"I am no saint!"

"Nor I neither," exclaimed Paulus, "I am full of sin and weakness. But I
know what the love is which was taught us by the Saviour, and that you
too may know. He suffered on the cross for you, and for me, and for all
the poor and vile. Love is at once the easiest and the most difficult of
attainments. It requires sacrifice. And you? How long is it now since
you last showed your father a cheerful countenance?"

"I cannot be a hypocrite."

"Nor need you, but you must love. Certainly it is not by what his hand
does but by what his heart cheerfully offers, and by what he forces
himself to give up that a man proves his love."

"And is it no sacrifice that I waste all my youth here?" asked the boy.

Paulus stepped back from him a little way, shook his matted head, and
said, "Is that it? You are thinking of Alexandria! Ay! no doubt life
runs away much quicker there than on our solitary mountain. You do not
fancy the tawny shepherd girl, but perhaps some pretty pink and white
Greek maiden down there has looked into your eyes?"

"Let me alone about the women," answered Hermas, with genuine annoyance.
"There are other things to look at there."

The youth's eyes sparkled as he spoke, and Paulus asked, not without
interest, "Indeed?"

"You know Alexandria better than I," answered Hermas evasively.