which will secure your admission to one. So you come from Antioch? Then
there is the refuge of Seleucus of Antioch. To what parish--[Parochia in
Latin]--did your parents belong?"

"To that of John the Baptist?"

"Where Damascius was the preacher?"

"Yes, holy Father. He was the shepherd of our souls."

"What! Damascius the Arian?" cried the Bishop. He drew his fine and
stately figure up to its most commanding height and closed his thin lips
in august contempt, while Irenaeus, clasping his hands in horror, asked
her:

"And you--do you, too, confess the heresy of Arius?"

"My parents were Arians," replied Agne in much surprise. "They taught me
to worship the godlike Saviour."

"Enough!" exclaimed the Bishop severely. "Come Irenaeus."

He nodded to the priest to follow him, opened the curtain and went in
first with supreme dignity.

Agne stood as if a thunderbolt had fallen, pale, trembling and desperate.
Then was she not a Christian? Was it a sin in a child to accept the
creed of her parents? And were those who, after charitably extending a
saving hand, had so promptly withdrawn it--were they Christians in the
full meaning of the All-merciful Redeemer?