"If you think it best," said the senator, and he left the room.

While the mother and daughter prepared everything for the night-
expedition, and came and went, they found time to put many questions and
say many affectionate words to Sirona. Marthana, even without
interrupting her work, set food and drink for the weary woman on the
table by which she had sunk on a seat; but she hardly moistened her lips.

When the young girl showed her the basket that she had filled with
medicine and linen bandages, with wine and pure water, Sirona said, "Now
lend me a pair of your strongest sandals, for mine are all torn, and I
cannot follow the men without shoes, for the stones are sharp, and cut
into the flesh."

Marthana now perceived for the first time the blood on her friend's feet,
she quickly took the lamp from the table and placed it on the pavement,
exclaiming, as she knelt down in front of Sirona and took her slender
white feet in her hand to look at the wounds on the soles, "Good heavens!
here are three deep cuts!"

In a moment she had a basin at hand, and was carefully bathing the wounds
in Sirona's feet; while she was wrapping the injured foot in strips of
linen Dorothea came up to them.

"I would," she said, "that Polykarp were only here now, this roll would
suffice to bind you both." A faint flush overspread Sirona's cheeks, but
Dorothea was suddenly conscious of what she had said, and Marthana gently
pressed her friend's hand.