an, and at the time when Phoebicius came out to seek
her, I had never even set eyes upon her nor had my ears ever heard a
word pass her lips."

At these words Polykarp's threatening manner changed, and feeling at
once incapable of understanding the matter, and anxious to believe, he
eagerly exclaimed:

"But yet the sheepskin was yours, and you let yourself be thrashed by
Phoebicius without defending yourself."

"So filthy an ape," said Paulus, imitating Polykarp's voice, "needs
many blows, and that day I could not venture to defend myself
because--because--But that is no concern of yours. You must subdue your
curiosity for a few days longer, and then it may easily happen that the
man whose very aspect makes you feel dirty--the bat, the toad--"

"Let that pass now," cried Polykarp. "Perhaps the excitement which the
sight of you stirred up in my bruised and wounded heart, led me to use
unseemly language. Now, indeed, I see that your matted hair sits round
a well featured countenance. Forgive my violent and unjust attack. I was
beside myself, and I opened my whole soul to you, and now that you know
how it is with me, once more I ask you, where is Sirona?"

Polykarp looked Paulus in the face with anxious and urgent entreaty,
pointing to the dog as much as to say, "You must know, for here is the
evidence."

The Alexandrian hesitated to answer; he glanced by chance at the
entrance of the cave, and seeing the gleam of Sirona's white robe behind
the palm-branches, he said to himself that if Polykarp lingered much
longer, he could not fail to discover her--a consummation to be avoided.

There were many reasons which might have made him resolve to stand in
the way of a meeting between the lady and the young man, but not one of
them occurred to him, and though he did not even dream that a feeling
akin to jealousy had begun to influence him, still he was conscious that
it was his lively repugnance to seeing the two sink into each other's
arms before his very eyes, that prompted him to turn shortly round, to
take up the body of the little dog, and to say to the enquirer:

"It is true, I do know where she is hiding, and when the time comes you
shall know it too. Now I must bury the animal, and if you will you can
help me."

Without waiting for any objection on Polykarp's part, he hurried from
stone to stone up to the plateau on the precipitous edge of which he had
first seen Sirona. The younger man followed him breathlessly