e grew to be as harmonious as it is numberless.
Love and a common purpose worked this marvel, for he who loves another,
will do him no injury, and he who is bound to perfect a work with the
help of another, will not hinder nor delay him. We two have long since
found the right road, and if at any time one of us is inclined to cross
the path of the other, we are held back by love and by our common duty,
namely to shed a pure light on the path of our children."

Dorothea had never forgotten these words, and they came into her mind now
again when Petrus held out his hand to her so warmly; as she laid hers in
it, she said:

"For the sake of dear peace, well and good--but one thing I cannot leave
unsaid. Soft-hearted weakness is not usually your defect, but you will
utterly spoil Polykarp."

"Leave him, let us leave him as he is," cried Petrus, kissing his wife's
brow. "It is strange how we have exchanged parts! Yesterday you were
exhorting me to mildness towards the lad, and to-day--"

"To-day I am severer than you," interrupted Dorothea. "Who, indeed, could
guess that an old graybeard would derogate from the duties of his office
as father and as judge for the sake of a woman's smiling face in clay--as
Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage?"

"And to whom would it occur," asked Petrus, taking up his wife's tone,
"that so tender a mother as you would condemn her favorite son, because
he labored to earn peace for his soul by a deed--by a work for which his
master might envy him?"

"I have indeed observed," interrupted Dorothea, that Sirona's image has
bewitched you, and you speak as if the boy had achieved some great
miracle. I do not know much about modelling and sculpture, and I will not
contradict you, but if the fair-haired creature's face were less pretty,
and if Polykarp had not executed any thing remarkable, would it have made
the smallest difference in what he has done and felt wrong? Certainly
not. But that is just like men, they care only for success."

"And with perfect justice," answered Petrus, "if the success is attained,
not in mere child's play, but by a severe struggle. 'To him, that hath,
shall more be given,' says the scripture, and he who has a soul more
richly graced than others have--he who is helped by good spirits--he
shall be forgiven many things that even a mild judge would be unwilling
to pardon in a man of poor gifts, who torments and exerts himself and yet
brings nothing to perfecti