sher in forgetting them. Promise me that, whatever happens, you will
not strike the first blow.'

'I do.'

'Promise me again, that you will not argue with her.'

'What then?'

'Contradict, denounce, defy. But give no reasons. If you do, you are
lost. She is subtler than the serpent, skilled in all the tricks of
logic, and you will become a laughing-stock, and run away in shame.
Promise me.'

'I do.'

'Then go.'

'When?'

'The sooner the better. At what hour does the accursed woman lecture
to-morrow, Peter?'

'We saw her going to the Museum at nine this morning.'

'Then go at nine to-morrow. There is money for you.'

'What is this for?' asked Philammon, fingering curiously the first coins
which he ever had handled in his life.

'To pay for your entrance. To the philosopher none enters without money.
Not so to the Church of God, open all day long to the beggar and the
slave. If you convert her, well. And if not'.... And he added to himself
between his teeth, 'And if not, well also--perhaps better.'

'Ay!' said Peter bitterly, as he ushered Philammon out. 'Go up to Ramoth
Gilead, and prosper, young fool! What evil spirit sent you here to feed
the noble patriarch's only weakness?'

'What do you mean?' asked Philammon, as fiercely as he dare.

'The fancy that preachings, and protestations, and martyrdoms can drive
out the Canaanites, who can only be got rid of with the sword of the
Lord and of Gideon. His uncle Theophilus knew that well enough. If he
had not, Olympiodorus might have been master of Alexandria, and incense
burning before Serapis to this day. Ay, go, and let her convert you!
Touch the accursed thing, like Achan, and see if you do not end by
having it in your tent. Keep company with the daughters of Midian, and
see if you do not join yourself to Baal poor, and eat the offerings of
the dead!'

And with this encouraging sentence, the two parted for the night.

CHAPTER VIII: THE EAST WIND

As Hypatia went forth the next morning, in all her glory, with a crowd
of philosophers and philosophasters, students, and fine gentlemen,
following her in reverend admiration across the street to her
lecture-room, a ragged beggar-man, accompanied by a huge and
villainous-looking dog, planted himself right before her, and extending
a dirty hand, whined for an alms.

Hypatia, whose refined taste could never endure the sight, much less the
contact, of anything squalid and degraded, recoiled a little,