"Whom?"
"Hypatia!"
"How long has her salvation been important to you, my good friend?"
"For God's sake," said Philammon, "go back and warn her! She will hear you—you are rich—you used to be her friend—I know you—I have heard of you.... Oh, if you ever cared for her—if you ever felt for her a thousandth part of what I feel—go in and warn her not to stir from home!"
"Of what is she to be warned?"
"Of a plot—I know that there is a plot—against her among the monks and parabolani. As I lay in bed this morning in Arsenius' room they thought I was asleep—"
"Arsenius? Has that venerable fanatic, then, gone the way of all monastic flesh, and turned persecutor?"
"God forbid! I heard him beseeching Peter, the reader, to refrain from something, I cannot tell what; but I caught her name.... I heard Peter say, 'She that hindereth will hinder till she be taken out of the way.' And when he went out in the passage I heard him say to another, 'That thou doest, do quickly!'"
"These are slender grounds, my friend."
"Ah, you do not know of what these men are capable."