"Thou hast heard it!" repeated Hiram, with contempt. "Beroes is the wisest priest in Babylon, the counselor of Assyrian princes and of the king himself."
"Let him be counselor; if he is not the pharaoh, what do I care?" said the banker.
Rabsun rose from his chair, and threatening Dagon with his fist under the nose, cried,
"Thou wild boar, fatted on the pharaoh's swill, Phoenicia concerns thee as much as Egypt concerns me. Thou wouldst sell thy country for a drachma hadst Thou the chance, leprous cur that Thou art!"
Dagon grew pale and answered with a calm voice,
"What is that huckster saying? In Tyre my sons are learning navigation; in Sidon lives my daughter with her husband. I have lent half my property to the supreme council, though I do not receive even ten per cent for it. And this huckster says that Phoenicia does not concern me!"
"Rabsun, listen to me," added he, after a while. "I wish thy wife and children and the shades of thy fathers to be as much thought of by thee as each Phoenician ship is by me, or each stone of Tyre and Sidon, or even of Zarpath and Achsibu."
"Dagon, tell truth," put in Hiram.
"I not care for Phoenicia!" continued the banker, growing excited. "How many Phoenicians have I brought here to make property, and what do I gain from having done so! I not care? Hiram ruined two ships of mine and deprived me of great profit; still, when Phoenicia is in question, I sit in one room with him."
"For Thou didst think to talk with him of cheating some one," said
Rabsun.