hand on our
shoulder, every breath we draw is a boon of mercy--the extra length
given in by the weaver, the hour of grace granted by the hangman to his
victim! Our lives are no longer our own, a borrowed purse with damaged
copper coins. The hard-hearted creditor has already bent his knuckles,
and when he knocks the time is up. Once more let us have one hour of
pure and perfect enjoyment, and then we will pay up capital and interest
when we must."

"It cannot and will not be yet," said Herse resolutely, but she wiped
her eyes with her band. "If Agne sings even, so long as she does it
without coercion and of her own free-will no Bishop can punish us."

"He cannot, he dare not!" cried the old man. "There are still laws and
judges."

"And Gorgo's family is influential as well as rich. Porphyrius has power
to protect us, and you do not yet know what a fancy he has taken to us.
Ask mother."

"It is like a story," Herse put in. "Before we left, the old lady--she
must be eighty or more--took me aside and asked me where we were
lodging. I told her at the Widow Mary's and when she heard it she struck
her crutch on the floor. 'Do you like the place?' she asked. I told her
not at all, and said we could not possibly stop here."

"Quite right!" cried Karnis. "The monks in the court-yard will kill us
as dead as rats if they hear us learning heathen hymns."

"That is what I told her; but the old lady did not allow me to finish;
she drew me close to her and whispered, 'only do as my granddaughter
wishes and you shall be safely housed and take this for the
present'--and she put her hand into the purse at her girdle, gave the
gold into my hand, and added loud enough for the others to hear: 'Fifty
gold pieces out of my own pocket if Gorgo tells me that she is satisfied
with your performance.'"

"Fifty gold pieces!" cried Karnis clasping his hands. "That brightens
up the dull grey of existence. Fifty, then, are certain. If we sing six
times that makes a talent--[estimated in 1880 at $1100]--and that will
buy back our old vineyard at Leontium. I will repair the old Odeum--they
have made a cowhouse of it--and when we sing there the monks may come
and listen! You laugh? But you are simpletons--I should like to see who
will forbid my singing on my own land and in my own country. A talent of
gold!

"It is quite enough to pay on account, and I will not agree to any
bargain that will not give me the field-slaves and cattle. Castles in