Gnyphon stared at her, incredulous.
But the draper's wife, having ascertained that nobody could hear them, muttered mysteriously—
"Yes!... there is a means! I must tell you about it! A pilgrim made me a present of a little bit of Egyptian wood, called persis, which grows at Hermopolis, in the Thebaïd. When Jesus and His mother on their ass were going through the gates of the town, the persis tree bowed down before them to the earth; and ever since it has been a miraculous healer. I've got a little splinter of it, and I'll break off a bit for you. There's such a power in that wood, that if you put a bit into a vat of water and leave it there for a night the water becomes holy. You'll just wash yourself from head to foot in it, and the heathen abomination will leave you like magic, and you'll feel yourself light and pure. Isn't it written in the Bible, 'Thou shalt dip in the water and shalt become as white as snow'?"
"Oh, my benefactress!" groaned Gnyphon, "save me! Give me a chip of that wonderful wood!"
"Ah! you may well call it precious!... Just to do a good turn to a neighbour I'll give it you for a drachma."[9]
"What's that you're saying, mother? Why, I never earned a drachma in my life! Will you take three obols?"[10]
"Miser!" cried the draper's wife indignantly.
"You stick at a drachma!... Isn't your immortal soul worth so much?"
"But after all do you think I shall be quite pure?" objected Gnyphon. "Perhaps the sin has so soaked into me that nothing can...."
"I'll solemnly swear to it," insisted the draper's wife. "Try it and you'll feel the miracle at once!... Your soul will shine like the sun—as pure as a white dove...."