The young man, whose name was Philostratus, made his way to the monastery of Germanus, and he found the old man sitting in the porch, reading. He fell at his feet, and declared himself a sinner, who desired to amend his life. Germanus looked hard at him, and a certain wantonness of the eye made him hesitate about receiving him. "We are all old men here," said he; "and are not the proper advisers and guides of a hot-headed, fire-blooded youth. Go elsewhere my son, and get a director who is nearer thine age." "My father!" exclaimed the dissembler, "How cans't thou reject me, after that thou hast received Eudocia. She has passed through the fires of temptation such as assail youth, and could well advise me. Let her give me some counsel, and I will go my way strengthened thereby." Germanus had acted somewhat injudiciously in appointing a reclaimed harlot to be superior of a sisterhood after only thirteen months' probation; he now committed another indiscretion in allowing the strange monk ingress into the convent. But he was guileless himself, and thought no evil of another, so he listened to the petition of Philostratus, and calling to him the monk who offered the incense in the convent, and was, therefore, allowed to enter it, bade him take with him the stranger, and give him audience of the superior. So Philostratus was led back to the convent, and the door was opened, and he was admitted into the room of Eudocia, some of the sisters standing afar off, according to the rule of the house, to witness the meeting, though out of hearing of the conversation. Then Philostratus looked at the sordid room, and the horsehair cover thrown over the pallet bed, and the haggard cheeks and sunken eyes of his former mistress, and he burst forth into entreaties that she would leave this wretched life of constant self-watching and self-denial, and return to the gaiety of city life, smart gowns, and pearl necklaces, costly feasts, and obsequious admirers. "All Heliopolis awaits thee," he urged, "ready once more to lavish on thee its gold and its adulation; return once more to the raptures and liberty of a life of pleasure." But she had chosen that better part which was not to be taken away from her, and she resisted all his persuasion, and dismissed him, startled, humbled, and resolved to lead a better life.