e, to all who knew Paulus and Sirona; and
nevertheless no one, not even the senator, doubted it for an instant.
Dame Dorothea only shook her head incredulously, and though she could
find no explanation for the occurrence, she still could not but say to
herself, that this man did not look like a lover, and that Sirona would
hardly have forgotten her duty for his sake. She could not indeed bring
herself to believe in Sirona's guilt at all, for she was heartily well
disposed towards her; besides--though it, no doubt, was not right--her
motherly vanity inclined her to believe that if the handsome young
woman had indeed sinned, she would have preferred her fine tall
Polykarp--whose roses and flaming glances she blamed in all
sincerity--to this shaggy, wild-looking graybeard.

Quite otherwise thought the centurion. He was quite ready to believe
in the anchorite's confession, for the more unworthy the man for whom
Sirona had broken faith, the greater seemed her guilt, and the more
unpardonable her levity; and to his man's vanity it seemed to him
easier--particularly in the presence of such witnesses as Petrus and
Dorothea--to bear the fact that his wife should have sought variety
and pleasure at any cost, even at that of devoting herself to a ragged
beggar, than that she should have given her affections to a younger,
handsomer, and worthier man than himself. He had sinned much against
her, but all that lay like feathers on his side of the scales, while
that which she had done weighed down hers like a load of lead. He began
to feel like a man who, in wading through a bog, has gained firm ground
with one foot, and all these feelings gave him energy to walk up to the
anchorite with a self-control, of which he was not generally master,
excepting when on duty at the head of his soldiers.

He approached the Alexandrian with an assumption of dignity and a
demeanor which testified to his formerly having taken part in the
representations of tragedies in the theatres of great cities. Paulus,
on his part, did not retreat by a single step, but looked at him with
a smile that alarmed Petrus and the rest of the bystanders. The law put
the anchorite absolutely into the power of the outraged husband, but
Phoebicius did not seem disposed to avail himself of his rights, and
nothing but contempt and loathing were perceptible in his tone, as he
said:

"A man who takes hold of a mangy dog in order to punish him, only
dirties his hand. The woman