“But?” he repeated, and he put his big, sun-burnt face close to hers, looking as if he could break her in pieces.

“But it cannot be, for your sake; it must not be, positively, certainly.  I will not make you so bad a return for all your kindness.  What! have you forgotten what I was, what I am?  You, as a freeman, will soon have a nice little estate at home, and may command respect and reverence from all; but how different it would be if you had a wife like me at your heels—­if only from the fact that I was once a slave.”

“That is the history of it all!” he interrupted, and his brow cleared.  “That is what is troubling your dear little soul!  But do you not know who and what I am?  Have I not told you what a Masdakite is?

[Eutychius, Bishop of Alexandria thus describes the communistic doctrine of Masdak:  “God has given to men on earth that which is of the earth to the end that it may be divided equally among them, and that no more falls to the lot of one than another.  And if one hath more than is seemly of money or wives or slaves or movable goods, we will take it from him to the end that he and the rest may be equal.”]

We Masdakites believe, nay, we know, that all men are born equal, and that this mad-cap world would be a better place if there were neither masters nor servants; however, as things are, so they must remain.  The great Lord of Heaven will suffer it yet for a season; but sooner or later, perhaps very soon, everything will be quite different, and it is our business to make ready for the day of equality.  Then Paradise will return on earth; there will be none greater or less than another, but we shall all walk hand-in-hand and stand by each other on an equal footing.  Then shall war and misery cease; for all that is fair and good on earth belongs to all men in common; and then all men shall be as willing to give and to help others, as they now are to seize and to oppress.—­We have no marriage bond like other people; but when a man loves a woman he says, ‘Will you be mine?’ and if her heart consents she follows him home; and one may quit the other if love grows cold.  Still, no married couple, whether Christian or Parsee, ever clung together more faithfully than my parents or my grandparents; and we will do the same to the end, for our love will bind us firmly together with strong cords that will last longer than our lives.—­So now you know the doctrine of our master Masdak; my father and grandfather both followed it, and I was taught it by my mother when I was a little child.  All in our village were Masdakites; and there was not a slave in the place; the land belonged to all in common and was tilled by all, and the harvest was equally shared.  However, they no longer receive strangers, and I must seek for fellow-believers elsewhere.  Still, a Masdakite I shall always remain; and, if I were to take a slave for my wife, I should only be acting on the precepts of the master and helping them