the
curtain instantly dropped. But Agatha had heard him call, and in a great
fright she wanted to know where she was, and asked to go home.--Serapion
was really grand. You should have heard how the fox soothed the dove, and
at the same time whispered to me what you now are to do!"

"I?" said the woman, with some annoyance. "If he thinks that I will risk
my good name in the congregation for the sake of his long beard--"

"Just be quiet," said Castor, in a pacifying tone. "The master's beard
has nothing to do with the case, but something much more substantial. Ten
solidi, full weight, shall be yours if you will take Agatha home with
you, or safe across the lake again, and pretend to have saved her from
mystics or magicians who have decoyed her to some evil end. She knows you
as a Christian deaconess, and will go with you at once. If you restore
her to her father, he is rich, and will not send you empty away. Tell him
that you heard her voice out in the street, and with the help of a worthy
old man--that am I--rescued her from any peril you may invent. If he asks
you where the heroic deed was done, name any house you please, only not
this. Your best plan is to lay it all on the shoulders of Hananja, the
thaumaturgist; we have owed him a grudge this many a day. However, I was
not to teach you any lesson, for your wits are at least a match for
ours."

"Flattery will not win me," the woman broke in. "Where is the gold?"

Castor handed her the solidi wrapped in a papyrus leaf, and then added:

"Stay one moment! I must remove this white robe. The girl must on no
account recognize me. I am going to force my way into the house with
you--you found me in the street, an old man, a total stranger, and
appealed to me for help. No harm is done, nothing lost but Dorothea's
credit among the Christians. We may have to get her safe out of the town.
I must escort you and Agatha, for nothing unpleasant must happen to her
on the way home. The master is imperative on that point, and so much
beauty will certainly not get through the crowded streets without remark.
And for my part, I, of course, am thinking of yours."

Here Castor laughed aloud, and rolled the white robe into a bundle.
Alexander peeped out of his nook and shook his head in amazement, for the
supple youth, who a moment before stood stalwart and upright, had
assumed, with a bent attitude and a long, white beard hastily placed on
his chin, the aspect of a weary, poor old man.