"And they suffered him?" Saul persisted with growing earnestness.
"They did not understand him, then; he is but a new-comer from Galilee."
"And I was not there; I was not there!" Saul exclaimed regretfully. "What is he called?"
"Stephen."
There was a sound from the direction of the silent pupil. They looked that way to see that he had dropped his scroll and had sprung to his feet. The Levite dropped his head between his shoulders and scrutinized him sharply. But the young man had fixed his eyes upon Saul, as if waiting for his answer.
"Stephen of Galilee," the Levite added, watching the young man. "A Hellenist; and he wrapped his blasphemy so subtly in philosophy that none detected it until after much thought."
The young man turned his face toward the speaker and a glimmer of anger showed in his black eyes.
"It is bold blasphemy which ventures into a synagogue," Saul said half to himself.
"Ah! thou pointest to the sign of peril," the Levite resumed. "Boldness is the banner of strength; strength is the fruit of numbers; and numbers of apostates will be the ruin of Judea and the forgetting of God!"
Saul caught up his scrip which lay beside him, but Eleazar continued to gaze at the beam of light penetrating the chamber.