“Of fright, I fancy,” he replied.
“Of Christian modesty,” interposed a stranger who passed them.
The Woman of Samaria, from a picture in the Cemetery of St. Domitilla.
CHAPTER XVIII.
RETRIBUTION.
“Where is your booby of a son?” was the first salutation which the prefect received.
“Humbly waiting your divinity’s pleasure outside, and anxious to propitiate your godlike anger, for the tricks which fortune has played upon his zeal.”
“Fortune!” exclaimed the tyrant; “fortune indeed! His own stupidity and cowardice: a pretty beginning, forsooth; but he shall smart for it. Bring him in.”