It would be infidelity to his own feelings to renounce
her then. It was becoming a physical impossibility for him to accept
this other woman.
He hesitated and reddened. An old subterfuge occurred to him at a
desperate minute.
"I--I am Hesper--of Ephesus," he essayed.
"What is thy business with Philadelphus?" the woman persisted.
Again the Maccabee floundered. It had been easy to invent a story to
keep the woman he loved from discovering that he was a married man,
but the point in question was different. Now, filled with dismay and
indignation, apprehension and reluctance, his fertile mind failed him
at the moment of its greatest need.
And the eyes of the Greek, filling with suspicion and intense
interest, rested upon him.
"I asked," the actress repeated calmly, "thy business with
Philadelphus."
At that instant a tremendous shock shook the house to its foundations;
the hanging lamps lurched; the exedra jarred and in an instant several
of the servants appeared at various openings into passages. Before any
of the group could stir, a second thunderous shock sent a tremor over
the room, and a fragment of marble detached from a support overhead
and dropped to the pavement.
"It is an attack!" Amaryllis cried.
"On this house?" Salome demanded.
There was a clatter of arms and several men in Jewish armor rushed
through the chamber from the passage that led in from the Temple.
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