"Stay," laughed Rufinus, "our friend will take good care not to explain
this. He regards it as folly, and all he will admit is that no surgeon
or student could wish for better, more willing, or more amusing house-
mates than my cripples."

"They are grateful to you," cried Paula.

"Grateful?" asked the old man. "That is true sometimes, no doubt;
still, gratitude is a tribute on which no wise man ever reckons. Now I
have told you enough; for the sake of Philippus we will let the rest
pass."

"No, no," said Paula putting up entreating hands, and Rufinus answered
gaily:

"Who can refuse you anything? I will cut it short, but you must pay
good heed.--Well then Man is the standard of all things. Do you
understand that?"

"Yes, I often hear you say so. Things you mean are only what they seem
to us."

"To us, you say, because we--you and I and the rest of us here--are sound
in body and mind. And we must regard all things--being God's handiwork--
as by nature sound and normal. Thus we are justified in requiring that
man, who gives the standard for them shall, first and foremost, himself
be sound and normal. Can a carpenter measure straight planks properly
with a crooked or sloping rod?"

"Certainly not."