of Gischala," he repeated in his feline voice, "the oppressor
John. Art thou not afraid of me, sir?"

"Dost thou meditate harm for me, sir?" Philadelphus smiled.

"Art thou, in that case, against me, sir?" John parried.

"On that hingeth his answer," Amaryllis said, glancing at Laodice.
"And here is this same pretty stranger who bewitched thee yesterday.
Know her as Laodice. Let that be parentage, history, ambition and
religion for her. She, too, seeks diversion in Jerusalem, and is my
guest for a while."

The Gischalan took Laodice's hand and held it.

"Welcome, thou," he said. "I will tolerate another man under thy roof
if thou wilt but make this pretty bird of passage a permanency," he
said to the Greek, after a silent study of Laodice's beauty.

"Let her be a hostage dependent on thy good behavior. Lapse, and I
shall send her back to Olympus where they keep such nymphs."

Philadelphus smiled at Laodice, but the shock of their recent talk had
shaken her too much to enter into this idle chaff on the lips of those
upon whom the fortunes of Israel depended at that very hour.

John looked at her for a long time.

"Amaryllis veils thee in the enchantment of mystery. I think she is
tired of me and would have me interested in another woman. She does
all things well. Who art thou, in truth?"

The Greek lifted her head and gazed with overt anxiety at the girl;
Philadelphus turned toward her uneasily. Here was an opportunity for
Laodice either as a disappointed adventuress or as a supplanted wife,
to take revenge by exposing this pair of conspirators pledged to
undermine the Gischalan. But the girl had no such thought.

"I am Laodice," she said unreadily. "What history I have belongs to
another. What future shall be mine depends on others. I wait."

"If you mean to throw me off, Amaryllis, I shall not miss you," said
John.

The Greek smiled and plucking Philadelphus' sleeve led both men away.

"Do not commit yourself," she said to John, "there is yet another
woman under this roof. You shall have a choice."

They disappeared in the direction of her hall.

Laodice, stunned, amazed and shaken, stood still. The stock of her
troubles amounted to a sum of such magnitude that she could not grasp
it clearly. The entire structure which her life training and all her
purposes, the hope of her house and her husband's, the future of Judea
and the King to come, had constituted, had been attacked and
threatened to crumble