"Where is father?"
"Out singing."
"In the morning! where?"
"There is some sect that are celebrating their mysteries. They pay well and he had to sing dismal hymns for them behind a curtain; the wildest stuff, in which he does not follow a word, and that I do not understand a half of."
"It is a pity for I wanted to speak to him."
"He will not be back till late."
"There is plenty of time."
"So much the better, otherwise I might have told him what you had to say."
"Your advice is as good as his. I think of giving up working under
Papias and standing on my own feet."
"You are quite right; the Roman architect told me yesterday that a great future was open to you."