re for to-day. We have now to think of your
journey to Alexandria."

"But it seems to me," replied Sirona, blushing, "that I am safely hidden
in your cave, and just now you yourself said--"

"I warned you against the dangers of the expedition," interrupted Paulus.
"But since that it has occurred to me that I know of a shelter, and of a
safe protector for you. There, we are at home again. Now go into the
cave, for very probably some one may have heard you calling, and if other
anchorites were to discover you here, they would compel me to take you
back to your husband."

"I will go directly," sighed Sirona, "but first explain to me--for I
heard all that you said to each other--" and she colored, "how it
happened that Phoebicius took Hermas' sheepskin for yours, and why you
let him beat you without giving any explanation."

"Because my back is even broader than that great fellow's," replied the
Alexandrian quickly. "I will tell you all about it in some quiet hour,
perhaps on our journey to Klysma. Now go into the cave, or you may spoil
everything. I know too what you lack most since you heard the fair words
of the senator's son."

"Well--what?" asked Sirona.

"A mirror!" laughed Paulus.

"How much you are mistaken!" said Sirona; and she thought to herself,
"The woman that Polykarp looks at as he does at me, does not need a
mirror."

An old Jewish merchant lived in the fishing-town on the western declivity
of the mountain; he shipped the charcoal for Egypt, which was made in the
valleys of the peninsula by burning the sajal acacia, and he had formerly
supplied fuel for the drying-room of the papyrus-factory of Paulus'
father. He now had a business connection with his brother, and Paulus
himself had had dealings with him. He was prudent and wealthy, and
whenever he met the anchorite, he blamed him for his flight from the
world, and implored him to put his hospitality to the test, and to
command his resources and means as if they were his own.

This man was now to find a boat, and to provide the means of flight for
Sirona. The longer Paulus thought it over, the more indispensable it
seemed to him that he should himself accompany the Gaulish lady to
Alexandria, and in his own person find her a safe shelter. He knew that
he was free to dispose of his brother's enormous fortune-half of which in
fact was his--as though it were all his own, and he began to rejoice in
his possessions for the first time for many years. So