"The beginning is always the chief difficulty; only begin at once to model your father's head." "I have already begun it," replied Polykarp, "but I am still tired from last night." "You look pale, and have dark lines under your eyes," said Dorothea anxiously.

"Go up stairs and he down to rest.

I will follow you and bring you a beaker of old wine." "That will not hurt him," said Petrus, thinking as he spoke--"A draught of Lethe would serve him even better." When, an hour later, the senator sought his son in his work-room, he found him sleeping, and the wine stood untouched on the table.

Petrus softly laid his hand on his son's forehead and found it cool and free from fever.

Then he went quietly up to the portrait of Sirona, raised the cloth with which it was covered, and stood before it a long time sunk in thought.