When the bandage was securely fixed, Sirona attempted to walk, but she
succeeded so badly that Petrus, who now came back with his friend Magadon
and his sons, and several slaves, found it necessary to strictly forbid
her to accompany them. He felt sure of finding his son without her, for
one of Magadon's people had often carried bread and oil to old Serapion
and knew his cave.

Before the senator and his daughter left the room he whispered a few
words to his wife, and together they went up to Sirona.

"Do you know," he asked, "what has happened to your husband?"

"Sirona nodded. "I heard it from Paulus," she answered. "Now I am quite
alone in the world."

"Not so," replied Petrus. "You will find shelter and love under our roof
as if it were your father's, so long as it suits you to stay with us.
You need not thank us--we are deeply in your debt. Farewell till we meet
again wife. I would Polykarp were safe here, and that you had seen his
wound. Come, Marthana, the minutes are precious."

When Dorothea and Sirona were alone, the deaconess said, "Now I will go
and make up a bed for you, for you must be very tired."

"No, no!" begged Sirona. "I will wait and watch with you, for I
certainly could not sleep till I know how it is with him." She spoke so
warmly and eagerly that the deaconess gratefully offered her hand to her
young friend. Then she said, "I will leave you alone for a few minutes,
for my heart is so full of anxiety that I must needs go and pray for help
for him, and for courage and strength for myself."