Part 31 (1/2)

'Heaven forbid! I have nothing in common with such animals but flesh and blood, and a seat in the lecture-room!'

'Of the heathen woman?'

Philammon, after the fas.h.i.+on of young men in fear, rushed desperately into the subject himself, just because he dreaded a.r.s.enius's entering on it quietly.

'Yes, of the heathen woman. Of course you have seen Cyril before you came hither?'

'I have, and-'

'And,' went on Philammon, interrupting him, 'you have been told every lie which prurience, stupidity, and revenge can invent. That I have trampled on the cross-sacrificed to all the deities in the pantheon-and probably'-(and he blushed scarlet)-'that that purest and holiest of beings-who, if she were not what people call a pagan, would be, and deserves to be, wors.h.i.+pped as the queen of saints-that she-and I-' and he stopped.

'Have I said that I believed what I may have heard?'

'No-and therefore, as they are all simple and sheer falsehoods, there is no more to be said on the subject. Not that I shall not be delighted to answer any questions of yours, my dearest father-'

'Have I asked any, my child?'

'No. So we may as well change the subject for the present,'-and he began overwhelming the old man with inquiries about himself, Pambo, and each and all of the inhabitants of the Laura to which a.r.s.enius, to the boy's infinite relief, answered cordially and minutely, and even vouchsafed a smile at some jest of Philammon's on the contrast between the monks of Nitria and those of Scetis.

a.r.s.enius was too wise not to see well enough what all this flippancy meant; and too wise, also, not to know that Philammon's version was probably quite as near the truth as Peter's and Cyril's; but for reasons of his own, merely replied by an affectionate look, and a compliment to Philammon's growth.

And yet you seem thin and pale, my boy.'

'Study,' said Philammon, 'study. One cannot burn the midnight oil without paying some penalty for it.... However, I am richly repaid already; I shall be more so hereafter.'

'Let us hope so. But who are those Goths whom I pa.s.sed in the streets just now?'

'Ah! my father,' said Philammon, glad in his heart of any excuse to turn the conversation, and yet half uneasy and suspicious at a.r.s.enius's evident determination to avoid the very object of his visit. 'It must have been you, then, whom I saw stop and speak to Pelagia at the farther end of the street. What words could you possibly have had wherewith to honour such a creature?'

'G.o.d knows. Some secret sympathy touched my heart.... Alas! poor child! But how came you to know her?'

'All Alexandria knows the shameless abomination,' interrupted a voice at their elbow-none other than that of the little porter, who had been dodging and watching the pair the whole way, and could no longer restrain his longing to meddle. 'And well it had been for many a rich young man had odd Miriam never brought her over, in an evil day, from Athens. .h.i.ther.'

'Miriam?'

'Yes, monk; a name not unknown, I am told, in palaces as well as in slave-markets.'

'An evil-eyed old Jewess?'

'A Jewess she is, as her name might have informed you; and as for her eyes, I consider them, or used to do so, of course-for her injured nation have been long expelled from Alexandria by your fanatic tribe-as altogether divine and demoniac, let the base imagination of monks call them what it likes.'

'But how did you know this Pelagia, my son? She is no fit company for such as you.'

Philammon told, honestly enough, the story of his Nile journey, and Pelagia's invitation to him.

'You did not surely accept it?'

'Heaven forbid that Hypatia's scholar should so degrade himself!'

a.r.s.enius shook his head sadly.