To Miriamne it was a dumb show; but the tokens given and received were useful to pilgrims in those perilous times.
“Whither, Sir Charleroy?”
“To-morrow, toward Joppa.”
“So, ho! By interpretation, The Watch-tower of Joy. From thence one may see Jerusalem! And then?”
“And then? God knows where! A useless life, like mine, is ever aimless.”
“No, no, father!” interrupted the daughter; “not useless. No life that God prolongs is useless.”
“True; the girl is right, Teuton. Aspiration will cure thee, since it’s the mother of immortality. I go to Joppa also.”
“They say, Hospitaler, its sea-side is full wild; its reefs like barking Scylla and Charybdis? I hope it may be so; I’d like a terrible uproar.”
“The sea is the emblem of change; from calm to weary moan, to howling terrors and back again.”
“But the people? They say Joppa’s outside is fine, naturally, though, within, the life of its people is mean, colorless; a charnel-house whose activity is that of grave worms!” And Sir Charleroy shuddered with disgust at his own figure.