Dorothea hesitated, and after some reflection answered, “She is a beautiful and vain child—­a perfect child; I mean in nature, and not in years, although she certainly might be the grandchild of her strange husband, for whom she feels neither love nor respect, nor, indeed, anything but utter aversion.  I know not what, but something frightful must have come between them even in Rome, and I have given up all attempts to guide her heart back to him.  In everything else she is soft and yielding, and often, when she is playing with the children, I cannot imagine where she finds her reckless gaiety.  I wish she were a Christian, for she is very dear to me, why should I deny it?  It is impossible to be sad when she is by, and she is devoted to me, and dreads my blame, and is always striving to win my approbation.  Certainly she tries to please every one, even the children; but, so far as I can see, not more Polykarp than any one else, although he is such a fine young man.  No, certainly not.”

“And yet the boy gazes at her,” said Petrus, “and Phoebicius has noticed it; he met me yesterday when I came home, and, in his sour, polite manner, requested me to advise my son, when he wished to offer a rose, not to throw it into his window, as he was not fond of flowers, and preferred to gather them himself for his wife.”

The senator’s wife turned pale, and then exclaimed shortly and positively, “We do not need a lodger, and much as I should miss his wife, the best plan will be for you to request him to find another dwelling.”

“Say no more, wife,” Petrus said, sternly, and interrupting her with a wave of his hand.  “Shall we make Sirona pay, for it because our son has committed a folly for her sake?  You yourself said, that her intercourse with the children, and her respect for you, preserve her from evil, and now shall we show her the door?  By no means.  The Gauls may remain in my house so long as nothing occurs that compels me to send them out of it.  My father was a Greek, but through my mother I have Amalekite blood in my veins, and I should dishonor myself, if I drove from my threshold any, with whom I had once broken bread under my roof.  Polykarp shall be warned, and shall learn what he owes to us, to himself, and to the laws of God.  I know how to value his noble gifts, and I am his friend, but I am also his master, and I will find means of preventing my son from introducing the light conduct of the capital beneath his father’s roof.”

The last words were spoken with weight and decision, like the blows of a hammer, and stern resolve sparkled in the senator’s eyes.  Nevertheless, his wife went fearlessly up to him, and said, laying her hand on his arm, “It is, indeed, well that a man can keep his eyes set on what is just, when we women should follow the hasty impulse of our heart.  Even in wrestling, men only fight with lawful and recognized means, while fighting women use their teeth and nails.  You men understand better how to prevent