omus caught the old Christian by the arm and, signing eagerly that he
would lead, hurried away in advance of the two down into the ravine
and crossed to the house of Amaryllis.

There were no soldiers to stop them about the house. When no response
was made to her knock, Laodice opened the door and passed in.

Her old conductors followed her.

Amaryllis sat in her ivory chair; opposite her in the exedra was
Philadelphus. At sight of him, the last of the soft color went out of
Laodice's face. A curve of despair marked the corners of her mouth and
she seemed to grow old before those that looked at her.

Philadelphus and the Greek sprang to their feet, the instant the group
entered.

Laodice waited for no preliminary. Amaryllis' design was patent to
her; it was part of her sorrow that now Hesper would be free to the
devices of this deceitful woman. So she did not look at the Greek. She
addressed Philadelphus in a voice from which all hope and vivacity had
gone.

"I have brought proofs. Behold them!"

Nathan, the Christian, stood forth.

"I, Nathan of Jerusalem, met and talked with this Laodice, daughter of
Costobarus, in company with Aquila, the Ephesian, three men-servants
in all the panoply and state of a coming princess three leagues out of
Ascalon, her native city. I buried by the roadside her father, who
died of pestilence on their journey hither. I bear witness that she is
the daughter of Costobarus and thy wedded wife."

A great light sprang into the face of the Greek. Philadelphus,
nervous, albeit the news he heard filled him with pleasure, stood and
waited.

The Christian stepped back and Momus, bowing, approached and handed
the leather roll into the none too steady hands of the Ephesian. He
opened it and drew forth parchments.

Aloud he read a minute description of Laodice from the rabbi of the
synagogue in Ascalon; under the great seals of the Roman state, he
found and read the oath of the prefect, that such a maiden as the
rabbi had described had been married before him to Philadelphus
Maccabaeus fourteen years before. Then followed the depositions of
forty Jews and Gentiles who were nurses, tradesmen and other people
like to have daily contact with the young woman in her house, setting
entirely at naught any claim that Laodice was other than the wife who
had been supplanted by an adventuress. Philadelphus did not read them
all. Before he made an end he dropped the documents and flung wide his
arm