"Lady, I heard in the synagogue at Emmaus to-day the exclusion that is
laid upon you for seven days. This is a hungry country and no man
should waste food. I shall enter Jerusalem to-morrow by daybreak; we,
my companion and I, have no further use for these. They are Milesian
ducks, fattened on nuts. And this is Falernian--Roman. I pray you,
allow me to leave them with your servant with my obeisances."
Without waiting for her reply the Maccabee passed fowls and skin into
the hands of Momus who stood near.
"Sir," she answered unreadily, with her small hands gripping each
other before her and her eyes veiled, "I thank you. It was not the
least of my anxieties how we should provide ourselves with food under
prohibition and in a country perilous with war. You have made
to-morrow easy for us. I thank you."
"To-morrow; yes," he argued, seizing upon a discussion for an excuse
to remain, "but the next day, and the next five days, what shall you
do?"
"Perchance," she said gravely, "God will send us another stranger of a
generous heart, with more than he needs for himself."
Not likely, indeed, he thought, would such beauty as hers go hungry as
long as there were hearts in the wilderness as impressionable as his.
But the thought of another than himself providing for her did not make
him happy.
There was nothing more to be said, but he did not go.
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