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Updated: June 21, 2025
"You see I am an old man and a priest. Where do you live, my child?" "I? I. . ." stammered Agne, and a torrent of scalding tears fell down her cheeks. "My God! my God! where, where am I to go?" "You have no home, no one belonging to you?" asked the old man. "Come, child, pluck up your courage and tell me truly what it is that troubles you; perhaps I may be able to help you."
Agne felt, knew, that this stately man was the Bishop whom she sought, but she did not point him out to her little brother, for his aspect was that of some proud sovereign rather than of "the good, kind man" of whom she had dreamed. She could never dare to force her way into the presence of this great lord!
She was a heathen, and yet she had thrown into her song all that Agne herself could feel when she lifted up her heart in passionate prayer. The Christian so she had often been taught must have no part with the idolaters; but it was God himself who had cast her on the hands of Karnis, and the Church commanded that servants should obey their masters.
You know, child, that the Lord has said 'that in his Father's kingdom there are many mansions, and that in which Arius dwells is not mine; but it is in the Father's kingdom nevertheless. It cannot be so much amiss after all that you should cling to the creed of your parents. What is your name?" "Agne." "Agne, or the lamb. A pretty, good name!
Once more let us have one hour of pure and perfect enjoyment, and then we will pay up capital and interest when we must." "It cannot and will not be yet," said Herse resolutely, but she wiped her eyes with her band. "If Agne sings even, so long as she does it without coercion and of her own free-will no Bishop can punish us." "He cannot, he dare not!" cried the old man.
Gorgo's wish that Agne should sing in the temple of Isis was another source of anxiety; for if it came to that they might, only too probably, be accused of perverting a Christian to heathen worship, and be condemned to a severe penalty.
The old man started; but he instantly recovered himself and answered good-naturedly enough: "Go back to bed, you little hussy. You ought to be asleep instead of listening there!" "Asleep?" said the girl. "While you are shouting like an orator against the wind! Five drachmae, father. I stick to that. A new ribband for me will cost one, and the same for Agne, two.
Well then, if that is the case . . . Agne, the Christian, in the Temple of Isis here, here, where Bishop Theophilus is destroying all our sanctuaries and the monks outdo their master. Ah, children, children, how pretty and round and bright a soap-bubble is, and how soon it bursts. Do you know at all what it is that you are planning?
"And you knew yesterday that I had come home?" She nodded. "And yet, this morning even, while you were actually expecting me, you could practise the hymn with such a creature?" "Agne is not such another as the girl who played tricks with your helmet," replied Gorgo, and the black arches of her eyebrows knit into something very like a scowl.
The old man started; but he instantly recovered himself and answered good-naturedly enough: "Go back to bed, you little hussy. You ought to be asleep instead of listening there!" "Asleep?" said the girl. "While you are shouting like an orator against the wind! Five drachmae, father. I stick to that. A new ribband for me will cost one, and the same for Agne, two.
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