n can do!" she declared. "I never heard that
the gods do more than change maidens into trees or themselves into
swans for an old mortal purpose that even man's a better adept at. Why
can there not rise one who is greater than Alexander and of stouter
heart than Julius Caesar? There is no limit to the greatness of
mankind. Behold, here is a city rich beyond even the wealth of
Croesus; and a country which the emperor is longing to bestow upon
some orderly king! Heavens, what an opportunity! I could pray,
Jerusalem should pray, that the hour may bring forth the man!"

Her eyes shone with an unnatural yearning. The immense scope of her
desires suddenly brought a smile to his lips that he checked in time.
He had remembered offering his Idumeans in women's clothing for her
diversion.

Hunger for power, the next greatest hunger after hunger for love! He
felt that he stood in the presence of a desire so immense that it
belittled his own hopes. He was not too much of a Jew to have sympathy
with the ambition that dwells in the breasts of women. Cleopatra had
been an evil that he had admired profoundly, because she had attained
that which his own soul yearned after but which had eluded him. Yet he
was large enough not to be envious of a success. He was made of the
stuff that seekers of excitement are made of. If he could not furnish
the intoxication of activity he was a ready supporter of that one who
could.

"What disorder, then, in the world," she went on, as if she had
followed a train of imagination through the triumph of the risen great
man. "Rome, the ruler of nations humbled! Conquest from Germany to the
First Cataract, from Gaul to the dry rocks of Ecbatana! A world in
anarchy, for one greater than Alexander to subjugate! The ancient
splendor of Asia, the wisdom of Africa and the virginity of Europe to
be his, and the homage of the four corners of the earth to be to him!"

John said nothing. Before him, the woman had entirely stripped off her
disguise. Now for the purpose!

At that moment one of Amaryllis' servants, who had stood guard without
the door, dodged apprehensively into the room and fled across to the
opposite arch. There he paused, ready for flight, and looked back with
wide eyes. John turned hastily but with an impatient gesture fell
again to his neglected meal. The actress looked to see what had
annoyed him. There passed in from the outer corridor a young man,
tall, magnificently formed, covered with a t