"Ye are lax, yet wary that ye be not more lax?" Marsyas commented perfunctorily.
"Even so. From Agrippa's lips, we learn that thou hast led a precarious life of late; an eventful, even adventurous life: that thou hast been accused and hast escaped arrest. Thou wilt pardon my familiarity with thine own affairs."
"Go on," said Marsyas.
"In Alexandria—even in Alexandria, of late, the Jews have resolved not to entertain heretics—"
"In Alexandria, the extreme ye will risk in hospitality is one simply accused."
"I commend thy discernment. But we separate ourselves from the convicted."
"So it is done in Judea. But continue."
Classicus waited for an expectant silence.
"Thou carryest about thee," he said, "an emblem which none but a Nazarene owns."
Marsyas contemplated Classicus very calmly. He had been accused of apostasy before, but by one whose every impulse had root in irrational fanaticism. He had not expected this Romanized Jew to become zealous for the faith; instead, he knew that Classicus would have pursued none other for suspicion, but himself. Why?