ll of my pupils. Unworthy as they are,
I owe it to myself and to philosophy to tell them why I leave them.'

'It will be too dangerous--indeed it will!'

'I could take the guards with me, then. And yet--no.... They shall never
have occasion to impute fear to the philosopher. Let them see her go
forth as usual on her errand, strong in the courage of innocence,
secure in the protection of the gods. So, perhaps, some sacred awe, some
suspicion of her divineness, may fall on them at last.'

'I must go with you.'

'No, I go alone. You might incur danger where I am safe. After all, I am
a woman.... And, fierce as they are, they will not dare to harm me.'

The old man shook his head.

'Look now,' she said smilingly, laying her hands on his shoulders, and
looking into his face.... 'You tell me that I am beautiful, you know;
and beauty will tame the lion. Do you not think that this face might
disarm even a monk?'

And she laughed and blushed so sweetly, that the old man forgot his
fears, as she intended that he should, and kissed her and went his
way for the time being, to command all manner of hospitalities to the
soldiers, whom he prudently determined to keep in his house as long as
he could make them stay there; in pursuance of which wise purpose he
contrived not to see a great deal of pleasant flirtation between his
valiant defenders and Hypatia's maids, who, by no means so prudish as
their mistress, welcomed as a rare boon from heaven an afternoon's chat
with twenty tall men of war.

So they jested and laughed below, while old Theon, having brought out
the very best old wine, and actually proposed in person, by way of
mending matters, the health of the Emperor of Africa, locked himself
into the library, and comforted his troubled soul with a tough problem
of astronomy, which had been haunting him the whole day, even in the
theatre itself. But Hypatia sat still in her chamber, her face buried in
her hands, her heart full of many thoughts; her eyes of tears. She had
smiled away her father's fears; she could not smile away her own.

She felt, she hardly knew why, but she felt as clearly as if a god had
proclaimed it to her bodily ears, that the crisis of her life was come:
that her political and active career was over, and that she must now be
content to be for herself, and in herself alone, all that she was, or
might become. The world might be regenerated: but not in her day;--the
gods restored; but not by her. It w