could not prove her
identity!

Meanwhile, seeing Laodice falter, the woman's lip curled.

"Weak! Very weak, Philadelphus," she said. "You must invent something
better. The success of a jest is all that pardons a jester."

"She robbed me!" Laodice panted impotently. "Robbed me, after my
father had given her refuge!"

"Of what?" the Greek asked.

"My proofs--and two hundred talents!"

"Lady," the actress said to Amaryllis, "my husband's emissary, Aquila,
was a pagan. He had with him, on our journey, this woman and her old
deformed father who fled when the plague broke out among us. She
hoped, I surmise, that we should all die on the way. Even Samson gave
up secrets to Delilah, and this Aquila was no better than Samson."

Oriental fury fulminated in the eyes of Laodice. Philadelphus, fearing
that she was about to spring at the throat of her traducer, sprang
between the two women. In his eyes shone immense admiration at that
moment.

There was an instant of critical silence. Then Laodice drew herself up
with a sudden accession of strength.

"Madam," she said coldly to Amaryllis, "with-hold thy judgment a few
days. I shall send my servant back to Ascalon for other proof. _He_
can go safely, for he has had the plague."

Philadelphus started; the actress flinched.

"Friend," Philadelphus said in his smooth way, "I came upon this woman
by the wayside in the hills. I and a wayfarer cast a coin for
possession of her--and the other man won. Give thyself no concern."

Laodice flung her hands over her face and shrank in an agony of shame
down upon the exedra. Amaryllis looked down on her bowed head.

"Is it true?" she asked. After a moment Laodice raised herself.

"God of Israel," she said in a low voice, "how hast Thy servant
deserved these things!"

There was a space of silence, in which the two impostors turned
together and talking between themselves of anything but the recent
interview walked out of the chamber.

After a time Laodice lifted her head and spoke to the Greek.

"If thou wilt give me shelter, madam, for a few days only, I promise
thee thou shalt not regret it," she said.

The girl was interesting and Amaryllis had been disappointed in
Philadelphus. Nothing tender or compassionate; only a little
curiosity, a little rancor, a little ennui and a faint instinctive
hope that something of interest might yet develop, moved the Greek.

"Send your servant to Ascalon for proofs," she said. "I shall give