SCENE III
ABRAHAM. Brother Ephrem, Brother Ephrem! When anything happens, good or bad, it is to you I turn. It is your counsel I seek. Do not turn your face away, brother—do not be impatient, but help me.
EPHREM. Abraham, Abraham, what has come to you? What is the cause of this immoderate grief? Ought a hermit to weep and groan after the manner of the world?
ABRAHAM. Was any hermit ever so stricken? I cannot bear my sorrow.
EPHREM. Brother, no more of this. To the point; what has happened?
ABRAHAM. Mary! Mary! my adopted child!
Mary, whom I cared for so lovingly and taught with all my skill for ten years! Mary———
EPHREM. Well, what is it?
ABRAHAM. Oh God! She is lost!
EPHREM. Lost? What do you mean?
ABRAHAM. Most miserably. Afterwards she ran away.
EPHREM. But by what wiles did the ancient enemy bring about her undoing?
ABRAHAM. By the wiles of false love. Dressed in a monk's habit, the hypocrite went to see her often. He succeeded in making the poor ignorant child love him. She leapt from the window of her cell for an evil deed.
