Shall we hustle him for you, Philammon ?' 'Take care how you show off, gentlemen: the Goths are not yet out of hearing!' answered Philammon, who was learning fast how to give a smart answer; and then, fearing the temper of the young dandies, and shrinking from the notion of any insult to one so reverend and so beloved as Arsenius, he drew the old man gently away, and walked up the street with him in silence, dreading what was coming.
'And are these your friends ?' 'Heaven forbid! I have nothing in common with such animals but flesh and blood, and a seat in the lecture-room!' 'Of the heathen woman ?' Philammon, after the fashion of young men in fear, rushed desperately into the subject himself, just because he dreaded Arsenius's entering on it quietly.
'Yes, of the heathen woman.

Of course you have seen Cyril before you came hither ?' 'I have, and--' 'And,' went on Philammon, interrupting him, 'you have been told every lie which prurience, stupidity, and revenge can invent.

That I have trampled on the cross--sacrificed to all the deities in the pantheon-and probably'-- (and he blushed scarlet)--'that that purest and holiest of beings--who, if she were not what people call a pagan, would be, and deserves to be, worshipped as the queen of saints--that she--and I--' and he stopped.
'Have I said that I believed what I may have heard ?' 'No--and therefore, as they are all simple and sheer falsehoods, there is no more to be said on the subject.

Not that I shall not be delighted to answer any questions of yours, my dearest father--' 'Have I asked any, my child ?' 'No.

So we may as well change the subject for the present,'-- and he began overwhelming the old man with inquiries about himself, Pambo, and each and all of the inhabitants of the Laura to which Arsenius, to the boy's infinite relief, answered cordially and minutely, and even vouchsafed a smile at some jest of Philammon's on the contrast between the monks of Nitria and those of Scetis.
Arsenius was too wise not to see well enough what all this flippancy meant; and too wise, also, not to know that Philammon's version was probably quite as near the truth as Peter's and Cyril's; but for reasons of his own, merely replied by an affectionate look, and a compliment to Philammon's growth.
And yet you seem thin and pale, my boy.' 'Study,' said Philammon, 'study.