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They had been children together in Carthage, and the martyrdom that Vivia Perpetua had suffered in her young womanhood had impressed Pentaur more than all the agony he had seen other Christians endure. When she gave up her life, he had clinched his hands, and muttered fierce words against Carthage's gods, words he afterward trembled to recall.
It was on such a night that Father Desmond O'Connor, recently ordained, and appointed curate to Father Quinlan, the parish priest of St. Carthage's Church, went quietly and swiftly along Carrick Street in answer to a sick call. He walked absorbed in thought, and heedless of the groups of people whom he passed. Desmond O'Connor had fought a severe campaign, and had triumphed.
"I am Desmond O'Connor, and your name, if my memory is correct, is Laceby, a reporter for the 'News. If you care to have a chat with me, you will find me at St. Carthage's Presbytery, in Nixon Street." "But how did you happen ," Laceby began. "To change my views? A long story, which I will tell you if you call. You must excuse me at present. I have to attend a sick call at St. Luke's Hospital."
No more! O Vivia, Vivia!" With a groan of anguish, Pentaur looked upward, as if behind the desert's sky he might see again that youthful face, the face of that sweet Christian with whom he had been acquainted from childhood and whom he had last seen dying in Carthage's amphitheatre. Little did Timokles know how the memory of Vivia Perpetua's death hour had haunted Pentaur.
Then comes a frank and merry knave, And spreads it through the land: "Tell them that thou on Carthage's grave Hast seen great Marius stand!" Thus speaks the son of Rome with pride, Still mighty in his fall; He is a man, and naught beside, Before him tremble all. His grandsons afterwards began Their portions to o'erthrow, And thought it well that every man Should learn with grace to crow.
The mystic strain in him did not betray itself until his third period. He was an accomplished humourist and could generally cap Latin verses with D'Aurevilly or Huysmans. Tertullian's De Cultu Feminarum he must have read, for many of his plates are illustrations of the learned Bishop of Carthage's attitude toward womankind.
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