"If he thinks that I will risk my good name in the congregation for the sake of his long beard--" "Just be quiet," said Castor, in a pacifying tone.

"The master's beard has nothing to do with the case, but something much more substantial.
Ten solidi, full weight, shall be yours if you will take Agatha home with you, or safe across the lake again, and pretend to have saved her from mystics or magicians who have decoyed her to some evil end.

She knows you as a Christian deaconess, and will go with you at once.

If you restore her to her father, he is rich, and will not send you empty away.
Tell him that you heard her voice out in the street, and with the help of a worthy old man--that am I--rescued her from any peril you may invent.

If he asks you where the heroic deed was done, name any house you please, only not this.