"No," she said decisively. "Macro's powers pale before the lad's."
Was she at the end of her ingenuity, or her willingness, he asked himself.
"He will get to the emperor, then, if he start?" His desperation grew under the lady's easy irony.
"Unless thou or some other of Agrippa's friends disable him permanently with a bodkin, or a storm deliver him up to the Nereids."
Marsyas' hands clenched: he moved as if to rise, but she slipped her hands through the bend of his elbow and let them retard him, more by their presence than by actual strength.
"Is there something thou canst do?" he asked.
She hesitated; something seemed to fill her eyes; her lids quivered and dropped; speech trembled on her lips, but the momentary impulse passed. After a little silence, she lifted her eyes, composed once more.
"I told thee, once upon a time," she said, "of the world. I have counseled with thee for thine own good, and sometimes thou didst heed me, but on the greater number of occasions thou hast chosen for thyself. What hast thou won from thy long battle for the stern purposes which have engaged thee? What hast thou achieved in controlling this Herod, or in working against Saul of Tarsus? What?"
He frowned and looked away.
"Nothing," she answered, "save thou hast gathered perils around thee, forced thyself into sterner deeds, and there—"