“Then why unmarried?” “For Christ’s sake,” she said,
“I have been busied with the things of Christ:”
(For none could quench that hectic “Christ” in her,
Poor fool!) Then spake Eustratius Proculus:
“Our code imperial deals with virgins thus:
Either unto the gods they sacrifice,
Or in an infamous place shall be exposed.
Come: one small grain within the brazier dropped,
And thou dost forfeit all pollution so,
Nor lose thy burial-rites.” She, blanching not,