"What divine humility!... Fasting has thinned him!... Look how he's sighing and throwing up his eyes!"
"Do you know the story of his conversion?" asked Garguillus with a cheerful laugh.
"He went to find Jovian, the Emperor, and I suppose, as formerly with Julian, fell at his feet...."
"Oh, no! he invented something entirely new. There was a sudden public repentance. He prostrated himself at the door of a church, just as Jovian was coming out, and in the middle of the crowd, Hekobolis shouted 'Trample on me! trample on me! I am Dead-Sea fruit!' and, with tears, kissed the feet of the passers-by."
"Ah ... that's new! And was it successful?"
"By Jove! he had a private interview with the Emperor. Oh, people like him have got nine lives! Everything turns to gold in their fingers. When they slough the old skin, they get young again. Learn, my children...."
"And what did he manage to say to the Emperor?"
"How can I tell?" sighed Garguillus, not without a certain secret jealousy. "He may have said perhaps, 'Cling to Christianity till not a Pagan be left upon earth! The religion of the just is the basis of your throne!' Now his fortune is made; and far more securely than in the time of Julian. What exquisite sagacity!"
"Oh, my benefactors, protect me! Snatch Cicumbrix, the humblest of your slaves, from the claws of the lions!"
"What's happened?" asked Garguillus of the consumptive shoemaker, who was being dragged off by two of the town police.