As God hears me, I desire nothing better than to die; and I only turn out of my course on the understanding that if Augustine so advise, my children hold me free to return to Carthage and meet my fate.

All I pray for is, that my life may be spared until I can place my dear child in the safe shelter of a nunnery.' 'A nunnery ?' 'Yes, indeed; I have intended ever since her birth to dedicate her to the service of God.

And in such times as these, what better lot for a defenceless girl ?' 'Pardon me!' said Raphael; 'but I am too dull to comprehend what benefit or pleasure your Deity will derive from the celibacy of your daughter....

Except, indeed, on one supposition, which, as I have some faint remnants of reverence and decency reawakening in me just now, I must leave to be uttered only by the pure lips of sexless priests.' 'You forget, sir, that you are speaking to a Christian.' 'I assure you, no! I had certainly been forgetting it till the last two minutes, in your very pleasant and rational society.

There is no danger henceforth of my making so silly a mistake.' 'Sir!' said the Prefect, reddening at the undisguised contempt of Raphael's manner...., 'When you know a little more of St.Paul's Epistles, you will cease to insult the opinions and feelings of those who obey them, by sacrificing their most precious treasures to God.' 'Oh, it is Paul of Tarsus, then, who gives you the advice! I thank you for informing me of the fact; for it will save me the trouble of any future study of his works.