temples of the heathen, or when their sons' enterprises and work were the
matters in hand. And yet Petrus was the son of a pious Christian; but
his grandfather had been a Greek heathen, and hence perhaps a certain
something wrought in his blood which tormented her, because she could not
reconcile it with Agapitus' doctrine, but which she nevertheless dared
not attempt to oppose because her taciturn husband never spoke out with
so much cheerfulness and frankness as when he might talk of these things
with his sons and their friends, who often accompanied them to the oasis.
Certainly, it could be nothing sinful that at this particular moment
seemed to light up her husband's face, and restore his youth.

"They just are men," said she to herself, "and in many things they have
the advantage of us women. The old man looks as he did on his wedding-
day! Polykarp is the very image of him, as every one says, and now,
looking at the father, and recalling to my mind how the boy looked when
he told me how he could not refrain from making Sirona's portrait, I must
say that I never saw such a likeness in the whole course of my life."

He bid her a friendly good night, and extinguished the lamp. She would
willingly have said a loving word to him, for his contented expression
touched and comforted her, but that would just then have been too much
after what she had gone through in her son's workroom. In former years
it had happened pretty often that, when one of them had caused
dissatisfaction to the other, and there had been some quarrel between
them, they had gone to rest unreconciled, but the older they grew the
more rarely did this occur, and it was now a long time since any shadow
had fallen on the perfect serenity of their married life.

Three years ago, on the occasion of the marriage of their eldest son,
they had been standing together, looking up at the starry sky, when