"No; merely suspected. They say that things go on in the Temple which seem to show that some resident of their Olympus already inhabits the air."
"I saw Seraiah to-day," one of the women said in a low voice.
"Silent as ever? Spotless as ever? Mysterious as ever?" the athlete asked.
The woman who had spoken shook her head at him as if alarmed.
"I can not bear to hear him ridiculed," she said. "Somehow it seems blasphemous. They say he marks every one who laughs in his hearing."
"They are not many," the girl said. "For the most part, the citizens of Jerusalem feel as apprehensive about him as you do."
"I wonder that John will stay in the Temple with a god in it," Juventius said, as if he had not heard the rest of the discussion.
"John!" the athlete exclaimed. "John is an adventurer that believes in nothing, has no cause and furthers this warfare for loot and the possible chance of escape when the conflict comes."
"Simon is different," another said. "Now he is wild and mad and insolent and foolhardy, because he believes that, no matter what tangle the situation is in, the celestial emissary he expects will straighten it out for him."
"In short, he means to work such a complexity here that the man who unravels it must needs be divine."