m he might
do good. But Raphael was inexplicably wayward and unlike himself. All
his smooth and shallow persiflage, even his shrewd satiric humour,
had vanished. He seemed parched by some inward fever; restless,
moody, abrupt, even peevish; and Synesius's curiosity rose with his
disappointment, as Raphael went on obstinately declining to consult the
very physician before whom he presented himself as patient.

'And what can you do for me, if I did tell you?'

'Then allow me, my very dear friend, to ask this. As you deny having
visited me on my own account, on what account did you visit me?'

'Can you ask? To enjoy the society of the most finished gentleman of
Pentapolis.'

'And was that worth a week's journey in perpetual danger of death?'

'As for danger of death, that weighs little with a man who is careless
of life. And as for the week's journey, I had a dream one night, on my
way, which made me question whether I were wise in troubling a Christian
bishop with any thoughts or questions which relate merely to poor human
beings like myself, who marry and are given in marriage.'

'You forget, friend, that you are speaking to one who has married, and
loved--and lost.'

'I did not. But you see how rude I am growing. I am no fit company for
you, or any man. I believe I shall end by turning robber-chief, and
heading a party of Ausurians.'

'But,' said the patient Synesius 'you have forgotten your dream all this
while.

'Forgotten!--I did not promise to tell it you--did I?'

'No; but as it seems to have contained some sort of accusation against
my capacity, do you not think it but fair to tell the accused what it
was?'

Raphael smiled.

'Well then.... Suppose I had dreamt this. That a philosopher, an
academic, and a believer in nothing and in no man, had met at Berenice
certain rabbis of the Jews, and heard them reading and expounding a
certain book of Solomon--the Song of Songs. You, as a learned man, know
into what sort of trumpery allegory they would contrive to twist it; how
the bride's eyes were to mean the scribes who were full of wisdom, as
the pools of Heshbon were of water; and her stature spreading like a
palm-tree, the priests who spread out their hands when blessing the
people; and the left hand which should be under her head, the Tephilim
which these old pedants wore on their left wrists; and the right hand
which should hold her, the Mezuzah which they fixed on the right side of
their doors to kee