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Petrus heaved a sigh of relief, for he had not till now been perfectly convinced of his son's innocence; but, far from triumphing or making Phoebicius feel the injustice he had done him, he said kindly for he felt some sympathy with the Gaul in his misfortune: "I wish the messenger could also give some news of your wife's retreat; she found it hard to accommodate herself to the dull life here in the oasis, perhaps she has only disappeared in order to seek a town which may offer more variety to such a beautiful young creature than this quiet spot in the desert."
"And the impudent Alexandrian recognized it as his own before us all and allowed the Gaul to punish him. He committed the disgraceful deed the very evening that you were sent off to gain intelligence." "And Phoebicius flogged him?" cried Hermas beside himself. "And the poor fellow bore this disgrace and your blame, and all all for my sake. Now I understand what he meant!
"I will drown it to-morrow morning," replied Phoebicius with perfect indifference, but with an evil smile on his flaccid lips. "So many two- legged lovers make themselves free to my house, that I do not see why I should share your affections with a quadruped into the bargain. How came this sheepskin here?"
There was a lamp burning on the table, and on a bench by the wall of the room, which was lined with colored stucco, lay the helmet, the centurion's staff, and the other portions of the armor which Phoebicius had taken off before setting out for the feast of Mithras, in order to assume the vestments of one of the initiated of the grade of "Lion."
Paulus, in the last few hours, was Menander again, but the lonely woman in the cavern the cause of this transformation the wife of Phoebicius, had undergone an even greater change than he. She was still Sirona, and yet not Sirona.
If he meant to conceal her traces from the search of Phoebicius and Polykarp, he must first provide her with a simple dress, and a veil that should hide her shining hair and fair face, which even in the capital could find no match. The Amalekite, from whom he had twice bought some goat's-milk for her, lived in a but which Paulus could easily reach.
Would it not be better that you should submit to the consequences of your guilt, and return to Phoebicius, to whom unfortunately you belong?" Sirona, at these words, had set down the vessel out of which she was eating, and rising in passionate haste, she exclaimed: "That shall never, never be!
And when I was sitting up there half-dead, and took your step for that of Phoebicius, the gods showed me a way to escape from him, and from you or anyone who would drag me back to him. When I fled to the edge of the abyss, I was raving and crazed, but what I then would have done in my madness, I would do now in cold blood as surely as I hope to see my own people in Arelas once more!
Phoebicius was demanding his wife back from Petrus, as she had hidden in his house, while Petrus positively declared that Sirona had not crossed his threshold since the morning of the previous day.
When I heard what had happened here I wanted to speak, but who listens to a cricket while it thunders?" "Had she a lame greyhound with her?" asked Phoebicius, full of expectation. "She carried something in her arms," answered the Amalekite. "In the moonlight I took it for a baby.
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