The Shepherd of Hermas

The shepherd said to me: Everything, said he, has been made clean. If the lord come to visit the tower, he has nothing with which to blame us. When he had said this he wished to go away.

But I took him by his wallet, and began to adjure him by the Lord to explain to me what he had shown me. He said to me: I am busy for a little and then I will explain everything to you. Wait for me here till I come.

I said to him: Sir, what shall I do here alone? You are not alone, he said, for these maidens are here with you. Give me then, said I, into their charge. The shepherd called them and said to them: I entrust him to you till I come, and he went away.

And I was alone with the maidens, and they were merry and gracious towards me, especially the four more glorious of them.

The maidens said to me: To-day the shepherd is not coming here. What then, said I, shall I[*](Hermas stays with the Maidens) do? Wait for him, said they, until the evening, and if he come he will speak with you; and if he come not you shall remain here with us until he come.

I said to them: I will wait for him till evening, but if he come not I will go away home and return in the morning. But they answered and said to me: You were given to our charge; you cannot go away from us.