'gracious and merciful night' so that they may never push or run against
each other."

"I must put in a word on behalf of Pontius the architect," interposed
Verus. "He is a man of at least average height."

"Let us admit it to satisfy your sense of justice," returned Balbilla.
"Let us admit it--a man of average height, with a papyrus-roll in his
right-hand and a stylus in the left, controls them. Now, does my way of
stating it please you better?"

"It can never displease me," answered the praetor. "Let Balbilla go on
with her story," commanded the Empress.

"What we saw was chaos," continued the girl, "still in the confusion we
could divine the elements of an orderly creation in the future; nay, it
was even visible to the eye."

"And not unfrequently stumbled over with the foot," laughed the praetor.
"If it had been dark, and if the laborers had been worms, we must have
trodden half of them to death--they swarmed so all over the pavement."

"What were they doing?"

"Every thing," answered Balbilla quickly. "Some were polishing damaged
pieces, others were laying new bits of mosaic in the empty places from
which it had formerly been removed, and skilled artists were painting
colored figures on smooth surfaces of plaster. Every pillar and every
statue was built round with a scaffolding reaching to the ceiling on
which men were climbing and crowding each other just as the sailors climb