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[Approaching.] Listen to me, Julian?

[In lively excitement.] He understood me! And Libanius himself, the great, incomparable Libanius! Only think, Agathon, Libanius has said Oh, how keen must the heathen eye not be!

Trust me, this meeting was a work of the Tempter!

[Not heeding him.] I can no longer endure to live among these people. It was they, then, who wrote those abominable lampoons! They make a mockery of me here; they laugh behind my back; not one of them believes in the power that dwells in me. They ape my gait; they distort my manners and my speech; Hekebolius himself! Oh, I feel it—Christ is deserting me; I grow evil here.

Oh, though you know it not—you, even you, stand under special grace.

[Walks up and down beside the balustrade.] I am he with whom Libanius longs to measure swords. How strange a wish! Libanius accounts me his peer. It is me he awaits

Hear and obey: Christ awaits you!