‘And dangerous, my dear lady. Success is inspiriting.... and Theon’s house is quite as easily sacked, as the Jews’ quarter.... Beware.’
‘Come, come, Aben-Ezra,’ cried the young men; ‘you are far too good company for us to lose you for that rascally patriarch’s fancy. We will make a subscription for you, eh? And you shall live with each of us, month and month about. We shall quite lose the trick of joking without you.’
‘Thank you, gentlemen. But really you have been my butts far too long for me to think of becoming yours. Madam, one word in private before I go.’
Hypatia leant forward, and speaking in Syriac, whispered hurriedly—
‘Oh, stay, sir, I beseech you: You are the wisest of my pupils—perhaps my only true pupil.... My father will find some concealment for you from these wretches; and if you need money, remember, he is your debtor. We have never repaid you the gold which—’
‘Fairest Muse, that was but my entrance-fee to Parnassus. It is I who am in your debt; and I have brought my arrears, in the form of this opal ring. As for shelter near you,’ he went on, lowering his voice, and speaking like her, in Syriac—‘Hypatia the Gentile is far too lovely for the peace of mind of Raphael the Jew.’ And he drew from his finger Miriam’s ring and offered it.
‘Impossible!’ said Hypatia, blushing scarlet: ‘I cannot accept it.’
‘I beseech you. It is the last earthly burden I have, except this snail’s prison of flesh and blood. My dagger will open a crack through that when it becomes intolerable. But as I do not intend to leave my shell, if I can help it, except just when and how I choose, and as, if I take this ring with me, some of Heraclian’s Circumcellions will assuredly knock my brains out for the sake of it-I must entreat.’
‘Never! Can you not sell the ring, and escape to Synesius? He will give you shelter.’
‘The hospitable hurricane! Shelter, yes; but rest, none. As soon pitch my tent in the crater of Aetna. Why, he will be trying day and night to convert me to that eclectic farrago of his, which he calls philosophic Christianity. Well, if you will not have the ring, it is soon disposed of. We Easterns know how to be magnificent, and vanish as the lords of the world ought.’