I. THE LAURA
CHAPTER II. THE DYING WORLD
CHAPTER III. THE GOTHS
CHAPTER IV. MIRIAM
CHAPTER V. A DAY IN ALEXANDRIA
CHAPTER VI. THE NEW DIOGENES
CHAPTER VII. THOSE BY WHOM OFFENCES COME
CHAPTER VIII. THE EAST WIND
CHAPTER IX. THE SNAPPING OF THE BOW
CHAPTER X. THE INTERVIEW
CHAPTER XI. THE LAURA AGAIN
CHAPTER XII. THE BOWER OF ACRASIA
CHAPTER XIII. THE BOTTOM OF THE ABYSS
CHAPTER XIV. THE ROCKS OF THE SIRENS
CHAPTER XV. NEPHELOCOCCUGIA
CHAPTER XVI. VENUS AND PALLAS
CHAPTER XVII. A STRAY GLEAM
CHAPTER XVIII. THE PREFECT TESTED
CHAPTER XIX. JEWS AGAINST CHRISTIANS
CHAPTER XX. SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER
CHAPTER XXI. THE SQUIRE-BISHOP
CHAPTER XXII. PANDEMONIUM
CHAPTER XXIII. NEMESIS
CHAPTER XXIV. LOST LAMBS
CHAPTER XXV. SEEKING AFTER A SIGN
CHAPTER XXVI. MIRIAM’S PLOT
CHAPTER XXVII. THE PRODIGAL’S RETURN
CHAPTER XXVIII. WOMAN’S LOVE
CHAPTER XXIX. NEMESIS
CHAPTER XXX. EVERY MAN TO HIS OWN PLACE
A picture of life in the fifth century must needs contain much which will be painful to any reader, and which the young and innocent will do well to leave altogether unread. It has to represent a very hideous, though a very great, age; one of those critical and cardinal eras in the history of the human race, in which virtues and vices manifest themselves side by side—even, at times, in the same person—with the most startling openness and power. One who writes of such an era