sake." Hermas had sprung up with
these words, and as he met the astonished gaze of his hosts, he tried to
collect himself, and said:

"Paulus never even saw Sirona, and I repeat it, if there is a man who may
boast of being good and pure and quite without sin, it is he. For me, and
to save me from punishment and my father from sorrow, he owned a sin that
he never committed. Such a deed is just like him--the brave--faithful
friend! But such shameful suspicion and disgrace shall not weigh upon him
a moment longer!"

"You are speaking to an older man," said Petrus angrily interrupting the
youth's vehement speech. "Your friend acknowledged with his own lips--"

"Then he told a lie out of pure goodness," Hermas insisted. "The
sheepskin that the Gaul found was mine. I had gone to Sirona, while her
husband was sacrificing to Mithras, to fetch some wine for my father, and
she allowed me to try on the centurion's armor; when he unexpectedly
returned I leaped out into the street and forgot that luckless sheepskin.
Paulus met me as I fled, and said he would set it all right, and sent me
away--to take my place and save my father a great trouble. Look at me as
severely as you will, Dorothea, but it was only in thoughtless folly that
I slipped into the Gaul's house that evening, and by the memory of my
father--of whom heaven has this day bereft me--I swear that Sirona only
amused herself with me as with a boy, a child, and even refused to let me
kiss her beautiful golden hair. As surely as I hope to become a warrior,
and as surely as my father's spirit hears what I say, the guilt that
Paulus took upon himself was never committed at all, and when you
condemned Sirona you did an injustice, for she never broke her faith to
her husband for me, nor still less for Paulus."

Petrus and Dorothea exchanged a meaning glance, and Dorothea said:

"Why have we to learn all this from the lips of a stranger? It sounds
very extraordinary, and yet how simple! Aye, husband, it would have
become us better to guess something of this than to doubt Sirona. From
the first it certainly seemed to me impossible that that handsome woman,
for whom quite different people had troubled themselves should err for
this queer beggar--"

"What cruel injustice has fallen on the poor man!" cried Petrus. "If he
had boasted of some noble deed, we should indeed have been less ready to
give him credence."

"We are suffering heavy punishment," sighed Dorothea, "and my