'The temple! What didst thou see there?'

No answer. Pambo looked up with his keen black eye.

'Thou hast entered it, and lusted after its abominations.'

'I--I did not enter; but I looked--'

'And what didst thou see? Women?'

Philammon was silent.

'Have I not bidden you never to look on the face of women? Are they
not the firstfruits of the devil, the authors of all evil, the
subtlest of all Satan's snares? Are they not accursed for ever, for
the deceit of their first mother, by whom sin entered into the
world? A woman first opened the gates of hell; and, until this day,
they are the portresses thereof. Unhappy boy! What hast thou
done?'

'They were but painted on the walls.'

'Ah!' said the abbot, as if suddenly relieved from a heavy burden.
'But how knewest thou them to be women, when thou hast never yet,
unless thou liest--which I believe not of thee--seen the face of a
daughter of Eve?'

'Perhaps--perhaps,' said Philammon, as if suddenly relieved by a new
suggestion--'perhaps they were only devils. They must have been, I
think, for they were so very beautiful.'