Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/204

30 summoned before him, and charged with pilfering from the images, contrary to the edict. But he replied, "My Lord, suffer me to speak. When I entered the temple, the first image extended towards me its finger with the golden ring—as if it had said, 'Here, take the ring.' Yet, not merely because the finger was held forth to me, would I have received it; but, by and by, I read the superscription, which said, 'My finger is generous,—take the ring.' Whereby understanding that it was the statue's pleasure to bestow it upon me, good manners obliged me not to refuse it. Afterwards, I approached the second image with the golden beard; and I communed with my own heart, and said, 'The author of this statue never had such a beard, for I have seen him repeatedly; and the creature ought, beyond question, to be inferior to the Creator. Therefore it is fitting and necessary to take away the beard.' But although she offered not the smallest opposition, yet I was unwilling to carry it off, until I distinctly perceived, 'I have a beard; if any one be beardless, let him come to me, and I will give him one.' I am beardless, as your