Even she
had come to believe that she would know an Ephesian by his aggressive
joy in life! It went hard with her to deny that she knew that city
which she had all but seen.
The Maccabee observed her hesitation and when she looked up to answer,
his eyes full of question were resting upon her.
"I do not know Ephesus," she said quickly. "Are--are you a native?"
"No."
She wanted mightily to know if he had met the young Philadelphus in
that city, but she feared to ask further lest she betray him.
"A great city," he went on, "but there are greater pagan cities. It is
not like Jerusalem, which has no counterpart in the world. Even the
most intolerant pagan is curious about Jerusalem."
She looked again at his face. It was not Greek or Roman, neither more
indicative of her own blood.
"Are you a Jew?" she asked.
He remembered that she had seen him in a synagogue.
"I was," he said after a silence.
She looked at him a moment before she made comment.
"I never heard a Jew say it that way before."
He acknowledged the rebuke with the flash of a smile that appeared
only in his eyes.
"A Jew entirely Jewish wears the mark on him. You have had to ask if I
were a Jew. Would I be consistent to claim to be that which in no wise
shows to be in me?"
"It is time to be a Jew or against the Jews," she said gravely. "There
is no middle ground concerning Judea at this hour.
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