GEORGE MOORE
61
apoLLOs: If there be scars on the hands and feet of the shepherd, he will find believers.
EUNICE: It would seem that a shepherd's tale has power over much learning, Apollos.
(Enter Timothy.)
TIMOTHY: Probus has come, laden with hampers, and asks for leave to lay the table.
EUNICE: For whom?
timoTHY: His orders, he said, were taken from Julius, the centurion, who would mark Paul's return with a feast.
eUNICE: Grief makes me forgetful of my housekeeping; and may- hap Julius has news of Paul's return. (Enter Probus, a hamper on his shoulder. Exit Timothy. Eunice turns to Probus.) If Julius has no news of Paul, his feast will be wasted.
PROBUs: Not if I may open this hamper, Lady, so full is it of delicacies, the very show of which, I'll warrant, will awaken thy appetite. (Eunice signifies dissent.) The hamper is heavy, Lady, and the stairs are steep. I would not have the charge of carrying it back again unlightened. (Eunice again signifies dissent.) But, Lady, I did not say that Julius was without news of Paul. In an hour or less—
EUNICE: Then why have we been kept waiting for thy news?
prOBUS: I have only just come, Lady.
EUNICE: Ah! torment me not, but tell me quickly—where is Paul, and how knowest thou that he is on his way to us? Didst say he would be here in an hour?
PROBUS: I said in less than an hour, Lady; and as I lay the feast to bid him welcome I'll tell thee how—
EUNICE: The opening of hampers delays the news I would hear quickly . . . now.
PROBUS: A letter was brought in this morning by a shepherd to Julius the centurion, my master; whereupon we went to Festus, and the twain read the letter together.
EUNICE: Whose letter?
PROBUS: Why, Paul's letter. Of whom else should I speak?
EUNICE: And what was said in the letter?
PROBUS: The letter was mumbled over between them, and all I heard was that Paul was lying footsore on the hills and asked for a litter to bring him hither.
