"Give her five talents, then; give it—do not slander a gift by calling it a loan."
"What! Toss an alms to a Herod? They would throw it in my face!"
"Jupiter! but they are haughty!"
The alabarch made no answer and Flaccus looked out at the night dropping over his garden.
"Why not hold the lady in hostage, here, for five talents?" he asked after a while.
The alabarch looked startled; it was Roman extremes, a trifle too brutal for him to dress in diplomacy. He demurred.
"Not brutal, Lysimachus," Flaccus said earnestly. "Herod can not use her well; it will be a respite from her long wandering and poverty. Thou canst say to her that the five talents are all thou canst afford. Tell her that it will do no more than beach them penniless in Italy; that thou hast a crust for Agrippa—will she starve him by eating half of it, herself?"
Flaccus laughed at his own words, but perplexity came into the alabarch's face.
"But why?" he asked.
"Why? Is it not plain to you? Keep her so that Agrippa will in honor have to redeem her if ever he become possessed of five talents!"