merchant and
sculptor exchanging angry looks.

But the sculptor knowing more of Joseph than the merchant--that he would
be passing through the lane on the morrow at the same time--and as the
boy's beauty was of great importance to him, kept another tryst, waiting
impatiently, and as soon as Joseph appeared he began to beseech him to
come to Tiberias and pose in his studio for a statue he was carving,
offering presents that would have shaken many determinations. But Joseph
was as firm to-day as he was yesterday. I must be going on to my Hebrew,
he said, and he left the sculptor cast away in dreams. He had not gone
very far, however, before he met the merchant, who happened to be
passing through the lane again, and seeing Joseph his eyes lighted up
with pleasure, and after speaking to him he dismounted from his mule and
showed him a beautiful engraved dagger which Joseph desired ardently;
but a present so rich he did not care to accept, and hurried away, nor
did he look back, so busy was he inventing reasons as he went for the
delay.

I do not deny, Sir, that I'm past my time, but not by an hour; at most
by half an hour. Playing at ball again, and in the purlieus of the
neighbourhood, against your father's instructions! Azariah said, his
face full of storm. No, Sir, I have put ball-playing out of my mind; or
Hebrew has put it out of my mind, and Greek too has had a say in the
matter. The delay was caused by meeting a sculptor who asked me to pose
before him for a statue. And what was thy answer to him? That we were
forbidden by our laws to look upon graven images. And what answer did he
give to that very proper answer? Azariah asked, somewhat softened. Many
answers, Sir, and among them was this one: that there was no need for me
to look upon the statue he was carving. The answer that one might expect
from a Greek, Azariah rapped out, one that sets me thinking that there
is more to be said against the Greek language than I cared to admit to
thy father when last in argument with him on the subject. But, Sir, you
will not forbid me the reading of Menander for no better reason than
that a Greek asked that he might carve a statue after me, for what am I
to blame, since yourself said my answer was commendable? And in these
words there was so plaintive an accent that Azariah's heart was touched,
for he guessed that the diverting scene in which the slave arranges for
a meeting between the lovers was in the boy's mind.

At that