what answer did you give to these
exceedingly original proposals?"

"The only one I could very well give. I said no--but I declared myself
ready, not from fear, but because we owe much to the temple, to perform
any other service with Irene, only not this one."

"And Asclepiodorus?"

"He said nothing unkind to me, and preserved his calm and polite
demeanor when I contradicted him, though he fixed his eyes on me several
times in astonishment as if he had discovered in me something quite new
and strange. At last he went on to remind me how much trouble the
temple singing-master had taken with us, how well my low voice went with
Irene's high one, how much applause we might gain by a fine performance
of the hymns of lamentation, and how he would be willing, if we
undertook the duties of the twin-sisters, to give us a better dwelling
and more abundant food. I believe he has been trying to make us amenable
by supplying us badly with food, just as falcons are trained by hunger.
Perhaps I am doing him an injustice, but I feel only too much disposed
to-day to think the worst of him and of the other fathers. Be that as
it may; at any rate he made me no further answer when I persisted in my
refusal, but dismissed me with an injunction to present myself before
him again in three days' time, and then to inform him definitively
whether I would conform to his wishes, or if I proposed to leave the
temple. I bowed and went towards the door, and was already on the
threshold when he called me back once more, and said: 'Remember your
parents and their fate!' He spoke solemnly, almost threateningly, but
he said no more and hastily turned his back on me. What could he mean
to convey by this warning? Every day and every hour I think of my father
and mother, and keep Irene in mind of them."

The recluse at these words sat muttering thoughtfully to himself for a
few minutes with a discontented air; then he said gravely:

"Asclepiodorus meant more by his speech than you think. Every sentence
with which he dismisses a refractory subordinate is a nut of which the
shell must be cracked in order to get at the kernel. When he tells you
to remember your parents and their sad fate, such words from his lips,
and under the present circumstances, can hardly mean anything else than
this: that you should not forget how easily your father's fate might
overtake you also, if once you withdrew yourselves from the protection
of the temple. It was not for not